For iOS · in development
90 seconds between impulse and reaction.
One button for the moment before you say the thing you can't take back. Ninety seconds of guided breathing, and calm you can actually reach with your stress response already running. Nothing to read, no countdown, no account.
Three things, and then it gets out of the way.
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01
You name one early signal
Heat in your face. A tight chest. The thought that keeps circling, or the urge to make someone pay for it. Whatever announces the moment for you. Everything else is built around that one thing.
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02
One tap interrupts it
Ninety seconds of paced breathing, from the Lock Screen, Control Centre or the Action Button. No numbers count down, because a number is one more thing to fight. The field simply cools while your stress response does.
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03
You take the step you already chose
At the end PAUSE hands you the next safe action and the sentence you wrote while you were calm. Deciding in advance is the whole point: the impulse is loudest exactly when you are least strategic.
The breathing technique
The physiological sigh.
A deep inhale through the nose, then a second short inhale on top of it, then a long controlled exhale. The double inhale is the counterintuitive part, and the part most people skip: under stress the small air sacs in your lungs collapse and carbon dioxide accumulates. The second inhale reinflates them so the long exhale can actually offload it. The exhale is the half that relaxes you, which is why it is the long one.
In a controlled Stanford trial, five minutes a day of cyclic sighing improved mood and lowered resting breathing rate more than box breathing, cyclic hyperventilation or mindfulness meditation. PAUSE paces six of those sighs, and one 90-second reset is roughly the time your body needs to clear a surge of stress chemistry.
Balban et al., Cell Reports Medicine 4(1), 2023.
In the moment
Not a meditation app.
Calm, relaxation and wellbeing apps are built for the quiet part of your day: a daily meditation, a breathing course, a sleep story. They work. They are also completely out of reach at the moment your chest goes tight and your voice starts to climb.
PAUSE is built for that moment instead. One tap, ninety seconds, no session to pick, no narrator, nothing to read. It has more in common with a fire door than with a practice: you won't think about it until you need it, and then it has to open on the first push.
So if you already meditate, keep meditating. Building calm over weeks and interrupting a stress response in ten seconds are two different jobs, and one app rarely does both well.
What you actually see.
It stays on your phone.
- Your signal, your plan, your sentences and your history are written to your device with full iOS file protection.
- No account. No ads. No third-party analytics. No data sale.
- Onboarding asks for no permissions and shows no paywall.
- If you ever buy Pro, Apple and RevenueCat see the purchase, never the content of a reset.
No streaks, no daily goal, no red dots, no missed-day warning. Needing PAUSE less often is the point, and an app that punishes you for that is working against you.
Questions.
What does PAUSE actually do?
It gives you one button that starts a 90-second reset. The reset paces six physiological sighs, and at the end it shows you the next safe step you picked in advance, instead of one you invent while angry.
Is PAUSE a meditation app?
No. Meditation and relaxation apps are built for the quiet part of your day, and they work. PAUSE is built for the loud part: an in-the-moment breathing exercise you reach for once your chest is already tight. In the Stanford trial its technique is based on, cyclic sighing improved mood more than mindfulness meditation did. If you already have a practice, this does not replace it.
Can I use PAUSE for stress, not just anger?
Yes. The reset paces breathing, and paced breathing does not care what set your stress response off. People use it before a difficult call, after an email lands badly, or to come down enough to sleep. Anger is simply the moment where the cost of reacting is highest.
Is PAUSE free?
The 90-second reset, your warning signal, your plan and quick access are free, permanently. PAUSE Pro adds a discreet 45-second protocol, a deeper three-minute one, a library of prepared sentences and your full local history.
Does PAUSE need an internet connection or an account?
No. There is no account, and the reset has no network dependency. It runs with airplane mode on.
Where is my data stored?
Your signal, your plan, your prepared sentences and your session history stay on your device, in a file with full iOS file protection. There are no ads, no third-party analytics and no data sale.
Is PAUSE therapy?
No. PAUSE is a self-regulation and decision-support tool. It is not therapy, medical treatment, or an emergency service.
Be there when it opens.
PAUSE is close to its first release on iOS, in English and German. Leave an address and you'll hear once, when there is something to open.