Paced Breathing

Stages of an Update

App updates go through several stages:

• In-development: I’m actively working on implementing the changes.
• Internal-Testing: The work is done and I’m testing the finished build myself before letting anyone else have it. This usually lasts about 1 day.
• Alpha-Review: Apple/Google require reviewing alphas before they’re released. This usually lasts 1 day.
• Alpha: Testing with a small group of select users to get feedback (only done for big changes).
• Beta-Review: Apple/Google require reviewing betas before they’re released. This usually lasts 1 day.
• Beta: The update is available for anyone to try by opting into the beta; see instructions. This usually lasts a few days, up to a week.
• Release-Review: The update is being reviewed by Apple/Google, this usually lasts 1 day. You can still try the beta during this time.
• Rolling-out: Not everyone gets the update at once; it rolls out in stages so I can see if everything works as expected. It’s usually rolled out to 1% of users, then 5%, 25%, 50%, 99%, and finally 100%. This process takes about a week. If you’re impatient for the update; on iOS: manually go to the App Store and update — or on Android: opt into the beta.
• Released: The update is fully public and available to everyone.

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LAST UPDATED: Oct-23, 2026

v3.13.1 — Released Oct-12, 2026

v3.13.0 — Released Oct-2, 2026

• Android: released to all users on Oct-1
• iOS: released to all users on Oct-2

What to expect

• Breathing Visuals: Choose from ~10 different visuals (a few are PacedBreathing+ only)
• Playlists: Build a sequence of presets that plays as one session, and save it for next time (tap the new Playlist button in the header; requires PacedBreathing+)
• 2 Free Presets: Free users can now have 2 presets
• Quick Preset Menu: Tap the button next to the preset tabs to switch presets or reorder them
• Quick Use Templates: One-tap patterns like Box Breathing and 4-7-8
• Double Tap to Stop: Tap once and you’ll see a hint, tap twice to stop. No more accidentally ending a session halfway through!
• Hold Sound Cues: Optional sound cues for the hold phases
• Preset Notes: Shown at the top of the breathing screen
• Learn Page: New page in the side menu where you can browse goals and in-depth articles and try out your presets
• Onboarding: New users pick their goals, get suggested presets, and learn the basics
• Warm Dark Theme: The dark theme’s colors are warmer
• Better Heart Accuracy: Heart coherence and HRV are more accurate and handle bad heart monitor data better
• Reliable Vibration: On iOS, you’ll get a heads-up if Low Power Mode is weakening your vibration
• iOS Backup Fix: Your presets and settings now come with you when you restore from an iCloud backup or move to a new iPhone
• Crash Fixes: On the settings screen, and on Android when audio shuts down

v3.12.2 — Released Jan-25, 2026

• Android: released on Jan-24 to all users!
• iOS: released on Jan-25 for all users!

What to expect

• Recap Setting: Setting to turn off “Session Recaps” pop-up (open the side menu > Settings > Session Complete (Recap))
• Prettier Recap: Session recap so it looks prettier and the “upsells” for PacedBreathing+ are less intrusive
• Android Notification: The notification that appears on Android during a session now goes away after your session ends and you leave the app!

v3.12.1 — Released Jan-15, 2026

• Android: v3.12.1 rolled out to all users as of Jan-15
• iOS: v3.12.1 rolled out to all users as of Jan-15

NOTE: after v3.12.0 was released, I realized I missed adding a small feature for running the annual survey. I caught it and I’m quickly releasing v3.12.1.

What to expect

• Post-Session Heart Data: Heart data now shown after your session in the new “post-session” pop-up
• Heart Data in My Progress: Heart data is also now integrated into the “My Progress” page
• Heart Monitor Crash: App no longer crashes when starting a session if using a heart monitor that doesn’t support RR intervals
• Better Scanning: Better scanning/connecting logic for heart monitors (plus a ‘rescan’ button)
• Sound Preview: Sound preview on sound selector (just tap sound and a 2s preview will play)
• Cello Sound: Cello inhale sound no longer has a ‘fuzz’ at 4s
• Emerald Sound: Emerald sound now properly fades in (it started suddenly before)
• Right-to-Left Text: Now fully support devices set to right-to-left text
• Permission Detection: Better detect if permissions weren’t granted for notifications or heart monitoring
• Easier Notifications: Notifications are easier to set now (using dials instead of the slider)
• Sound Fade-Out: Sounds should fade out more quickly when using long breath times (before if times were 7s+, the last 1-2s of the phase would be practically silent)

v3.11.3, 3.11.4 — Released Sep-27, 2025

• Android: rolled out to all users as of Sep-27 (v3.11.4)
• iOS: rolled out to all users as of Sep-18 (v3.11.3)

