Mindfulness App Review – The Mindfulness App Review

This otherwise excellent app has been and still is plagued by bugs that make it basically useless. I. The problems/bugs that make this app useless: I had been using the app successfully for about a year without any problems. I was delighted with it, and originally gave it a 5 star review. At some point, possibly an iOS upgrade, the app started freezing on me in the middle of meditations. This was especially bad during the silent meditations and it eventually became useless because instead of focusing on mindfulness of breath, I was focusing on wondering weather the app was frozen. II. Uninstall/reinstall and other attempts to fix: I uninstalled and reinstalled the app, which caused me to lose all my historical statistics. I really hated that because I had over a year of statistics, and seeing my progress and how much time I had under my belt was really a way I kept myself encouraged. The uninstall/reinstall did not help. The app still froze frequently during meditations. I contacted support and they were fairly responsive but they had no fix. Their only suggestion was the uninstall/reinstall, which I had already done. Since this freezing problem started, they have released two or three new versions of the app. Because I liked the app so much, I had high hopes that each update would fix the problem, but none of them have. After uninstalling/reinstalling a few times, applying updates, and installing a completely new version, I have pretty much given up on this app. I'd give it 1 star, but because it's so great when it actually works I'm giving it 2 stars. III. Changes to the app from one off purchases to a subscription service: When I first started using the app, after purchasing the app you could use it forever for free and then purchase additional meditations for $.99 each. One of the upgrades changed that so that you got all of the meditations and courses, but there is a yearly subscription fee. IV. The Excellent Features of this app: The "Getting Started"meditations are a very helpful introduction and orientation to beginning a mindfulness practice. The"Guided Meditations" are an excellent way to learn how to do mindfulness. The times can be gradually increased as your skill develops. Finally, the "Silent Meditations" are fully customizable way to carry on your mindfulness practice. My favorite feature of the app is the statistics. You can see how many meditations, the duration of those meditations, the cumulative amount of time and number of sessions for each week, month, and year you have been practicing. This is a great help in keeping you motivated and seeing your progress in how your practice is becoming more skillful and regular. V. Conclusion: This was a fantastic app, and by far my favorite meditation app until it started freezing up. Now it is completely useless because instead of meditating, your mind wanders to wonder whether it is frozen. If the developers can successfully resolve the bug that causes freezing, I will gladly give the app a 5 star review. When it worked, I liked it so much I would have given it a 10 star review! I'm not sure how the purchase is working now, but my suggestion would be to try it if it is $.99 or less and see if it works for you. I would not recommend putting more than $.99 into it, much less purchasing a subscription, until I was absolutely certain that the freezing issue had been completely resolved. END
Review by Fachad on The Mindfulness App.