Getting the most out of the app
Two people use the same app and get very different results from it. The ten things that make the difference, and how to do each of them.
8 min read
Opening the app, breathing for two minutes and closing it is a way of using it. But it is a small part of what the app can give you. Here is what makes the difference.
1. Actually fill in the intake
You can skip it, but everything afterwards feeds on it: which technique gets suggested, how many minutes get suggested, how many sessions each lock will ask for, which warnings appear.
Three answers matter most: your experience level (don't overstate it, don't undersell it), your health notes (mark them if you really have them) and your age. None of the three leaves your device.
If your answer has changed since, update it: Profile → Settings → intake answers.
2. Short, and finished
A finished two-minute session beats an abandoned six-minute one by every measure. Your completion rate affects both your score and the suggestions that follow.
The length range the app suggests already takes this into account: if you have started abandoning sessions, the range shortens by itself.
3. Place the device properly
This is where most of the value is lost. Twenty to thirty centimetres from your mouth and nose, microphone not covered. Propping it against something rather than laying it flat on a table makes a clear difference.
If the measurement isn't right, the score and the suggestions become meaningless — everything the app can tell you rests on that measurement.
4. Stay quiet while the room is measured
The three seconds at the start of a session set the threshold for the whole session. A sound during that window is taken for room noise, and you then get listened to with the wrong threshold for the rest of the session.
5. Read the whole report, at least for the first few weeks
The score at the top is the least informative part. The real information is under Detailed report: which component is low, which measurement is borderline.
If your interface level is Simple, the report shrinks to a single sentence. While you are still learning, Standard or Advanced is more useful.
6. Don't hop between techniques — settle into one
Trying a different technique every day is fun, but you make no progress in any of them. The app keeps separate statistics per technique: keep to the same one for a few weeks and both your score and your suggested length settle for that technique.
Pick one technique, stay with it for two weeks, then change.
7. Set up a program
A pile of single sessions doesn't add up to a program. A program tracks doing the same technique for the same length every day, and at the end it lays out day by day what happened.
The first program is twenty-eight days, five minutes a day — and those five minutes aren't an arbitrary number; that is the length used in the study the program is based on.
8. Set the reminder to suit you
The most common reason for missing a day is forgetting. But a reminder set at the wrong time is no use either: a notification you dismiss at the same time every day is noise, not a habit.
You can give a separate time to each day of the week. Mornings on weekdays, midday at the weekend, say.
9. Move to your own pace
The five and a half seconds of Coherent Breathing is an average. Measuring your own resonance pace takes a few minutes, and after that every Coherent session runs at a pace that suits you.
If you are going to use the app regularly, this is the single highest-return thing you can do.
10. Go back to your own data
Once a month, look at the weekly summaries and the personal summary. Which time of day goes better for you, which technique you are improving in, which days you miss — it is all written there.
Without that information, building a habit means working from guesswork.
And one thing not to do
Don't make the score the goal. The score measures how closely you followed the pace on screen, not whether the breathing did you good. Forcing your breath for a higher score — pushing the exhale, raising its volume — both spoils the technique and lowers the score anyway.
What the app measures is a tool. The point is how you feel after the session.