NOTE: on Android, v3.11.2 and v3.11.3 was released only to a small number of users, we found some bugs and immediately released v3.11.4 to fix them.

What to expect

• Heart Monitoring: you can now track your heart rate, HRV, & heart coherence with a bluetooth heart rate monitor! (for PacedBreathing+ users)
• Large Font: if you have your font size turned up on your device, lots of Paced Breathing’s UI looked awful, it should be better now
• What’s New Menu: Added “What’s New” option to the side menu so you can easily see update information and new features
• UI Polish: Various interface improvements including better graph displays, spacing adjustments, and visual refinements across the app
• Faster Start-up: Upgraded internal codebase and dependencies to allow for faster startup of the app
• Stuttering Time Selector: When you went to change breathing times, ramp/timer times, or sounds – the bottom sheet that popped up would sometimes stutter a bit when opened, it should be smooth now
• Older Android Crash: v3.11.2 crashed on old devices, v3.11.3 fixes that
• Background Crash: v3.11.3 crashed on android devices when the app was put in the background, v3.11.4 fixes that.
• Android Background Playback: v3.11.2 and v3.11.3 paused other audio players (eg Spotify) , v3.11.4 fixes that
• Known Issues:
  • On Android if the app is in the background, and you’re actively using other apps for awhile (+15min), on older devices the app may get closed by Android. Unfortunately this will require a pretty big rewrite of the app, which I may do soon. The workaround is to minimize using other apps.
  • On Android, the app uses a lot of battery. A workaround to improve this somewhat is to turn the screen off. This is something I plan to improve

v3.10.2, v3.10.3 — Released Mar-21, 2025

• Android: rolled out to all users as of Mar-21 (v3.10.2)
• iOS: rolled out to all users as of Mar-21 (v3.10.3)

NOTE: v3.10.0 & v3.10.1 were released to alpha+beta only. v3.10.2 is the version for Android, and v3.10.3 is the version for iOS (because a small iOS-only fix was needed).

What to expect

• History + Streaks Page: Now tracking all your past sessions. On this page you can see how many days in a row you’ve used Paced Breathing (ie your streak), set goals for yourself, and see your past sessions.
• Fast Time Selection: before if you were changing your breathing times and you clicked ‘Save’ too fast, you’d get an old value
• Jumpy UI: when opening profile/preset renaming dialog, the dialog would jump sometimes offscreen or take up the full screen for a second
• Huge Text: before if your device was set to display text very large, it would sometimes cut off a lot of the graphic, including the ‘press to start’ button
• Slow Dialogs: before if you were a new user or the app just updated, you’d see a progress bar loading which could take up to a few seconds, now it’s always instant

v3.9.2 — Released Mar-7, 2025

• Android: publicly available as of Mar-4
• iOS: publicly available as of Mar-7

NOTE: v3.9.1 was partially rolled out but it had a bug (the “0 Hold” bug mentioned below), so we stopped that rollout and put out v3.9.2

What to expect

• 0 Hold Bug: If hold time is set to 0, it used to say “0.0s”, now it shows a blank. This is a bug will fix and rerelease
• Crashes: Fixed a bug that caused crashes during session for some users
• White Screen: When renaming profiles
• Cut-off Letters: When ‘bold’ font is used on Android, in some places in the app the last letters of various labels were cut-off
• Clearer Controls: Some users didn’t know how to change breathing times or start a session. Tweaked UI to make it more clear
• Graph Line Contrast: Some users said it was hard to see the main graph line, so contrast was increased
• Profiles Are Now Presets: Some users didn’t understand “profile”, so renamed it to “preset”

