Exhale: Stress & Panic Relief

For the minute after the meeting goes badly, the text lands wrong, or the room gets too loud. One button, sixty seconds, hands free — and nobody around you has to know you're using it. Exhale is a paid app; a subscription is required, and the first week is free.

You open it, you press the button, you breathe for one minute, and you put the phone down. That's the whole app. No course, no community, no journal, no second screen to get to.

— Four methods. One won. —

In a randomised controlled trial run at Stanford (Balban et al., 2023, Cell Reports Medicine), 108 people were split across four practices for 28 days: cyclic sighing, box breathing, cyclic hyperventilation, and mindfulness meditation. Cyclic sighing came out ahead on daily mood — head to head, in the same trial, on the same people.

Cyclic sighing is the one Exhale does. Two inhales through the nose, one long exhale through the mouth, guided, for sixty seconds.

— Nobody has to know —

No sound required. No screen anyone needs to see. No sitting cross-legged, no "find a quiet place." You can do this at your desk, in a meeting, in the passenger seat, or in a bathroom at a party, and the person next to you won't notice. That's a design goal, not a side effect.

— What you'll never see from us —

• No streaks, no badges, no "47 days in a row." Exhale doesn't count your presses or keep a history of them. • No rating slider, before or after. We never ask you to score what you just felt. • No push notifications beyond the single daily reminder you schedule yourself. We don't move it and we don't nag. • One paywall, one price, one tap to restore. No countdown timers, no "are you sure you want to leave?" • No fear marketing about your body. No cortisol, no vagus nerve, no "what stress is doing to you."

— Honest claims —

Cyclic sighing has the strongest direct trial evidence of any breathing practice for relief in under two minutes, and it beat the other three head to head. That trial ran five minutes a day for 28 days; Exhale is sixty seconds, when you actually need it. Same breathing, smaller dose — we are not claiming the two are equivalent.

Separately, and not from that trial: a slow exhale slows your heart. Lengthening the out-breath is one of the few things that changes how you feel in seconds rather than minutes.

— From the maker —

I built Exhale because I needed something I could press once, without thinking, and have it work. A painkiller: open it, use it, close it.

Private by default. iPhone only.

— Exhale subscription —

• Exhale Monthly — $4.99 USD per month, auto-renewing • Exhale Annual — $24.99 USD per year, auto-renewing, with a one-week free trial for new subscribers

The subscription unlocks the entire app: unlimited 60-second guided sessions and your optional daily reminder. Nothing is sold separately. Payment is charged to your Apple ID at confirmation of purchase. The subscription auto-renews at the same price unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can manage and cancel in Settings → Apple ID → Subscriptions. Unused portion of a free trial is forfeited when you start a paid subscription. Prices may vary by region.

Privacy Policy: https://useexhale.com/privacy Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/