Get settled & surface
It opens to one thing.
A circle. Hold it for a few seconds and a session starts. That is the whole interface.
Most calming apps open with a menu, a questionnaire or a sign-up. That is a reasonable design right up until the moment you actually need one — because when you're overwhelmed, deciding is the first thing that stops working. Forty exercises in a list are useless exactly when it matters.
So Neaptide decides, and lets you overrule it in one tap.
iPhone & Apple Watch
This is the app's first screen. Press and hold it.
The name
The smallest tide of the month.
A neap tide is what happens when the sun and the moon pull at right angles to each other and the water barely moves — the quiet end of a range, not the absence of one. Twice a month, everything settles down.
The app is built on the same idea. It is not trying to make you feel nothing. It is trying to take the top and the bottom off the day.
The part nobody else builds
Two directions.
Not everyone who feels bad needs to slow down. Some people are running fast: racing thoughts, clenched jaw, can't sit still. Others are running slow: flat, foggy, numb, stuck. Telling someone who is already shut down to breathe more slowly points them further down.
Neaptide reads which way you're going, then picks accordingly. The screen changes colour with the direction, so within about three sessions the colour itself is the cue.
Low tide · Settle
Down when you're wired.
Long exhales, the physiological sigh, orienting, cold contact. The screen cools and darkens as the session runs, and the water line falls with it.
- extended exhale
- physiological sigh
- orienting
- cold contact
High tide · Surface
Up when you're numb.
A sharper rhythm, movement, bilateral tapping, sensory re-entry. The screen warms and lifts, and the water comes up to meet you.
- sharp exhale
- bilateral tapping
- movement
- sensory re-entry
slower brighter
Two words stay on screen the whole time. If the read is wrong, one tap fixes it mid-session without losing your place.
The read
It reads you from how you held the screen.
A handful of small things about the way your thumb behaved — how much it trembled, how far it drifted, how long it lay completely still, how your grip shifted, and how quickly you reached for the screen. Nothing but the touchscreen — no camera, no microphone, no motion sensors, no health data, nothing worn on your body.
It is a sensible default, not a measurement, and the app says so in plain words on the screen where it matters. You can overrule it at any point, including halfway through.
What's in it
Thirteen resets. Not all of them are breathing.
- Unlimited sessions, in both directions.
- Haptic pacing you can follow with the screen face-down.
- A screen-off mode that goes dark and keeps pacing you.
- Your own session length — as written, one minute, or four.
- A Lock Screen widget and an Apple Watch app.
- Works in airplane mode, on the Underground, on a phone with no signal.
Why each one is here
Every reset tells you why it's there.
Each one carries a plain-language note about what the technique is generally used for, and where that understanding comes from. It's shown after the session rather than during it, because reading is not what you need mid-session.
Neaptide describes; it does not diagnose. It is not treatment, and not a substitute for care from a professional. If you are in crisis, contact your local emergency number.
After
Nothing to keep up with.
- streaks
- scores
- day 4
- a log
- a history
- a chart
- notifications
Miss a month and nothing is waiting for you when you come back. The session ends with two words and a way out.
Privacy
Nothing leaves your phone.
No sign-up, no email address, no cloud. There is no server for anything to go to. No analytics, no crash reporter, no identifier, no advertising. The only thing Neaptide keeps is the session length you last chose, and it stays on the device.
One payment
$0.99
Once. Not a subscription.
Everything is included from first launch — all thirteen resets, both directions, the widget and the Watch app. There is no in-app purchase, nothing held back, and no second thing to sell you later. Every future update is included.
price varies by storefront