v3.9.0 — Released Feb-7, 2025

• Android: publicly available as of Feb-7
• iOS: publicly available as of Jan-30

What to expect

• New Sounds: Added 7 new sounds to the app, including 1 free one! (I’ll add more free ones next time)
• Progress Bar: If you have the timer set, during your session, above the visual graph, you’ll see a thin progress bar
• Faster Startup: The app now loads much faster when you first open it.
• iOS Time Picker Label: Fixed misaligned labels when choosing breathing times on iPhone and iPad.
• Sound Transitions: Sounds now fade in and out smoothly instead of sometimes starting abruptly.
• Dark Mode Splash Screen: The splash screen now properly matches your device’s dark/light mode setting.
• Vibration Feedback: Vibration now works reliably and will warn you if your phone’s settings are preventing it from working.
• Breathing Animation: The guiding dot now follows the breathing curve more naturally for a smoother experience.
• Background Playback: Made improvements to help prevent the app from stopping unexpectedly when running in the background.
• iPad Landscape Mode: Fixed an issue where the UI would break when rotating an iPad to landscape orientation.
• Ad Transitions: Ads now animate smoothly when appearing/disappearing instead of suddenly popping in and out.

v3.8.1 — Released Jul-12, 2024

• Android: publicly available as of Jul-12
• iOS: publicly available as of Jul-1

What to expect

• New Time Picker: New time picker using separate dials for minutes, seconds, and 1/10 of seconds
• Smoother Startup: Smoother startup (will now see the splash screen then go straight to the main screen, no more blank screen with a gray bar in the center)
• New Logo: New logo!
• Multiple Notifications: You can now set multiple notifications and choose the day of the week
• Inhale Notification: On Android, ‘Inhale…’ notification now goes away when you leave the app if you’re not actively doing a breathing session
• Reminder Cleanup: Breathing Session reminder notifications now go away after you complete a session
• Side Menu: When ‘Reduced Motion’ was on, the side menu would not close
• Time Selector: When ‘Reduced Motion’ was on, the bottom sheet for time selecting wouldn’t always close
• Welcome Message: Welcome message wasn’t being shown to new users

v3.7.0 — Released Jun-5, 2024

• Android: publicly available as of Jun-5
• iOS: publicly available as of Jun-5

What to expect

• Monthly Plan: Added monthly option for PacedBreathing+
• Breath Count: Showing number of breaths per session in the upper right corner
• Icon Labels: Label bottom row of icons to make their function more obvious
• Sound Icons: Change default sound and sound off icons to better identify them
• Subscription Screen: Tweak PacedBreathing subscription screen to look nicer
• Faster Checkout: Speed up paying to the App/Play Store when getting PacedBreathing+
• Profile Settings: Profile settings pop-up interacts better with keyboard
• Sound List: Can now scroll sound list to show the last 1-2 sounds
• Quieter End Sound: Make end sound quieter (people complained it was too loud / jarring)

SPECIAL RELEASE: Standalone ‘Pro’ App v2.4.4 — Released May-2, 2024

The standalone ‘Pro’ app on Android is being sunset (more info). This is the one last update to help users switch to the main Android app.

v3.6.1 — Released Apr-28, 2024

• Android: publicly available as of Apr-28
• iOS: publicly available as of Apr-27

What to expect

• Pro Migration: no PacedBreathing+ granted to former ‘Pro’ app users that tried to migrate
• Cut-off Profile Titles: Profile titles cut-off due to excessive spacing between profiles and large font

v3.6.0 — Released Apr-25, 2024

• Android: publicly available as of Apr-25
• iOS: publicly available as of Apr-22

What to expect

• iOS Background Playback: iPhone + iPad users rejoice, you can now keep your Paced Breathing session going when you leave the app!
• Blank Space Below Graphic: Some users saw a big ol’ blank space below the graphic and had no way to change their breathing times.
• Can’t Change Times: No bottom sheet came up to let you change breathing times or sound settings. (if you turned off “Reduce Animations” to work around this problem, you can now change that setting back!)
• App Frozen / Laggy: Some users weren’t able to change their breathing times or start a session.
• Jumpy UI: Some users had their UI jumping / flashing non-stop.
• Migrating Failed: Some ‘Pro’ app users that were migrating had issues with profile names that had special characters.

v3.5.0 — Released Apr-12, 2024

• Android: available to everyone as of Apr-12!
• iOS: available to everyone as of Apr-10!

