Break Timer

Name: Break Timer
Rating: 4.359154929577465 (142 reviews)
Author: tomjwatson

Enforce periodic breaks to prevent RSI / eye strain.

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Break Timer is a free, open-source Chrome extension designed to promote healthier computer use by enforcing periodic breaks. It helps prevent repetitive strain injury (RSI), eye strain, and tiredness by reminding users to take breaks at customizable intervals.

Users can tailor break durations, intervals, and working hours to fit their schedules. Customization options include notification styles—ranging from simple alerts to fullscreen break windows—color and text adjustments, gong sounds signaling break starts and ends, and control over skipping or postponing breaks. The extension also intelligently pauses the break countdown when it detects inactivity.

Although the Chrome extension version is deprecated in favor of the standalone desktop app available at breaktimer.app, its source code remains open for contributions and improvements on GitHub.

Extension Health & Fitness Productivity Open Source

By:

tomjwatson

Users:

10,000

Rating:

4.36

(142)

Version:

1.2.1 Last updated: 2020-06-24

Creation date:

2020-06-24

Risk:

Permissions:

storage
alarms
notifications
idle

Size:

896.00KB

Email:

ch*****@tomjwatson.com

URLs:

Full description:

Source:

Chrome Web Store

Updated:

15 hours ago

Ranking

# 6,943 ▲ 160

Other rankings

#3115 in Workflow & Planning ▲ 5

#1 in break keyword 12

#5 in timer keyword 39

#76 in take keyword 44 ▲ 1

#205 in customize keyword 36 ▼ 1

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Other platforms

音乐解锁 (vv1.10.0)

27,024 4.50

(53)

User reviews

Users appreciate the Break Timer extension for its simplicity, effective timely break reminders, and clean user interface that supports productivity and mental well-being. However, common issues include limited scheduling flexibility (only interval-based breaks), inability to customize break durations finely, occasional bugs with skipping break popups and failure to start breaks after updates. Users also desire additional features such as blocking distracting sites during breaks and enforced breaks that lock the screen to ensure rest. Overall, the extension is well-liked but would benefit from more customization and reliability improvements.

Pros

Simple and easy to use with minimalistic and effective functionality
Allows users to take timely breaks which helps with mental and physical relaxation
Provides fullscreen popup notifications for breaks
Useful for self-organization and productivity enhancement
Reliable timer with well-designed user interface

Cons

Cannot set specific break times, only intervals (e.g., cannot schedule breaks at set hours like 9 AM or 2 PM)
No option to customize break duration in seconds, which some users desire
Break popup skip feature sometimes does not work properly, showing the break screen despite skip attempt
Issues reported with the extension not triggering breaks or malfunctioning after Chrome updates
Lacks advanced features like site blocking during breaks or enforced break lock screens

Recent reviews

simple and easy to use

J *****, 2024-12-27

Man kan inte ställa in specifika tider, utan bara "var x minut". Jag vill exempelvis bli påmind om paus kl 9 och kl 14. Det går inte :(

Ra*****, 2024-11-05

Works quite well. Depends on you if you use it or not.

Ma*****, 2024-03-07

View all user reviews ›

Extension safety

Risk impact

Risk impact measures the level of extra permissions an extension has access to. A low risk impact extension cannot do much harms, whereas a high risk impact extension can do a lot of damage like stealing your password, bypassing your security settings, and accessing your personal data. High risk impact extensions are not necessarily malicious. However, if they do turn malicious, they can be very harmful.

Break Timer requires very minimum permissions.

Risk impact analysis details

Medium Enables sending notifications which can be spammed but have minimal direct security impact.

Risk likelihood

Risk likelihood measures the probability that a Chrome extension may turn malicious. This is determined by the publisher and the Chrome extension reputation on Chrome Web Store, the amount of time the Chrome extension has been around, and other signals about the Chrome extension. Our algorithms are not perfect, and are subject to change as we discover new ways to detect malicious extensions. We recommend that you always exercise caution when installing a Chrome extension.

Break Timer has earned a fairly good reputation and likely can be trusted.

Risk likelihood analysis details

High This extension has low user count. Unpopular extensions may not be stable or safe.
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