A Pomodoro the rest of the room can see

Solo Pomodoro apps are good at nagging one person. They are weak at groups. If four people are revising for the same exam, a kitchen timer on your desk does not tell anyone else you started, and a shared Google Doc countdown is a novelty that dies after a week. StudyBuddy puts each person’s timer on a card in the same room — stopwatch or Pomodoro — so the group can see the work without synchronizing every second.

Side-by-side beats one shared buzzer

Some group tools force everyone onto a single countdown: when the host starts 25 minutes, your break is their break. That only works if the whole table is doing the same kind of work. Real study groups are messier. One person is drilling flashcards, another is writing, a third just sat down. StudyBuddy lets each card run its own Pomodoro (or a plain stopwatch). You still sit in the same room, still chat, still share the task list. You do not have to hijack everyone else’s break.

The Pomodoro settings are minutes you choose, not a locked 25/5 religion. If your seminar reading needs 50-minute blocks, set that. If you only have 15 minutes between classes, set that. Bounds go from one minute up to a full day because the same control is used for long exam sessions, not just tomato-shaped sprints.

Why the group still helps

Even when clocks are independent, they are public. Seeing three other cards still running is the same social pressure as seeing laptops open across a library table. Chat can call a communal break — “ten minutes, then we all start the next past paper” — without the app enforcing it. Shared tasks make the session concrete: the list is in the room, not in four private to-do apps that nobody else can see.

Signed-in users keep streaks and weekly totals from the sessions they finish. Guests still get the full timer, including Pomodoro, without creating an account. That matters for a one-off cram night with classmates who will not install another productivity login.

What a shared Pomodoro is not

It is not a browser blocker. StudyBuddy will not lock you out of YouTube. It is not a teacher dashboard that grades your focus. And it is not a video coworking slot with a stranger. If you need a site blocker, use one; if you need a booked body-double, use a matching service. This page is for the narrower job: a timer your friends can see, in a room you already intended to share.

Create a room, pick Pomodoro on your card, send the code. Everyone else can run a stopwatch, a different block length, or nothing at all. The room still holds.

Start a shared timer room — Pomodoro and stopwatch, same desk.