With Apple's recent releases of iOS 9 and watchOS 2, I've dusted off my speech timing project: Speaker Alert for a major revamp! Available for free in the iOS App Store.

In addition to giving clear and colourful alerts through vibration and fullscreen lighting (green, yellow, red, flashing red), you can now keep your speeches and presentations to time more discreetly, with timing alerts right on your wrist.

Not only that, but I've re-built the app from the ground up (and got some serious practice with Swift 2) to give a better experience all round.

You still have the familiar full-screen traffic light colors and optional time display, but with a raft of new features comes an all-new UI with simple and intuitive navigation so there are no barriers to starting your speech.

Speaker Alert now comes pre-loaded with a number of ready-made speech timing profiles, so you can cue up speeches in just a few taps. Right after downloading, you get a full set of standard profiles for Toastmasters speeches and evaluations, as well as profiles for various common time slots suitable for stand up comedy, technical presentations and many other occasions. Can't find a profile for your next speech? You can create your own and store it in the app for future use.

Finally, in response to comments on the previous release, you are able to configure whether or not you receive vibration alerts while the app is launched, so you can avoid disturbing speakers with buzzing noises in a small room. You can also configure other behaviour, such as whether the time is displayed on screen, and whether speeches start as soon as you load a profile.

Speaker Alert 2.0.0 is 100% free and available today for iOS 8 and higher.