SlowerBreathe slower.
Slower is a free breathing app for iPhone. Pick how you feel, and a small puff of air called Wisp breathes with you.
- Free, all of it
- No account
- No ads or tracking
Start from the feeling
How are you feeling?
Nobody opens a breathing app wondering which technique to pick. So Slower asks one question, and matches the breath to the answer.
Try it now
One minute, right here
Press start and breathe with the puff. In as it grows, out as it shrinks. This is the simplest version of what the app does.
Want a specific pattern? There are eight free breathing timers on this site.
A pacer for every exercise
A square looks like a square. A sigh looks like a sigh.
Most breathing apps show one circle that swells and shrinks for everything. In Slower each exercise has its own shape: a box for box breathing, a rising line with a long fall for a sigh, a ring that empties for a hold. You can see what comes next, so you stop counting and start breathing.
Real timings
Taught the way it is actually taught.
4-7-8 is four in, seven hold, eight out. A sigh is a breath, a second sip, and a long way out. Slower uses the timings from the people and studies behind each method, and when you need it easier there is one honest option: slower. Never faster.
Meet Wisp
It starts where you are, and calms down with you.
Wisp is the small puff of air that breathes alongside you. Pick "Stressed" and it shows up looking as frazzled as you feel. As the session goes on its face loosens and its colour shifts to a calm green. It is a tiny thing, and it is the part people remember.
Free in your browser
Breathing timers you can use right now
No app needed. Each timer comes with a short, sourced guide to the technique, including what the research does and does not show.
Breathing timer
One pacer, five common patterns, or your own counts for in, hold and out.
4 · 4 · 4 · 4Box breathing timer
Four equal sides: in, hold, out, hold. For a clear head before something demanding.
4 · 7 · 84-7-8 breathing timer
A short breath in, a long hold and a longer breath out. The classic bedtime breath.
5.5 · 5.5Coherent breathing timer
A slow, even wave at about six breaths a minute. Also called resonance breathing.
3 · 1 · 7Cyclic sighing timer
Two breaths in through the nose, one long sigh out. For letting tension go.
4 · 6Long exhale breathing timer
A breath out longer than the breath in, with no holds. For settling when you feel anxious.
Left · RightAlternate nostril breathing timer
One nostril at a time, switching after each breath in. For a scattered mind.
StopwatchBreath hold test
Time a comfortable hold after a normal breath out, and see how it changes over weeks.
Why slower
The slow part does most of the work.
Around six breaths a minute
Most of us take 12 to 20 breaths a minute at rest. In a 2018 review of 15 studies, breathing below ten a minute went with more relaxation and alertness and less anxiety and anger. How to breathe slower.
A longer breath out
Making the exhale longer than the inhale added to the relaxing effect of slow breathing in a 2014 experiment. It is why so many calming exercises end with a long way out.
Five minutes is a real dose
In a 2023 Stanford trial, five minutes a day of breathing exercises improved mood over a month. The effects in studies are modest, and we say so on every page.
Sources: Zaccaro et al. 2018, Van Diest et al. 2014, Balban et al. 2023. Slower is for general wellbeing and is not a medical treatment.
Private by design
Nothing to sign up for. Nothing collected.
No account
Open the app and breathe. There is no email field anywhere in Slower.
No ads, no tracking
No analytics, no ad networks, no third-party code watching what you do. The App Store label reads "Data Not Collected".
Why it is free
Slower is made by one independent developer in Sweden. It is new, and what it needs most is people using it and saying what they think. More about Slower.
Questions
Is Slower really free?
Yes. All 14 exercises are free. There are no in-app purchases, no subscription and no ads.
Do I need an account?
No. You open the app and breathe. There is no sign-up, no email and no login.
What data does Slower collect?
None. Your sessions and settings stay on your iPhone. The app has no analytics and no third-party trackers, and its App Store privacy label is "Data Not Collected".
Which breathing exercises are in the app?
Fourteen, including box breathing, 4-7-8, the double sigh (cyclic sighing), long exhale, slow wave breathing at 5.5 seconds in and out, alternate nostril, humming, cooling breath, wake-up pumps and a 30-breath round with holds. Each one runs at the timing it is normally taught at.
How is Slower different from other breathing apps?
You start from how you feel, not from a list of techniques. Each exercise has its own pacer, so a square looks like a square and a sigh looks like a sigh. And it is free without an account, ads or tracking.
Can I use the timers on this site without the app?
Yes. The breathing timers run in any browser, on any phone or computer, with no sign-up.
Is Slower a medical app?
No. Slower is for general wellbeing. It does not diagnose or treat anything, and it is not a substitute for care from a doctor or therapist.
Take one slower breath.
Fourteen breathing exercises on your iPhone, free, with nothing to sign up for.