Your first session, start to finish
Every step from opening the app for the first time to reading your first report. What you are asked, why you are asked it, and what to do where.
7 min read
The first time you open the app you get a short intake. It takes less than a minute but it shapes everything that follows, so let's start there.
1. The intake
There are seven questions. If you answer them the app sets itself up for you. Skip at the top right ends the intake there and then, without saving the answers so far. You can change your answers later in Settings.
Why are you here? Calm, focus, sleep, energy or "just trying it". You can pick up to two. This answer sets the order of the techniques and unlocks one that suits your goal right away.
How familiar are you with breathing exercises? Four options, from "not at all" to "experienced". It sets how long the tutorials are and how many sessions the locks will ask for.
How much time will you give a session? This becomes your default length. You can change it in every session.
When do you usually practise? Suggestions are tuned to the time of day as well. You can also turn on the daily reminder from this screen.
What age range are you in? Optional. Some techniques involve long holds and fast breathing, and the warnings follow from this.
How should the interface be? Simple, Standard or Advanced. It sets how much information you see, and you can change it later.
Any health notes? Asthma, heart, a tendency to dizziness, pregnancy. If you mark any, some techniques drop to the bottom of the list and a warning appears. This answer is never sent to us.
At the end a short introductory exercise is suggested. You don't have to do it. If you do, how many sessions new techniques take to unlock is set by your score: a good score loosens the locks.
2. Choosing a technique
Tapping Start on the home screen opens the list of techniques.
The card at the top says "Suggested for you" and has a light turning around it. It is chosen from your goal, the time of day and your recent sessions. Pick a different technique from below if you like.
Locked techniques have a padlock and a progress marker like "0/4". Tap one and it shows you what is needed.
3. Choosing a length
The slider under the card has a lit band on it: that is the range suggested for you. You don't have to stay inside it — it is only a suggestion.
There are preset length buttons too. They depend on how long the technique can go, for example 1, 3, 5 and 10 minutes in Box Breathing. For a first session, two minutes is a good start.
The first time you start a session, a short notice appears once, reminding you that the app is not a medical device.
4. The tutorial
Before the session comes the technique's tutorial: what it is good for, how it is done step by step, and the mistakes people make.
At the end there is a hands-on round (not in the Simple interface). You do one cycle together with the microphone on, and the app confirms it can hear your breath. If you get stuck here, the step passes by itself after a few tries, or you can move on with Continue without the microphone.
The tutorial comes before every session of that technique until you turn on Don't show again. If you change your mind, Settings → Show tutorials again brings them all back.
5. The session
After a three-second countdown the app spends a few seconds measuring the noise in the room. Stay quiet while it does.
Then the circle starts. Breathe in as it grows, out as it shrinks. What you should be doing is written inside the circle, along with the seconds left.
There is a live sound wave at the bottom: it moves when your breath is heard. If it doesn't move at all, bring the device a little closer.
If you want to stop the session, tap Stop at the bottom of the screen. From the menu that opens you can restart the cycle or the session, or end the session.
6. The report
When the session ends your report arrives: a score out of a hundred, a short headline, what you did well and a few suggestions.
Tap Detailed report and you see every measurement one by one. In a first session this can feel like a lot — don't rush it. Over time you'll come to know what each line means.
Tap Finish and you're back on the home screen, with your streak started.
Three suggestions for the first days
Keep it short. A finished two-minute session beats a five-minute one you abandon.
Don't fixate on the score. A low score is normal in early sessions. The score measures how closely you followed the pace on screen, not whether your breathing was correct.
Pick a quiet place. It makes things easier for the microphone and for you.