With meditation becoming increasingly popular among everyone from students to retirees these days, mindfulness is all the rage. When it comes to choosing a mindfulness app to operate from your smartphone, several attractive options exist for Android and iOS. Even though these apps make many claims, the five mindfulness apps listed below have consistently positive reviews from users around the world.
Headspace
The Headspace app features nearly a dozen music tracks for helping users fall asleep as they meditate prior to bed. In addition to the sleep-friendly sound files, the Headspace mindfulness app also comes pre-programmed with a series of 16 nature-based soundtracks. These tracks include relaxing sounds like calming thunder and fresh spring meadow rain.
Sattva
Sattva is a more traditional meditation app fused with modern technology. The team of engineers behind Sattva incorporated many of the traditional Vedic meditation chants, sounds, and mantras into the app for an authentic mindfulness experience. Guided meditations are also found throughout the app to help users with inward visualization and mindfulness imagery. In addition, the Sattva app helps users set mindfulness and meditation targets and garner real-time feedback to improve skills with further use. The app also features a specialized logbook for users to record thoughts as they arise during the course of a mindfulness meditation session.
Insight Timer
The Insight Timer app is arguably the most popular mindfulness app on both iPhones and Android phones today and has billed itself as a kind of Wikipedia for meditation. New meditation scripts and guided imagery sessions are being constantly added to the app. This produces a high-volume library of guided mindfulness exercises for Insight Timer app users to choose from. Furthermore, the Insight Timer app has its own dedicated user forum and community.
Calm
Available on both the iOS and Android operating systems, the Calm app is designed for users of all ages. With a separate version of this mindfulness app designed for users aged 3 to 17, the Calm app features guided meditation and story readings from well-known actors and talented voice-over artists. In addition to being available for the iPhone, the Calm app is also available on the Apple Watch and features easy access to walking meditations and a variety of other mindfulness exercises.