The Zero In story
Zero In was born in my kitchen, somewhere between a rising dough and a timer that nobody heard.
It started with bread
I bake bread. If you've baked bread, you know the drill: mix, wait, fold, wait, shape, wait, bake. The waiting is the easy part. The hard part is being in the right place when the waiting ends. More than once, the timer went off while I was not in the house at all! Then the hunt began: who is home, who is near the kitchen, and can they please, right now, do the next step before the dough has opinions of its own?
A kitchen timer only rings in the kitchen. A phone timer only rings on one phone. What I needed was a timer that rings for everybody at once: me wherever I am, and whoever is home and close enough to help.
So I built one.
What Zero In does
Zero In is a timer you share. You make a team of the people who might help, start a timer like "Bread: second fold", and everyone sees the same countdown on their own phone. When time's up, every phone in the run rings, so whoever is closest can step in.
- Named timers. "Bread: second fold" tells people exactly what to do. "Timer 3" tells nobody anything.
- Everyone gets the alarm. When a run ends, each person in it gets a proper "Time's up" alarm, not a polite little ping. On Android it fills the screen and keeps ringing until someone stops it, so it works even with the phone in a pocket.
- Anyone can step in. Any member can pause or cancel a run, and the others get a note saying who did it. No more "did someone take the bread out?"
- Teams. The family or the crew is one tap away. Start a run for just you, the whole team, or only the people who are around today.
- Several things at once. The oven, the laundry and the parking meter can all count down together, each with its own people.
- Easy to join. Send an invite link, and the other person taps it to join. No passwords, no long sign-up.
A recipe is a chain of timers
Bread taught me that a recipe isn't one timer; it's a chain of them. So Zero In has sequences: a whole recipe of timers in a row, with a task between each one. When a timer ends, someone taps "On It", does the fold, taps "Done", and the next timer starts. Everyone can see where the bread is, and who's on it.
Not just for bread
Bread was the start, but the same problem turns up wherever a job needs the right person at the right time:
- At home: dinner on the stove, kids' screen time, a load of laundry that will otherwise sit wet until tomorrow.
- In small kitchens: proofing, resting and braising, with whoever is free taking the next step.
- In labs and workshops: incubations, curing and drying times, where "I'll be right back" can turn into an hour.
- Working out: interval rounds and rest breaks for a whole group, so nobody has to shout "Go!" across the gym.
Get Zero In
Zero In is free during launch, with no ads and no tracking. Get it on the App Store for iPhone or on Google Play for Android, in the US and Canada.
A friendly warning
Zero In is here to help with dough, drying paint and physical exercise. It isn't meant for emergencies or anything safety-critical. Phones run out of battery and networks have bad days, so an alarm can be late or missed.
Happy baking, and may your timers never ring in an empty kitchen. 🍞
Greg, Grebenniki Farm