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Your phone breathes with you.
Guided breathing for iPhone with the haptic craft of the Apple Watch — distinct vibrations for every inhale, hold, and exhale, so you can close your eyes and follow the rhythm. Simple on the surface. Science underneath.
Download on the App StoreComes with an Apple Watch companion — the same rhythm, tapped on your wrist.
Why breathing works
The only lever on your nervous system you can reach any time.
Breath is the one autonomic process you can steer at will, and steering it steers the rest. Your heart rate, blood pressure, and stress response are run by machinery you can't talk to directly — but every one of them listens to your breathing. That's not a metaphor; it's measurable, and it's why slow breathing keeps showing up in randomised trials as a genuine intervention for stress and anxiety, not a placebo with candles.
- Your heart listens to your exhale
- With every inhale your heart speeds up slightly; with every exhale it slows — a reflex called respiratory sinus arrhythmia, driven by the vagus nerve. Lengthen the exhale and you lean on the brake more than the accelerator. That's the whole mechanism behind 4-7-8 and every "sigh it out" instinct you've ever had.
- Slow rhythms tune the whole system
- Around five and a half breaths per minute, your breath, heart rhythm, and blood-pressure reflexes fall into resonance, and heart-rate variability — the classic marker of a calm, adaptable nervous system — peaks. This is the most-studied pace in the slow-breathing literature, and it's trainable: the system tunes a little easier every session.
- It works faster than thinking does
- You can't reason your way out of a stress spike, because the thinking is downstream of the physiology. Breath changes the physiology directly. In Stanford's 2023 trial, five minutes a day of cyclic sighing outperformed mindfulness meditation for mood and lowered resting breathing rate — the body stayed calmer even off the clock.
None of this is mystical, and none of it needs an hour on a cushion. If you already know breath matters and just want a clean, guided way in — without ads, streak-shaming, or a $70-a-year content library — this is built for you. Two guided minutes, done well, change the next twenty.
Find your breath
Whatever the moment, there's a pattern for it.
Box breathing — 4 · 4 · 4 · 4
Four equal sides: in, hold, out, hold. The even rhythm gives a racing mind one simple thing to count, and the steady pace slows your heart within a few rounds. Used by military and emergency crews for exactly this reason — it works mid-stress, not just on a quiet cushion.
4-7-8 — the long-exhale wind-down
In for four, hold for seven, out for a slow eight. The exhale is twice the inhale, and a long exhale is the most direct signal you can send your nervous system that it's safe to power down. Four rounds in bed is usually enough to feel the drop.
Physiological sigh — the fastest reset there is
A full inhale, a second short sip of air on top, then one long sigh out. The double inhale pops collapsed air sacs open so the exhale can offload more CO₂ — it's the same reflex your body uses when it sighs on its own. One to three of these, mid-spike, and the wave breaks. This was the standout in Stanford's 2023 study of brief breathing practices.
Bellows breath — a shot of alertness
Quick, even breaths — one second in, one second out — from the belly, like working a bellows. Twenty seconds raises alertness without caffeine. It's deliberately activating, so it comes with the app's clearest safety framing: seated only, never in water, never while driving.
Coherent breathing — settle in for deep work
Smooth, even waves at about five and a half breaths per minute — the pace where heart rhythm and breath fall into sync and heart-rate variability peaks. Nothing to count beyond in and out. A few minutes before deep work leaves you calm and sharp, which is a rarer combination than it sounds.
The basics, answered
Nobody ever tells you how to breathe.
Belly or chest? Nose or mouth? Eyes open or closed? Most apps skip the questions everyone actually has. Here's the short version — and in the app, every session starts from these defaults. They're suggestions, not rules: every one of them is optional, and the breathing still works while you're learning.
- Belly, not chest
- Let the breath drop low so your belly rises before your chest does. That means your diaphragm is doing the work — slower, deeper, calmer. Chest-led breathing is the shallow, hurried kind your body associates with stress.
- In through the nose
- The nose filters, warms, and humidifies air, produces nitric oxide that helps oxygen uptake, and naturally slows the breath. If your nose feels blocked or it's a struggle at first, that's common — it genuinely gets easier with practice, and mouth breathing is a fine place to start.
- Out through the nose — or pursed lips
- Nose out keeps the exhale slow by default. A gentle exhale through pursed lips works just as well when an exercise asks for a long, controlled out-breath — whatever lets you keep it smooth.
- Seated, lying down — either
- Seated with a tall, relaxed back is the default; lying down is perfect for sleep exercises. The only rule we hold firmly: energising exercises are done seated, never in water, never driving.
- Eyes closed, if you like
- Closed eyes make the haptics shine — your phone taps the rhythm so you don't need the screen. Eyes open with a soft gaze is just as valid, especially somewhere public.
Why this app is different
Between the Watch app you love and the giants you don't.
- Haptics first
- Inhale swells, exhale fades, holds tap firm then soft. Eyes closed, sound off, the rhythm is in your hand — and on your wrist, with a full Apple Watch app included.
- Science, stated honestly
- Every exercise carries its evidence and its safety notes. Calm, sleep, energy, focus, reset — no mysticism, no medical claims.
- A guide that knows you
- Tell it your goals once; it recommends the right exercise and explains the why. You dial guidance up or down — "never nudge me" is fully respected.
- Private by design
- No ads, no trackers, no account required, no data resale. Ever. That's the product, not the settings page.
Honest pricing
Free to start. $0.99 a month for all of it.
The essential exercises, guided sessions, haptics, and your whole journey — free. One small subscription opens the full catalogue, every dial, and richer reminders. And when you want more than a catalogue, the coach tier — $4.99 a month — adds an AI guide that learns your goals, suggests what to breathe next, and explains the science behind it. That's the entire business model: no ads to show you, so no reason to track you.