![\"iOS](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/iOS-18-vs-26-Alarms.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIn the iOS 26 beta, Apple has redesigned the alarm screen in the Clock app, giving it a cleaner look with a larger time display and significantly bigger buttons. When the alarm goes off, you’ll now see two large, equal-sized buttons for Stop and Snooze placed side by side at the bottom of the screen.<\/p>\n
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Alarm screen in iOS 18 (left) versus iOS 26 beta 2<\/p>\n
While the redesign fits with Apple’s broader visual refresh in iOS 26, it also seems to address a problem the company had already solved: reducing the chances of you hitting Stop instead of Snooze when you’re half-awake and fumbling for your phone. Ironically, internal testing once showed that making both buttons the same size actually made that mistake more likely.<\/p>\n
According to Jack Fields, a former Apple engineer and head writer at Kernel Extension<\/a>, the new layout contradicts internal research he was involved in during his time at the company. That testing included a version of the Clock app that logged user interactions to a heat map, tracking exactly where people tapped the screen upon waking.<\/p>\n “It was recording where our sleepy hands were smacking around on the screen in order to see how accurate we were in turning off the alarms,” says Fields<\/a>. What they found was perhaps counterintuitive: when Stop and Snooze were made the same size and placed close together, users were 30% more likely to hit Stop by accident. In other words, it actually increased the chances of oversleeping.<\/p>\n That’s why recent versions of iOS feature a prominent, centered Snooze button and a much smaller Stop button tucked further down the screen. “By making the Stop button such a small hit target, it ensures you’re awake enough to actually stop it,” Fields explains.<\/p>\n