Cartoon backdrops stand out more. On small and large widgets the drawing now fills the corner at full size, and the birthday kitten has been redrawn to match. A countdown in minutes or seconds now changes on time — on widgets, on the event page and in the list — and long numbers such as 130,528 minutes fit cleanly on a small widget.

Count in minutes or hours and see the whole number. A countdown set to hours or minutes now reads as one figure, such as 227,523 minutes to go, and turns into a ticking clock on its last day. Cartoon backdrops now blend cleanly into medium widgets, and the app's wording is simpler throughout.

Frame each photo exactly where it belongs. Custom photo backdrops now keep a separate crop for the event detail screen and for Small, Medium, and Large widgets. Switch between the four previews, drag or resize the crop, and see the real countdown layout before you save.

Make every photo backdrop feel just right. PHOTO CONTROLS Adjust the image opacity, add Gaussian blur, and place a backdrop behind the countdown text. Tap a custom photo to open the editor right away, and use Reset in the top-right corner whenever you want to return to the original look. A SMOOTHER EXPERIENCE Purchase buttons now animate more smoothly. We also simplified the first-time experience: after closing the purchase screen, you can go straight into the app and set up your widget without an extra welcome offer appearing.

Eight more Halloween backdrops. THE HALLOWEEN DROP, PART TWO A kitten under a ghost sheet, a puppy wrapped up as a mummy, a frog stirring a cauldron and a hedgehog hugging a pumpkin, then four night scenes: a black cat on the fence, a haunted house, a vampire bunny and a kitten out with a lantern. Eight new cartoon backdrops in Countdown Pro. Try any of them on before you decide. PRICES THAT STAY PUT The purchase screen now remembers the App Store's prices, so it no longer opens with blanks when the store is slow to answer.

Try your own photo before you decide. YOUR PHOTO, FROM THE FIRST MINUTE The welcome tour now lets you pick a photo of your own and see it behind a countdown straight away. Photos of your own are part of Countdown Pro, and nothing is kept unless you choose to keep it. A CLEARER PURCHASE SCREEN What Countdown Pro adds is now listed above the plans, next to what stays free: countdowns, reminders and widgets.

Count down together, from the first minute. COUNT DOWN TOGETHER The welcome tour now shows how one countdown lands on two phones. Inviting someone is part of Countdown Pro; joining a countdown someone shares with you needs no subscription. POLISH The dates on the purchase screen follow the language you chose in the app.

Count down with someone. COUNT DOWN TOGETHER Invite someone to any countdown. It lands on their list and their Home Screen, photo included, and counts down with yours. TRY IT ON FIRST When a Pro backdrop, font or icon stops a save, the page now shows your own countdown wearing it, with the 7-day free trial up front. REMINDERS THAT REACH YOU If notifications are off, the event page now says so and takes you straight to the switch.

Your first photo is on us. YOUR PHOTO, FREE ONCE Put one photo of your own behind a countdown without Countdown Pro — on the event and on its widget. In the editor, tap Backdrop, then Add photo. It stays for good; more photos come with Pro.

The Lock Screen card, redrawn on paper. LIVE ACTIVITY, REDRAWN The pin on an event's page is now a line drawing, the note that opens under it is a slip of paper, and the Lock Screen card is cut from the same sheet as the rest of the app. Part of Countdown Pro. A BETTER FIRST DAY Pick a template and it asks for the date before it saves. Your first countdown walks you straight onto a Home Screen widget, and the calendar shelf now says whether it is showing this month or what comes next. ALSO • Tapping an event opens that event, not the first one • If no widget has landed after a day, a reminder shows you where it goes

Halloween backdrops, and your countdown on the Lock Screen. THE HALLOWEEN DROP A kitten peeking out of a jack-o'-lantern, a kitten riding a broomstick past the full moon, and a little bat with a pail of candy: three new cartoon backdrops in Countdown Pro. Try any of them on before you decide. LIVE ACTIVITY Pin an event to your Lock Screen and Dynamic Island from its page, and watch the days count down without opening the app. Part of Countdown Pro.

