ReachOut Breathe
About the app
ReachOut Breathe helps you reduce the physical symptoms of stress and anxiety by slowing down your breathing and your heart rate with your iPhone or Apple Watch.
Research shows that slowing your heart rate can increase feelings of calmness in your body. Using simple visuals, ReachOut Breathe helps you to control your breath and measures your heart rate in real-time using the camera in your phone. This means that you can actively address the onset of physical stress symptoms such as shortness of breath, increased heart rate and a tightening of the chest.
Reviews
This app would be appropriate for any young person wishing to practice and develop mindful awareness. In particular young people experiencing high levels of stress, or anxiety disorders. This app has the advantage of being able to offer mindfulness practice, breathing retraining and biofeedback and would be useful for young people with a variety of mental health concerns.
I liked...
It'd be great for use before stressful events such as exams or public speaking. Just the act of opening the application would be grounding in these moments. Really simple and modern design. Easy to access the breathing/heart rate screens as soon as the app is opened rather than having to navigate through a lot of screens. No sign in/sign up was very desirable too. :)
I didn't like...
The only issue was that the heart rate monitor is difficult to use with iPhone cases and I had to take mine off for my fingerprint to register however I'm believe that's an issue that might be difficult to mitigate.
I liked...
This tool proves to be quite useful especially for those who suffer from anxiety. It would also be useful for non-anxiety individuals who are going through a stressful period such as exams, serious illness, work related stress, relationship stress etc. I like the fact that you can measure your heart rate in real time, and that a comparison can be made to before and after the breathing strategies are carried out.
I didn't like...
I think it would be useful to provide some information about accuracy, as surely there would be many things that could affect heart rate reading, including the sensitivity of the camera.
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