How to Share a Countdown Timer Link With a Preset Time
Sometimes you want a timer that is ready to go before anyone touches it: ten minutes for a group activity, ninety seconds of rest between sets, forty-five minutes for a practice test. A timer link does exactly that. The time you want is written into the web address, and anyone who opens the address sees the timer already set to that length. This guide shows how to make and use those links.
The quick way
- Open the Online Countdown Timer.
- Set the time with the quick buttons or the hours, minutes and seconds boxes.
- Press Copy link to this timer.
- Paste the link into a message, a document, a class page or a bookmark.
Whoever opens the link sees the same duration, ready to start. The page address updates by itself as you change the time, so you can also copy it from your browser's address bar.
Writing the link by hand
The time is stored in a parameter called t. Add it after the page address, starting with a question mark. For example, /countdown-timer/?t=10m loads a ten minute timer. These formats are understood:
| Link ending | Time |
|---|---|
?t=90 | 90 seconds (a bare number means seconds) |
?t=45s | 45 seconds |
?t=5m | 5 minutes |
?t=1h30m | 1 hour 30 minutes |
?t=1:30:00 | 1 hour 30 minutes |
?t=2:30 | 2 minutes 30 seconds |
The longest time you can set is 99 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds. If the value is missing or cannot be read, the timer opens with its default time instead, so a typo will not break the page. The Exam and Classroom Timer also understands ?t=, so /exam-timer/?t=90m opens a 90 minute exam countdown.
Why you still have to press Start
A link sets the time but does not start the countdown. This is deliberate. Web browsers do not allow a page to play sound until the person has interacted with it, so a timer that started by itself might finish silently. Pressing Start is the interaction that allows the alarm to ring later, and it also makes sure the timer starts at the moment you mean it to.
Ideas for using timer links
- Classrooms. Put links on a class page for the activities you use every week: "Silent reading 15 min", "Pair talk 3 min". Students can open them on their own devices.
- Exercise. Keep links for intervals and rest periods, such as 30 seconds of work or 90 seconds of rest, in your phone bookmarks.
- Cooking. Make a bookmark for the times you use again and again: rice, tea, pasta. The Egg and Kitchen Timer has presets for common times as well.
- Meetings. Share a link with a time box for each agenda item, such as "Round-table updates, 2 minutes each".
- Practice tests. Send students a link set to the exam length so they all practice with the same limit.
Make a home screen shortcut
On a phone, open a timer link and use your browser's "Add to Home Screen" option to put it next to your apps. Each shortcut can have its own preset time. Plain Timer can also be installed as an app from supporting browsers, and the timers keep working offline once the pages have loaded.
Privacy and limits
The time in the link is just a number of seconds. The timer itself runs entirely in your browser, and the time you set is not sent to a server for the timer to work. Anything written in a link, like any web address, can be seen by the people you send it to, so do not put private information in it. The link does not carry sound settings, names or your other choices; those stay on your own device.
If a link does not open at the right time, check for a missing question mark or a stray space, and try one of the formats from the table above.