Heart Sit vs Downshift

Did it actually work? The question every meditator secretly asks. Heart Sit answers it. Live heart rate from your AirPods Pro 3 or Apple Watch — captured every second, plotted around your timer, analyzed across weeks. Stop guessing. Start observing. LIVE HEART RATE Choose your sensor: AirPods Pro 3 (in-ear optical), Apple Watch, or Auto. Heart Sit shows which device is providing the reading in real time. No chest strap. No additional hardware. THE OBSERVED INSIGHT Every session ends with a one-line answer: "Your heart rate dropped 8 BPM." Or "Heart rate stayed steady — calm baseline." Compare this week to your 90-day baseline in Trends. Watch the line move. THE SETTLE SCORE Proprietary metric that measures how long it took your heart rate to reach its session minimum. Lower means you settled faster. Track it across weeks. Brag about it. APPLE WATCH AS REMOTE Open Heart Sit on your Watch — it becomes a control surface. Pause, resume, stop from your wrist. The Watch app stays alive for the full session via Extended Runtime Sessions. Your phone can sit screen-down across the room. PRACTICE TYPES Open, Zazen, Vipassana, Breath Focus. Each comes with appropriate defaults. Tag your sessions and see which practice settles you fastest. CONTEXT TAGS + MOOD Tag morning, evening, post-workout, stressed, calm. Capture your mood after each session. Heart Sit will show you which contexts produce your best practice. OVERTIME MODE The bell rings when your timer ends — but you don't have to stop. Continue as long as you want. Heart Sit counts the extra time and saves your full duration. EVERY DETAIL • Real-time BPM display + radial heart rate wave that shifts blue when calm, red when active • Optional haptic heartbeat — feel your pulse with every beat • Set an intention before sitting; recall it after • Session history with full per-second heart rate charts • Heart Rate Variability (HRV) reading per session • CSV export for power users • Beautiful share card — poster of your session • HealthKit integration: every session saved as a Mind & Body workout • Pure black, Georgia serif. No clutter. No animations to distract you. PRIVACY No accounts. No cloud. No analytics. No tracking. The app makes zero network requests. Everything stays on your device. NO SUBSCRIPTION. EVER. This isn't a wellness app trying to monetize your meditation. It's a measurement instrument for people who already have a practice. Download once. Use forever. REQUIREMENTS • AirPods Pro 3 (or AirPods Pro 2 with USB-C and HR-capable firmware) for live heart rate via earbuds • Apple Watch for live heart rate via wrist (any HR-capable model) • iPhone running iOS 18.0 or later Without either AirPods or Watch, Heart Sit works as a beautiful meditation timer with the same overtime mode and session journaling. For serious meditators who want evidence, not affirmation.

Downshift offers guided breathing exercises for the moments you feel tense or stressed — box breathing, 4-7-8, resonance breathing and the physiological sigh — plus progressive muscle relaxation, a body scan and, with a watch or tracker, a daily nervous-system reading from your Apple Health data. Breathe along. Follow the animated orb through guided patterns: the Physiological Sigh, Resonance breathing, Box, 4-7-8, and more. Gentle haptics mark every inhale and exhale, so you can do it with your eyes closed. Build a daily rhythm. A simple daily checklist of evidence-based habits — morning light, movement, a caffeine cutoff, a steady bedtime — with a streak to keep you going. See your progress. Log your tension morning and evening and watch the trend over time. Let go of physical tension. Guided progressive muscle relaxation walks you head-to-toe. On your wrist and your Home Screen. A standalone Apple Watch app with guided breathing, complications, and your reading at a glance — plus Home and Lock Screen widgets. Yours, and private. Your Apple Health data stays on your device. Your notes sync privately through your own iCloud — no account with us, no servers of ours, no tracking. Ever. Free to download and use. No ads. Downshift supports everyday wellbeing and is not a medical device or a substitute for professional care.