What's the best meditation timer app out there?

March 11, 2011 2:09 PM

Teach me about meditation timer apps for my iPhone.

I've been meditating for about a month now and I love it. I've been using the built-in clock app on my iPhone to time my sittings, but I see that there are tons of meditation timer apps available. What are the advantages of these? What do they add to the experience? Which one is your favorite and why? Price is not an issue but it would be nice to have a couple of free versions to try out.

Please note that I am not interested in guided meditation mp3s or the like. I prefer silence or white noise when meditating and I find someone talking me through a meditation to be distracting.

Thanks in advance for your advice!

posted by Fuego to health & fitness (4 answers total)

The SimplyNoise app is nice - does just what it says in the title, with a choice of noise colors, volume modulation for a wave effect, and a timer.
posted by MShades at 4:43 PM on March 11, 2011

I like Meditator quite a bit. Start and end sounds, a few ambient backgrounds to chose from like waves or forest noises, simple interface. The Tibetan bowl chimes are a nice touch.

You can also set an interval sound to be played every X minutes. I find this to be a helpful and subtle reminder--in those X minutes my mind is sure to be off on some tangent. This way I get a gentle nudge to bring it back to my breath.

Hope that helps!
posted by brism at 12:24 AM on March 12, 2011

+1 to Meditator, which is what i use.

there's also Equanimity

if you're just looking for ambient noise/sounds without an interval timing i would recommend Ambiance

hope this helps
posted by karmaportrait at 3:39 AM on March 12, 2011

I use zen timer on my android phone, but there's an iphone app available too. It has various options for starting, finishing and interval bells, types of bell etc.
posted by poissonrouge at 11:03 AM on March 12, 2011