What to expect

• Pro App Migration: there was a standalone android app called “Paced Breathing Pro” that had all the ads, billing, and analytics code ripped out to be a smaller app and for reducing permissions. This isn’t really a thing people are asking for anymore and it’s a pain to maintain, so I’ve made a path for those Pro users to migrate easily. This is going to be the backbone of a backup/restore systems for all users to be able to transfer their profiles between devices; I’m aiming to have that out in 2-3 weeks
• Profile List Moved: I moved the profile list to be just below the graph along with a bit of UI polish. People complained that it was too easy to accidentally swipe out of the app when they wanted to swipe between profiles
• No Sound: some users reported that the last update resulted in them not always hearing sounds during their sessions
  • caused by 2 bugs:
    • 1. sounds weren’t being reset properly. I fixed that issue, so in this new release sounds should work and crashes should stay reduced as in v3.4.0
    • 2. Android was going to sleep when the screen was turned off
• No Vibrations: vibrations sometimes wouldn’t work with the screen off
  • caused by Android going to sleep when the screen was turned off
• Notifications: the artwork is better, the stop button is gone which people said was in the way, the times for each breath phase is now correct

v3.4.0 — Released Feb-29, 2024

This one adds notifications and better vibration options:

• Android: available to everyone as of Feb-26!
• iOS: available to everyone as of Feb-29!

What’s New

• Notifications: get daily reminders to do a breathing session! Let me know if you want more options, this is just the 1st version! (available under settings, requires PacedBreathing+)
• Vibration Strength Setting: if you think the vibrations are too weak, you can now go to settings and turn it to ‘high’
• Android Crashes: saw an increase in crashes on Android due to a bug in the sound player library we use, fixed it which reduced Android crashes by 84%.

v3.3.0 — Released Feb-15, 2024

Smaller fixes and features:

• Android: went public Feb-16
• iOS: went public Feb-15

if you have any issues, let me know: hello@pacedbreathing.app

What’s new

• Disable Countdown Setting: if you want to jump straight into your session, you can now disable the countdown in the settings page (use side menu to access)
• Disable End Sound Setting: if you don’t like the ding sound played at the end of the session, you can now disable it in the settings page. More sound options coming soon!
• Forever ‘Loading’: occasionally, the green text would be stuck on “Loading” forever, this should be fixed
• Subscribe Pop-up: the subscription pop-up would sometimes pop-up when trying to do things that don’t require subscribing; this *might* be fixed now
• Huge Font: the app looked absolutely terrible for users using a larger font on their device; should look better now
• Binaural Beats: before neither side used pure tones, and the right side actively sounded wrong. Now left side inhale is 261.63Hz (C4 in music) and exhale is 196Hz (G3 in music). The right side is 4.5hz higher. More options to adjust these, coming soon!
• Delayed Sound: fixed the delay in the 1st inhale sound of a session
• Sudden Session End: before if the timer ran out and you were more than 10 sec away from finishing a breath, the session would suddenly end. Now your current breath will finish
• Zoomed Out Graph: many devices would see a slightly zoomed out graph visual; so at the end of exhale hold, the dot wasn’t at the end of the screen; now it should go right up to the edge
• Update Crash: users that updated from certain versions of the app would previously crash or notice strange behavior

v3.2.0 — Released Jan-9, 2024

This built upon v3.1.13, fixing smaller bugs and adding background playback on Android:

• Android: went public Jan-12
• iOS: went public on Jan-9

What’s fixed in this release

• Background Audio: Can’t play something else at the same time (Android-only; iOS doesn’t support background mode yet)
  • this was done intentionally to fix other bugs where Android would stop PB mid-session to save battery. I worked around that by making PB behave like a music player, but Android by default allows one music player to play at once; I’ve changed that default behavior and now PB still looks like a music player but it’ll play alongside other music/podcast/video apps.
• Weak Vibration: Vibrate too soft or not working in some cases
  • caused by using a soft vibration pattern that is a) too soft and b) doesn’t work on many Samsung devices. I switched to a stronger pattern that should be available on all Samsung devices.
• Performance: Improved frame rate / animation and battery life
  • caused by some bugs leading to UI updates being really heavy/slow.
• Missing Profiles: Deleted profiles
  • caused by mismigrated profiles from previous versions. Should only happen once when updating from a version before 3.1.13 to a version after 3.1.13.
• Sound Picker: Not all sounds were visible in picking dialog
  • caused by an obscure bug in a library we use

v3.1.13 — Released Jan-4, 2024

This releases fixes major bugs in the previous update (v3.1.12, released on Dec-29):

