GentleReturn notices when your attention has genuinely drifted during a seated meditation, confirmed by more than one signal, and brings you back with a touch, never a voice. Free runs the full detection engine on your iPhone alone; Pro adds AirPods and Apple Watch sensing, entirely on your device.
Built for a meditator who already knows how to sit, and wants a physical nudge back, not a teacher, a timer, or a score.
Attention during meditation does not fail all at once. It drifts, usually unnoticed until long after it happened. GentleReturn gives drift a physical answer: a soft ambient shift, then a gentle tap, then a quiet bell, each only as loud as it needs to be, backing off the moment you return.
Three steps from settling in to a wordless return.
Keep your iPhone nearby with the screen off. GentleReturn spends about a minute learning your resting breath and motion. On Pro, wearing AirPods adds head motion, and your Apple Watch adds wrist stillness and heart rate, as extra signals that all work together.
If your mind wanders and stays wandered, past a brief glance or a cough, you will feel or hear a cue: a soft ambient shift first, then a gentle haptic tap (on your iPhone, or your wrist with Apple Watch), then a quiet bell.
One slow, deliberate breath back and GentleReturn goes quiet again. No voice, no lesson, no score to chase.
Free runs fully on iPhone alone, no extra hardware required. Pro adds AirPods and Apple Watch as additional sensors.
No extra hardware needed.
Free runs the complete attention engine and cue ladder using just your iPhone: its own motion sensor and built-in microphone read your breath. All 15 ambient sounds and the full 1 and 3 minute sessions are included, no paywall on detection.
Deeper sensing, one-time unlock.
Pro adds AirPods head motion and posture, and Apple Watch wrist motion, heart rate, and HRV as corroborating signals, plus longer sessions, session history and a choice of bell. One purchase, $4.99 planned, Family Sharing included.
You know how to sit. You want a physical nudge back to the breath, not a teacher, a timer, or a streak to keep. GentleReturn learns your habits and preferences over time, only on your device, and you can see, export or reset what it learned.
iPhone screen off in your lap or on the cushion beside you, AirPods in and Apple Watch on if you have Pro. Every cue is sound or touch, nothing you need to look at.
No voice, no guided lesson. GentleReturn only speaks once a drift is confirmed by more than one signal, then goes quiet the moment you return.
No accounts, no cloud, no analytics. Everything runs on your iPhone, AirPods and Apple Watch.
GentleReturn is built the same way HeadPause and PulseAware were: nothing leaves your device unless you explicitly choose to export it.
Breath rhythm through your iPhone's built-in microphone (or AirPods on Pro), plus phone motion and, on Pro, AirPods head motion, are all processed entirely on your iPhone. Audio is never recorded or stored, and nothing leaves your device.
With permission, GentleReturn reads heart rate, resting heart rate, HRV, sleep, mindful session history, and date of birth to set today's baseline, on-device only. The underlying workout session is never saved.
GentleReturn can log a completed session to Apple Health as Mindful Minutes. Off by default, on only if you turn it on in Settings.
No sign-up, no cloud, no third-party SDKs, no tracking. An opt-in diagnostics export stays on your device unless you choose to share it.
Free proves the detection and the cue ladder. Pro adds more sensors, longer sessions, and history. One purchase, yours forever.
iPhone breath and motion detection, all 15 ambient sounds, and 1 and 3 minute sessions, running the complete attention engine and cue ladder, identical to Pro. Detection is never what is paywalled.
All processing on-device. No cloud, no tracking, no sign-up.
AirPods head motion and posture, Apple Watch wrist motion, heart rate, and HRV, longer sessions (5, 10, 15, 30 minutes), and session history with the Settle score and Drift map summaries. “Your audio” mode, for keeping your own music or podcast playing, is free for everyone. A one-time unlock is planned at $4.99. Family Sharing included.
One-time purchase. No subscriptions, ever.
On-device processing. Your session data never leaves your devices.
Not yet available on the App Store. Free will run fully on iPhone alone; AirPods and Apple Watch sensing are part of Pro.
Check back here once it ships, or reach out on the support page.
