A safe sun timer should answer one calm question: about how many minutes of direct sun make sense for me right now? Basky’s answer is personal, capped, and deliberately anti-dramatic. It is not a burn countdown. It is not a tan plan. It is a wellness guardrail you can feel as a ring filling toward a line — then stopping.
If you want the full product loop, start with how Basky works. If you want the science of duration, keep how long can I stay in the sun open beside this page.
Why a generic timer fails
A phone stopwatch does not know your skin. A weather app’s UV badge does not know whether you are type II or type V. The same UV 5 is a different outdoor story for very fair skin than for deeply melanated skin. Basky’s UV index app layer reads the sky; the timer layer reads you.
Without that pairing, people either under-trust every sunny minute or overstay because “it doesn’t feel that hot.” Ultraviolet is not heat. The timer exists to translate both facts into minutes you can act on.
What goes into the minutes
- Your Fitzpatrick type — the personal anchor. Reference MED values Basky respects (J/m²): I 200, II 250, III 350, IV 450, V 600, VI 1000. Pick the description closest to how you tend to respond; adjust anytime. Guide: Fitzpatrick scale explained.
- Live UV — from Open-Meteo when you allow location. Optional. Decline and you still get a working fallback with a clear note.
- A conservative fraction — about 60% of a minimal erythemal dose, so the goal is a gentle wellness dose, not the edge of reddening. See MED explained.
- A clamp — roughly 5–90 minutes, so the readout never becomes a marathon challenge or a meaningless flash.
Marketing illustration only: at UV 5, a mid-type person might see something near ~29 minutes. Your window depends on your skin and the exact forecast. Treat samples as orientation, not a prescription.
How a session feels
Open Today. Read the UV number and band. Read your minutes. Step into real daylight and start the ring. Watch it approach the cap. When Basky completes the window, stop. Celebrate finishing early. Put on more protection, find shade, or head inside as the day requires.
The timer assumes the exposure you choose to count. Clothing, porch roofs, and most window glass change real-world UV. Use judgment. Basky will not pretend one microclimate equals every other.
What the timer will never do
- Stretch minutes to keep a daylight streak alive.
- Reward over-exposure with a bigger vitamin D estimate.
- Tell you to skip sunscreen so the math “works.”
- Frame darker skin as a goal. Basky is not a tanning product.
- Lock the feature behind a subscription. The timer is free forever; Basky Forever only unlocks cosmetic skins.
Cloudy days and resting UV
When UV is too low for a meaningful bask, Basky may say the sun is resting. That is not a failure. Tap a daylight check-in so the habit stays kind without inventing baskable dose. Thin cloud can still pass ultraviolet — Basky reads the forecast rather than guessing from sidewalk brightness. More: clouds and UV and low UV still counts.
Safety language that stays honest
The safe-sun window is general wellness guidance. It does not diagnose photosensitive conditions. It does not replace dermatology advice. It does not mean you are “cleared” for unprotected hours at the beach. Use sunscreen, clothing, and shade whenever you need them. If you have a skin condition or take photosensitizing medication, talk to a clinician before changing outdoor habits.
Privacy around the timer
No account. No ads. No tracking of your sessions into a marketing profile. History lives on your device. Location, if allowed, is a weather lookup only. Optional Apple Health write is Time in Daylight duration — never a read of your Health data, never a write of the vitamin D estimate. See private sun app and Apple Health daylight.
Who the safe sun timer is for
Lunch-break baskers. Morning-porch people. Walkers who want a line, not a dare. Anyone comparing sun apps and looking for a free core that keeps the safety loop unpaid — see sun app no subscription.
Now on the iOS App Store. Questions: FAQ. Contact: andrewkittridge@icloud.com. Finish inside the line. That is the whole product idea wearing a timer’s clothes.
From number to ring
The Today screen shows UV and minutes first so you decide with context. The timer is the commitment device: once you start, the ring makes the cap visible. You are not estimating “a little longer” against a vague gut feel. You are watching a designed endpoint.
When the ring completes, stop. If you need to bail early for a meeting, that is still a win — early is always safer than late. Basky will not guilt you for unfinished sessions the way a gamified hustle app might.
Skin type without hierarchy
Fitzpatrick types are tools for dose, not a beauty ranking. Type I is not “worse.” Type VI is not “invincible.” Each type gets a window that respects how erythema tends to appear. Adjust if you guessed wrong on day one. The Fitzpatrick scale explained guide walks the descriptions in plain language.
Sunscreen, clothing, and the math
Basky’s timing math is a wellness framing for unprotected-equivalent thinking — it is not a worksheet that says “skip SPF today.” If you are wearing sunscreen, you are doing the responsible thing; treat the timer as habit structure, not a lab assay of what reached your bloodstream. Clothing and shade change reality faster than any app. Related reading: sunscreen and a sun timer and clothing and vitamin D.
High UV days
When the index climbs into high, very high, or extreme bands, windows shrink. That is the feature working. A short bask still counts. Shade afterward still matters. See high UV index what to do. Basky will not invent extra minutes to soothe FOMO.
Low UV days
When the sun is resting, put the timer away and use a daylight check-in. Circadian daylight and mood-adjacent outdoor time still matter when erythemally weighted UV is tiny. The habit is bigger than baskable dose alone — circadian rhythm and daylight explores that angle.
History without surveillance
Completed windows can land in on-device history so you can glance at patterns. There is no cloud account replaying your summer to advertisers. Optional Health write is duration only. Optional Circles see a sun-day signal, not your timer logs.
Compared with a dumb stopwatch
A stopwatch will happily run past a burn. Basky’s safe sun timer will not congratulate that. The difference is the Exposure Engine plus the product ethics: stop is success. That ethic shows up again in streaks and estimates — nothing inflates when you ignore the line.
Launch and contact
Now on iPhone. Free core forever. Optional Basky Forever skins. Questions via FAQ or andrewkittridge@icloud.com. General wellness guidance, not medical advice — keep sunscreen in the bag either way.