• Android: went public on Jan-4
• iOS: went public on Jan-6

If you find any new bugs OR one of the things I thought I fixed aren’t actually fixed, please reach out at hello@pacedbreathing.app!

What’s fixed in these releases

• Startup Crash: Crashing on app open
  • caused by spaces in profile names
• Blank Page: Blank page on app open  
  • caused by slow internet on 1st open
• Unwanted Ads: Seeing ads when you’re supposed to be ad-free
  • caused by poor/no internet on 1st app open after update
• Missing Purchases: You bought an in app purchase before and it’s gone
  • same cause as ads issue above
• Matrix Mode: Lots of weird vertical vertical text at the bottom, ie “Matrix mode”
  • caused by bug that showed all past / deleted profiles

V3.1.12 — Released Dec-29, 2023

This was a very large release where the entire app was rewritten to run on both Android and iOS!

People have reported some pretty big bugs which I unfortunately didn’t catch during testing. I’m furiously working on a fix and I’m aiming to release another update in the first week of January!

Below is the list of issues I’m working on. If a bug you’re experiencing isn’t already on the list, email me asap at hello@pacedbreathing.app

• App Crashes: Mostly due to us not migrating your profiles correctly from the last app version (most typically because there was a space at the end of the profile name)
  • Workaround: wait and I’ll fix it properly for you; if you’re desperate you can clear app data or uninstall/reinstall (NOTE: you will lose all your profiles; whereas waiting for the update won’t!)
  • Planned Fix: fix the bug in the profile migrating code
• Matrix Mode Bug: Two bugs in one: we show you all profiles you ever made (including deleted ones) and they are all jammed on screen
  • Workaround: wait and I’ll fix it properly for you; if you’re desperate you can clear app data or uninstall/reinstall (NOTE: you will lose all your profiles; whereas waiting for the update won’t!)
  • Planned Fix: I’m going to automatically remove the deleted profiles and allow the profile list to scroll so if you have lots of legit profiles, they won’t crowd your screen
• Can’t Play Other Audio: You used to be able to play podcasts or background music during your sessions and now you can’t. This was done on purpose to fix the bug where the app would get killed by the operating system mid-session. However this broken a lot of people’s use cases
  • Workaround: none, just wait for the update!
  • Planned Fix: I’m going to change screen awake will to be: background vs multitask mode. multitask mode will work exactly like the app did before. background mode will work like it does now
• Blank Screen on Open: I’m looking up your purchases on the first app open after you update and if your internet isn’t good, it can show a blank screen.
  • Workaround: open the app when you have good internet (only for the 1st open)
  • Planned Fix: I’ll make it so we do this work in the background!
• Vibrate Doesn’t Work: this is due to a change in Android 13 and mostly out of our control (we were using a hack to make it work before)
  • Workaround: enable “Haptic Feedback” in your phone settings
• Missing Purchases: I bought an in app purchase and it’s gone
  • If you bought the ad-free in-app purchase, you should still be ad-free forever, even without PB+.
  • If you bought one of the other in-app purchases, you should get 3-mo free of PB+ for every year it’s been since you made the purchase.
  • If you made a donation, you should get 3-mo free of PB+ for every year since it’s been times the size of the donation (eg $5 donation 2 years ago = 5*2*3 = 30 months free
  • You can see this under the “Upgrade” page from the side menu. If this isn’t shown, it’s a bug and I’m currently working on a fix.
• What Is PB+?: PB+ is a subscription service because I want to be able to earn an income from PB to add some of the cool features (notifications, more sounds/visuals, courses/tutorials to help share some of the really cool use cases people have found for PB, etc).