Everyone should have this app – Insight Timer–Meditate & Sleep Review

2022.01.19 review: Still using it after 5 years, but two glitches need fixing: “Sleep mode” setting is malfunctioning, and dark mode needs accessibility improvements: 1. Fix Sleep mode: I had created a whole playlist of sleep meditations and each was individually set to “sleep” - and so was the full playlist. But last night, for the meditation I always play, the iPad stayed on all night - sleep mode did not function. Turns out that the individual sleep setting for 98% of the meditations in that playlist had somehow been de-selected, and somehow this even overrode the playlist’s sleep mode setting. This was a pain to fix - 6 clicks on different parts of the screen for every meditation. Please prevent the app from automatically changing the mode setting - and make it easier to set sleep mode. 2. Improve dark mode - Several controls are thin gray items on black, located in random places on the screen. Make the controls more accessible - bolder, in a combo that is easier to see, and in more intuitive locations. 2021.03.01 review: The app keeps getting better and better, like love meditation and yoga. So I’ve joined “member plus” and enjoy the extra features and functionality — especially the courses, ability to download and rewind, and the fact that 50% of subscription supports the teachers. Thank you Insight Timer! Note — a couple of minor glitches to resolve: (1) notifications come in three minutes after the actual start time; (2) sometimes I’m listed as “Anonymous” (instead of my screen name) during a group or live meditation. 2017 review: This is an update of my previous (early 2017) review for this app - still very positive, while adjusting for the features in the new version released in late 2017: There is such a wonderful variety of meditations that everyone will find something here. I like the area called "popular" for finding new things like guided meditations for morning, yoga, sleep, metta, etc. There are "motivational talks" too, which I don't usually think of as meditation, but certainly could be helpful for many. I also enjoy the curated series "365 days playlist" where there is a theme and intro for each week, and then an individual meditation for each day. It is a nice way to learn about different meditation practices and find new things. Most are 10-15 minutes but a few run longer. Varies by the day. The "in app purchases" of extra timer bells and ambient sounds like birds, and flowing water round out the experience nicely. I like that I can use those timer bells offline. For people with long stretches and/or uneven wifi/data availability you can also pay a small monthly fee that enables you to download the meditations to your device. To prevent battery drain at night after a sleep meditation, make sure you select sleep mode within that meditation. (You have to do that on each of your devices because this feature doesn't seem to sync across devices.) And of course, on Apple devices you can also turn off location services and background app refresh, and swipe off the timer when not in use to preserve battery life any time. The "social" features of the app are unobtrusive and adaptable to individual preferences through privacy settings. At the minimum, seeing the numbers of people around the world meditating at once brings hope and encouragement. While most of the meditations are in English, many are in other languages (you can filter for this) which makes it very global. Overall the app is very intuitive. The few times I had questions, the support folks were very prompt and helpful. I reviewed an earlier version of the app and included a wishlist - and I can tell how attentive and dedicated the developers for this app are because every single one of the suggestions was answered in the new version. Thank you, Insight timer!
Review by 888K888 on Insight Timer–Meditate & Sleep.