Six new cartoon backdrops arrive in Countdown Pro. THE FIRST MONTHLY DROP A kitten flying off on holiday, a bear reading late by lamplight, a party pup on a stack of presents, two otters under the moon, a Thanksgiving turkey with its pie, and a polar bear by the Christmas tree. They are in the backdrop picker now, and you can try any of them on before you decide.

The Pro price now shows the moment you reach for it. SEE WHAT PRO COSTS, WHERE YOU CHOOSE Pick a Pro backdrop, layout or icon and the bar underneath says the one-time price and unlocks it in a tap. Trying it on first still costs nothing, and a choice that costs nothing is right there beside it. YOUR COUNTRY'S HOLIDAYS The template gallery now lists the public holidays coming up where you live, and Mother's Day, Father's Day and Thanksgiving fall on your country's own date.

The Pro price now shows the moment you reach for it. SEE WHAT PRO COSTS, WHERE YOU CHOOSE Pick a Pro backdrop, layout or icon and the bar underneath says the one-time price and unlocks it in a tap. Trying it on first still costs nothing, and a choice that costs nothing is right there beside it. YOUR COUNTRY'S HOLIDAYS The template gallery now lists the public holidays coming up where you live, and Mother's Day, Father's Day and Thanksgiving fall on your country's own date.

The Pro price now shows the moment you reach for it. SEE WHAT PRO COSTS, WHERE YOU CHOOSE Pick a Pro backdrop, layout or icon and the bar underneath says the one-time price and unlocks it in a tap. Trying it on first still costs nothing, and a choice that costs nothing is right there beside it. YOUR COUNTRY'S HOLIDAYS The template gallery now lists the public holidays coming up where you live, and Mother's Day, Father's Day and Thanksgiving fall on your country's own date.

The Pro price now shows the moment you reach for it. SEE WHAT PRO COSTS, WHERE YOU CHOOSE Pick a Pro backdrop, layout or icon and the bar underneath says the one-time price and unlocks it in a tap. Trying it on first still costs nothing, and a choice that costs nothing is right there beside it. YOUR COUNTRY'S HOLIDAYS The template gallery now lists the public holidays coming up where you live, and Mother's Day, Father's Day and Thanksgiving fall on your country's own date.

Your own photo can now sit behind any countdown. YOUR PHOTO Open Backdrops and the first tile is Your photo: pick any picture from your library and the event wears it straight away. Photo backdrops are part of Countdown Pro, and you can try one on for as long as you like before you decide. A NEW WELCOME The first launch is now four pictures instead of a form: the widgets, the backdrops, the back of an event, and the typefaces and layouts. Your first event is one tap on a template. A CLEARER PRO PAGE The Pro page is the same wherever you open it from, and lists the one-time purchase first, then monthly, then yearly.

Every event has a back now — turn it over and keep the story of the day. TURN IT OVER Open an event and tap the card: it turns over to a page of its own. Write a few lines with bold, lists and checklists, add photos, or record a voice of up to three minutes. The back syncs with iCloud and goes into every backup, like the rest of the event. LEAF THROUGH Events now turn sideways like the pages of a book, and each one keeps the side you left it on. SHARE THE STORY Share from the back of a card sends the story as one long picture: the event at the top, your words and photos below. CARTOONS FOR EVERY EVENT Every one of the twelve cartoon backdrops can now dress any event, and new events start in one that suits them. ALSO • Reminders are asked for with a short card after your first event, not a sudden system alert • Photos on the back open full screen: zoom, edit, share or delete • Panels that rise from the bottom are as tall as what they hold

