Box Breathing Timer: Fourhold

A box breathing timer. Four patterns, a light to follow, a bell at every turn, and sound made on the phone. No account, no subscription, no ads.

Fourhold is a breathing timer for box breathing and other paced breathing patterns. A light moves around a figure, each phase is named in a word, and a bell marks every turn — so you can stop counting and follow it instead.

People reach for a few slow breaths before sleep, to relax after a hard hour, to focus before something that matters, or when stress or anxiety has the breath running fast. Call it box breathing, breathwork or just breathing exercises — Fourhold keeps the count so you do not have to.

FOUR PATTERNS Box — 4-4-4-4, four equal sides, to steady. Triangle — in, hold, out; gentler. 4-7-8 — in 4, hold 7, out 8; for sleep. Coherent — 5½ in, 5½ out, to settle in.

Set the pace on box and triangle from three to seven seconds a side, choose the length in cycles or leave it open-ended, or tap a preset — Reset, Focus, Before sleep — and begin.

SOUND MADE ON THE PHONE Three soundscapes: Drone, a low tone that opens as you fill. Tide, surf rising and falling with the breath. Air, thin and open, almost nothing. A bell at each gate, and an optional metronome tick. None of it is a recording — it is generated on the device as you breathe, so it never loops.

On phones that have them, haptics put the breath on your skin.

With sound on, a session keeps going when the screen is off. Put the phone down and listen.

YOUR PRACTICE Finished sessions land on the Practice screen with a streak and a calendar, kept on your phone. You can end a session early, and any full cycle you have breathed still counts. Set a daily reminder if you want one; it is scheduled by your device and skipped on days you have already practised.

APPLE HEALTH Turn it on and finished sessions are added as Mindful Minutes, alongside the rest of your mindfulness time. Fourhold only ever writes. It never reads your Health data, and that data never leaves your phone.

NIGHT AND DAWN One instrument, two lights: the lantern in the dark, or warm paper with the ink flipped. Or follow the system.

SIX LANGUAGES English, Spanish, German, French, Brazilian Portuguese and Japanese, following your device language. Every feature is the same in every language and every country.

NO ACCOUNT, NO SUBSCRIPTION, NO ADS There is nothing to sign up for. Every pattern, every soundscape, every appearance and your whole record are free and stay free. If you want to say thanks, the Support page has a tip jar — a tip buys nothing.

ALSO A small home-screen widget, and Siri shortcuts to start a session or open your practice.

Fourhold is a general wellness app for paced breathing. It is not a medical device and offers no medical advice. If 4-7-8 leaves you lightheaded, return to normal breathing.