What a 2 minute timer is for
Two minutes is the dentist's number, and it is far longer than it feels — which is exactly why it is worth timing rather than estimating.
What people set it for
- Brushing your teeth for the full recommended time
- A soft-boiled egg with a runny yolk
- A two-minute plank or stretch hold
- The classic two-minute tidy before guests arrive
How this timer behaves
The countdown is stored as the moment it should finish, not as a number being decremented, so switching tabs or minimising the window cannot make it run late, and pausing and resuming is exact. Through the final minute the readout and its ring turn red and pulse, giving you a warning before the alert rather than only at it.
It does not start on its own. The alarm is generated in your browser, and browsers keep audio silent until you interact with the page — so a timer that started by itself would be a timer that finished in silence. One tap on start is what makes the sound work.