Debatekeeper – debate timer is a tools app developed by Chuan-Zheng Lee.
Download Statistics
Debatekeeper – debate timer has been downloaded 110 thousand times. In the last 30 days, the app was downloaded 190 times.
User Ratings
Debatekeeper – debate timer is rated 4.20 out of 5 stars. The rating is based on 640 ratings.
App Information
Debatekeeper – debate timer is FREE to download. The APK download size is 15.09 MB. The latest version available is 1.4.2. The last update was on April 9, 2023.
Technical Requirements
Debatekeeper – debate timer requires Android 4.0+ or higher. The app has a content rating of Everyone. The app has been available on Google Play August 2012.
Description
Let Debatekeeper take the hassle out of timekeeping! It will sound bells automatically at the right times, or it can vibrate and/or flash your screen as quieter cues, allowing you to focus your attention on the debate.
Debatekeeper automatically switches to the appropriate speech time in styles that require it, e.g. those with reply speeches. It supports most parliamentary styles, including British Parliamentary (WUDC), World Schools (WSDC), Australs, American Parliamentary (APDA), Canadian Parliamentary, Asian Parliamentary (UADC), Australian Easters, and New Zealand university styles. More styles can be downloaded in the app from the online repository.
You can also write your own debate format (style) in XML for the app to use—see the app wiki at https://github.com/czlee/debatekeeper/wiki for details. Submissions to the online formats repository are welcome: https://github.com/czlee/debatekeeper-formats
Debatekeeper is also highly configurable with things like overtime bells and the preparation timer.
(Debatekeeper does not support the American policy, public forum or Lincoln-Douglas styles, because it doesn't support prep time between speeches distributed at teams' election, sorry.)
Advice for adjudicators: It can pay to make sure your debaters (a) know what the bell sounds like, so they don't think you just got a text message and (b) can hear the bell. It's normally loud enough in classrooms, but not lecture theatres; in those rooms you can use the vibrate/flash screen functions to remind you to clap.
Recent changes: Updated to target Android 13; Collapsed items in downloads by default; Fixed the colour of the navigation bar; Removed "Leader's" from reply speech names; Removed legacy support for debate formats in the "debatekeeper" directory and schema version 1.0
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Comments on Debatekeeper – debate timer for Android
★★★★☆Terrence Guo· Oct 7, 2025
Pretty good, but no option to customize speaker time signals. For example, there's no option for hs bp, which has 30 seconds of protected time at the start & end of each speech. I'll be using the regular timer app haha. If you want automatic time signals, just set several timers. *edit: ive been using the prep timer to time speeches & give time signals, and it works great! In settings (3 dots) there's an option called "prep timer bells" that you can use to set bells.
★★★★☆Praise Udeh· Apr 12, 2023
It's such a great app. Easy to use, has many features and can accommodate many debating formats.
★★★★☆Mariano Laguzzi· Feb 7, 2021
It does what it needs to without any hiccups. The one feature I think would make this app perfect would be having the ability to set a custom format, so that if you're using a format that isn't supported, or maybe you're using reduced timing for an unofficial debate you would still be able to have a good experience with the app. A more pleasant looking UI would also be a nice touch, but it's certainly not something important, unlike what I mentioned above.
★★★★★Selorm Dzata· Feb 14, 2026
It has always been very difficult to keep track of my time when debating but with this app, I can simultaneously keep track of my prep and speech time and even my POI time. It even supports most debating styles
★☆☆☆☆Peter Williams· Dec 14, 2018
The biggest problem is the lack of inclusion of all debate forms. I know it has a custom form, but for all you from the US NSDA this does not have the forms that are used: no PF, Policy, LD etc. The UI is overall too complicated and a bit dated. Overall this may be a fine app, but if you are from the NSDA then it is not useful.
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