A new widget size for iOS 27, and countdowns in your own units. A POSTER FOR iOS 27 On iOS 27 every widget comes in the new Extra Large size, and a single countdown fills it like a poster — the number, the name and the picture, set for the whole page. COUNT IT YOUR WAY Choose how each countdown is written: years and months, weeks, or days — all the way down to hours, minutes and seconds. On the last day, the number turns into a clock. REMINDERS ON YOUR TERMS Set a reminder any number of days, weeks or months ahead — tap Custom… under an event's reminders. And every reminder you turn on now arrives, however many fall in the same week. CARTOONS THAT FIT The cartoon backdrops are drawn again for each widget's shape. On Up Next, Spotlight and Mosaic the character now stands in the corner at full size instead of being cropped away. ALSO • Settings › Reminders: choose the hour, and which reminders a new event starts with — now including 1 year before • Text follows your phone's text size, and Settings › Font lets you pick the app's typeface • A light tap of haptic feedback when you save, delete or restore • New backdrops get a short introduction the first time you open the app after they arrive • The event editor can no longer be swiped away by accident

The whole app has been reprinted. A NEW LOOK THROUGHOUT Every screen is set the way a newspaper is: ruled lines instead of boxes, a serif for the numbers, paper instead of glass. Nothing has moved — it is the same app, newly typeset. BACKDROPS THAT ARE DRAWN Twelve new backdrops with characters in them: penguins under fireworks, a rabbit on a cloud, a cat asleep on the moon. Each one is drawn a second time for the medium widget, composed for that shape rather than cropped to it. The cat on your countdown now knows how close the day is. ALSO • Choose what time of day reminders arrive • The Lock Screen says "Today" rather than a bare 0 • The milestone card has five compositions • The calendar no longer jumps when the day changes

The Lock Screen shows how far along you are. A RING AROUND THE COUNT The circular Lock Screen widget now draws the share of the wait that is already behind you, with the number of days still in the middle. Events you count up from, and ones you added on or after the day itself, keep the number alone — there is no span to take a share of. YOUR ICON, ON THE LOCK SCREEN The rectangular widget leads with the event's icon or emoji. PRO UNLOCKS AT ONCE Unlocking Countdown Pro now refreshes the widgets straight away. A backdrop you just paid for no longer keeps its Pro veil until the next day.

Countdown Pro costs less. A LOWER PRICE ON EVERY PLAN The yearly plan, the monthly one, and the one-time Lifetime purchase have all come down. The seven-day free trial on the yearly plan stays. Open Settings ▸ Countdown Pro to see the prices in your own store. What was free is still free: every widget, unlimited events, iCloud sync, backups and restore.

Fixes the widget's editor. THE BACKGROUND LIST OPENS AGAIN Touch and hold a widget, choose Edit Widget, then Background — the backdrops appear and stay. On iPhone that list was closing the instant it was asked for, with a message saying the app had quit. A TAP LANDS ON THE DAY Tapping a widget opens the event it counts rather than the list. On Up Next, Spotlight and Mosaic, every row and every tile opens its own.

Three new widgets that hold more than one countdown, and a place inside the app to try all four on before you place them. MORE THAN ONE EVENT Up Next lists what is coming, up to six at a time. Spotlight gives the soonest day the big number and keeps the rest beside it. Mosaic gives every event a tile of its own, in its own colours. Free, in every size, like the rest. TRY THEM ON FIRST Settings ▸ Widgets draws all four at full size. Choose the background, layout, typeface and colour there, and the next widget you add arrives already wearing them. A TAP LANDS ON THE DAY Tapping a widget opens that event rather than the list — and on the list widgets, each row opens its own. Also fixed: choosing a background while editing a widget could close the editor.

Your days can now come in and go out as files, and the ones already behind you finally have somewhere to live. IMPORT AND EXPORT Bring in a calendar file, a spreadsheet, or a backup from another countdown app. Importing the same file twice updates what is already there instead of duplicating it. Export any time as a calendar every app can open, or as a full backup. ALREADY HAPPENED Days that have passed are no longer just gone from the list. They collect into a timeline by year, with the longest wait of each year beside it. THIS YEAR The whole year as a grid of days, with every event you are waiting for laid out on one axis. Some things only fit on a screen, never on a widget. Also: a widget with nothing in it now opens straight to the new-event form, and the Pro badge on a widget opens what it is advertising.