How to schedule a bus alarm by day of the week (set it up once and forget it)

If you take the same bus, metro, van, or train every weekday, to the same appointment, you've probably lost count of how many times you opened the app in a rush, before leaving home, just to remember to turn on the alarm. You can cut out that step: see how to schedule a bus alarm by day of the week and let the app handle it on its own, exactly on the days and at the time of your routine.

Turning on the alarm by hand, every single day, gets old

For anyone who makes the same trip Monday to Friday (to work, college, or school), turning on the location alarm manually every day becomes just one more item on the list of things to remember before leaving home. It works fine on a calm morning, but it tends to fail on exactly the day you need it most: when you're running late, distracted, or your phone is nearly out of battery.

The solution isn't to try to remember better, but to take that decision out of your morning. That's what scheduling by day of the week is for: a way to automate the alarm for a fixed routine, setting everything up just once. If you're not yet familiar with the basic concept behind the feature, it's worth checking the guide on what a location alarm is first. Here the focus is only on the automation part.

How to schedule a bus alarm by day of the week

Scheduling is built on top of your favorite destinations. So the first step is to have at least one saved destination: the spot where you get off for work, college, or any other fixed appointment. Inside that favorite there's a scheduling option with two simple fields: a wheel-style time picker (for example, 7:30) and a row of circles with the initials of the days of the week. Just spin the wheel to the right time and tap the days that trip repeats on.

Once saved, the app takes over. On the selected days, it arms the alarm on its own at the set time, without you needing to open the app or tap any button before leaving home. On the days left out of the selection, the schedule simply does nothing. The favorite stays saved and can be activated manually whenever you want, even outside the programmed routine.

Step by step to set up scheduling

Routine examples to automate

Scheduling by day of the week makes the most sense when there's a fixed pattern behind your week. Some common examples:

• People who work regular business hours, Monday to Friday, always leaving around the same time.
• People who study on specific days, like Tuesday and Thursday nights.
• People who go to the gym, a language course, or any fixed activity on certain days.
• People who do their kids' school run on the same days and times.

Monday to Friday routine. Ana works business hours and always takes the same bus home, around the same time. She saves the stop where she gets off as a favorite, schedules her departure time from work, and selects Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday in the day picker. From then on, the alarm arms itself Monday to Friday. On the weekend, when she doesn't work, the schedule does nothing, and she can doze through the whole ride without worrying.

Classes on alternating days. Pedro only has class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, at night. Instead of remembering to turn on the alarm only on those two days, he creates a schedule selecting just Tuesday and Thursday, at the time he usually leaves college. On the other days of the week the schedule doesn't kick in, and he's still free to turn on the alarm manually if, for some reason, he needs to repeat the trip on a day outside his routine.

Since the number of favorite destinations is unlimited and you can keep more than one scheduled alarm at a time, the two routines above can coexist with a third (the gym, a language course, or the kids' school) without one schedule interfering with another. And if your week includes a longer trip, like an intercity ride every Friday, it's worth pairing the schedule with the tips in the location alarm for long bus trips guide.

Automatic scheduling is a Premium feature

Scheduling by day of the week is part of the Premium version of Don't Miss The Stop. Basic use of the location alarm (marking a destination, setting the radius, and activating it manually before the trip) stays free. Full automation, which spares you any tap on the screen before leaving home, comes bundled with other subscription features: unlimited simultaneous alarms, dark theme, and an ad-free experience.

If your routine is always the same (same trip, same days, same time), the time the schedule saves over a month tends to make up for the subscription quickly. In the end, you just set it up once and forget the task exists.

Frequently asked questions

Can I schedule the alarm to arm itself every day at the same time?

Yes. You can schedule your favorite destinations to activate automatically on specific days and times of the week, without having to set them up manually before each trip.

Can I use different times on different days of the same routine?

Yes, but through a separate schedule. Each scheduled favorite has one time and one set of days tied to it, so if you leave earlier on Fridays, for example, the simplest thing is to create a second favorite for the same place with a different time and days. Since the number of favorites is unlimited, there's no problem keeping more than one version of the same trip.

Is automatic scheduling free?

Using the location alarm manually is free. Automatic scheduling by day of the week is part of the Premium version, along with unlimited simultaneous alarms, dark theme, and the removal of ads.