HOW TO USE IT

What's on the session screen

The circle, the phase label, the sound wave, the short notes during a session, the microphone warning and the pause menu. What everything you see during a session is for.

7 min read

The session screen looks plain, but every part of it has a job.

The countdown and the room measurement

Before the session starts there is a three-second countdown. Right after it, the screen says "Measuring the room…".

Meanwhile the app is measuring how quiet the room is: don't talk, don't move and don't reposition the device.

If you opened the session with quick start, a short line before the countdown says which technique it is and how many minutes it will last.

On iPad the session screen works in landscape too. Since the microphone sits on the top edge, turning that edge towards you improves the measurement noticeably (Soluklan on a tablet).

The circle

The circle in the middle of the screen plays the technique's rhythm.

Breathe in as it grows. Out as it shrinks. Hold while it stays still.

Inside the circle it says what you should be doing, whether to breathe through the nose or the mouth, and how many seconds are left in that phase. In techniques that use a single nostril, which nostril to breathe through is shown here too.

You don't need to count the seconds yourself: match your breath to the circle's movement.

The sound wave

Under the circle there is a live wave. It shows what the microphone is hearing right now.

If it moves when you breathe out, you are being heard. If it doesn't move at all, bring the device closer. If it keeps moving when you aren't breathing out, the room is noisy.

The label next to it tells you what was detected: "Exhale detected", "Inhale detected", "Listening…".

Short notes during a session

Every now and then a sentence appears under the circle and fades a few seconds later. These are things you can still fix before the session ends:

• "A little late. Breathe out as the circle shrinks." — your exhale starts after the circle. Start too early and you get "A little early. Wait for the circle."
• "The exhale was short. Keep breathing out until the circle finishes shrinking."
• "Your breath is hard to hear." or the opposite, "Your breath is coming through very strong." The first asks you to bring the device closer, the second to move it away.
• "No sound on that exhale." — that cycle's exhale wasn't heard.
• "Air escaped during the hold." — only in techniques with a hold.
• In Humming Bee Breath a separate note appears if the hum isn't heard.

Good cycles get praise too: "Right on time.", "Rhythm's right, keep going." Those come after a few well-timed exhales in a row.

The notes come rarely so they don't break the session: in a short session you see one or two. If a note said your breath wasn't heard, that exhale shows up as unheard in the report too. If the same note came up several times, it turns up again in the suggestions at the bottom of the report.

Heart rate

If you are doing a shared session with Apple Watch and your interface is on Advanced, the session screen shows your heart rate too. The heart next to it beats at your current heart rate.

The microphone warning

When the sound can't be picked up properly, a short note isn't enough: the session stops and a card opens from the bottom. It appears in three situations:

Your breath isn't being heard. Several exhales in a row weren't heard.

It's too noisy here. The noise floor is high enough to make measuring hard.

Too close. The exhale comes through so strongly that either the device is right in front of your face or you are blowing instead of breathing out.

The card tells you what to do. Once you have sorted out the device, tap Restart the cycle and the session carries on from the start of the cycle you were in. If the card comes back in the same session, a Continue without the microphone option appears too. In the Simple interface this card doesn't appear, only the short notes do.

Haptics and sounds

A short tap comes when the phase changes: you can tell that the inhale has started, or that you have moved to the exhale, without looking at the screen. For anyone who wants to do a session with their eyes closed, this is the real guide.

A short sound also plays at each phase change, and the 3-2-1 countdown has sound too. With Breathing and countdown sounds on, a Session sounds row appears in Settings where you pick a theme: Zen, Bowl, Water, Kalimba, Music box and others. Both are turned off in Settings: Session rhythm haptics and Breathing and countdown sounds.

In longer sessions the theme's soft interval chime plays now and then at the start of a round, along with a light haptic, so you can tell how time is passing without looking at a clock. It follows your sound and haptic settings.

The pause menu

Tap the pause button on screen and the session stops, opening a menu. The ring in the middle shows what percentage of the session you have done, which cycle you are on, and the time you have done against the total. If a mistake came up often in this session, it is shown at the top as well.

• Restart the cycle — starts the current cycle again.
• Restart the session — starts the session from the very beginning.
• End the session — finishes the session and goes to the report.

If you swipe the menu down to close it, the session carries on from the start of the cycle you were in, after a short countdown.

If you paused, a note about it appears in the report.

The Lock Screen and the Dynamic Island

While a session is running, the Live Activity shows on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island: the technique, the cycle and the time left.

If you leave the app, lock the screen or get a call during a session, the session pauses. The Live Activity then says "Paused". When you come back to the app, the pause menu is waiting open.

A session without the microphone

If the microphone is off in Settings, or you chose Continue without the microphone in the tutorial's practice step, the circle, the haptics and the counter all work the same. Only the sound wave and the score are missing.

You can switch mid-session as well: if the microphone warning comes up again in the same session, a Continue without the microphone button shows up. The session carries on from the start of the cycle you were in. It isn't scored, but it still counts towards your streak.

Battery saving

For a long session or a low battery, the app can switch to battery saving. While saving, the sparkles around the circle go away, the circle is drawn a little less often and the room is re-measured less often. Hearing your breath, the score, haptics and sounds stay exactly the same, and the screen doesn't dim.

When the battery is low, a Battery saving switch appears on the last screen before the session. In the Simple interface there's no switch; saving turns on by itself. If the battery runs low or the device gets warm during a session, saving turns on quietly, and it turns off when you plug the device in. If the device's own power saving mode is on, saving is on too. In Settings, the Battery section lets you keep saving on for every session. In the Advanced interface, the report's Battery section shows how much battery the session used and when saving turned on.

Stopping a session early

Before you end a session, look at the percentage ring in the pause menu: the part needed for the session to count is lightly tinted. If you're past it, the session counts towards your streak and your program, the report appears and says how much you did. If you aren't, the session isn't saved and you go straight back to the home screen.

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