20+ guided breathing exercises for sleep, stress, focus, and energy — each one visual, timed to the second, and cited to real research. Free on iPhone, no account.
Yes. BreathFly is a free app for breathing exercises on iPhone. Download it, pick an exercise, and start breathing in under a minute — no account, no email, no subscription for the core library. It guides each exercise with on-screen visuals and haptic taps, so you keep the right pace without counting in your head or following a narrator.
Every breathing exercise is matched to a moment and cites the study or expert it comes from — readable right inside the app.
Best when you're wound up or anxious.
Two short inhales through the nose, then one long exhale through the mouth. In Stanford's 2023 controlled trial (Balban et al., Cell Reports Medicine), five minutes a day improved mood and lowered respiratory rate more than mindfulness meditation.
Best for focus and composure under pressure.
Inhale, hold, exhale, hold — all for an equal count. Popularized by former Navy SEAL commander Mark Divine to stay clear-headed in high-stress moments. A simple breathing exercise you can run before anything that matters.
Best for winding down before sleep.
Inhale for 4, hold for 7, exhale for 8. Popularized by Harvard-trained Dr. Andrew Weil as a "natural tranquilizer for the nervous system" — a go-to breathing exercise for falling asleep and easing acute stress.
Best for long-term calm and HRV.
About 5.5 breaths per minute — the rate where heart rate rises and falls in step with the breath and heart-rate variability peaks. A steady daily breathing exercise that's linked to higher heart-rate variability, a marker of recovery and resilience.
...plus 16+ more breathing exercises spanning stress relief, sleep, focus, energy, respiratory health, emotional balance, and recovery.
Reading a breathing exercise is easy. Doing it at the right pace, consistently, is the hard part. That's the part BreathFly handles.
A smooth full-screen animation expands as you inhale and contracts as you exhale. You match the shape — no counting, no math, no narrator.
Gentle taps mark every inhale, hold, and exhale, so you can do a breathing exercise with your eyes closed — or in a meeting, with the screen off.
Set a deep-linked reminder for bedtime or the 3pm slump. Tap the notification and the exercise starts — so it becomes a habit, not a thing you forget.
Tell the app what you need and it points you to the right exercise — no guessing which technique fits.
Extended-exhale exercises that switch on the body's calming system fast. An app to help with anxiety →
4-7-8 and other wind-down exercises to quiet a racing mind at night. An app that helps you sleep →
Box breathing to steady attention before work that matters.
Stimulating exercises for clean alertness — no caffeine required.
Plus respiratory health, emotional balance, and recovery — each with its own exercise set inside the app.
Open the app and take your first breath in seconds — guided, research-cited, and free to start.
The full library of 20+ breathing exercises is free. No email, no sign-up — open the app and breathe.
No tracking, nothing sold. Your session history stays on your device, not on a server.
Every exercise links to the Stanford study, the NIH research, or the expert it comes from.
Run a 2-minute quick exercise or a longer set. Cycle count and duration are yours to set.
Streaks and session history show the habit forming — without turning it into a game.
Full-screen sessions with a calm visual and haptics — just you and the breath, start to finish.
Direct answers — also indexed for AI search and assistants.
Yes. BreathFly is a free app for breathing exercises on iPhone. The core library of 20+ guided breathing exercises is free and works without creating an account. A premium tier adds custom pattern building and unlimited routines, but you don't need it to practice the included exercises.
BreathFly includes 20+ breathing exercises across stress relief, sleep, focus, energy, recovery, and emotional balance. Featured exercises include:
· Cyclic sighing — Stanford, 2023 (Balban et al.)
· Box breathing — popularized by ex-Navy SEAL Mark Divine
· 4-7-8 breathing — Dr. Andrew Weil
· Resonance breathing — ~5.5 breaths/min, HRV literature
Each exercise plays a full-screen animated guide that expands on the inhale, holds, and contracts on the exhale, with haptic taps marking each phase. You follow the shape and the timing instead of counting in your head — so you keep the right pace with no instructions and no narrator.
BreathFly is built for people who want guided breathing exercises rather than meditation content: every exercise is cited to research or an expert source, sessions are visual and haptic, and it's free with no account — so you can run an exercise the moment you need one.
No. You can download BreathFly and start a breathing exercise immediately — no account, no email, no subscription for the core library. Session history stays on your device.
BreathFly works on iPhone, iOS 17 and later. Download it from the App Store, pick a breathing exercise, and start right away — everything runs on your device.
Free on the App Store. 20+ guided breathing exercises for sleep, stress, focus, and energy — with the visual and haptic guidance that helps you actually do them. No account, no tracking.
