Review of the Best Meditation App

I have tried a number of meditation apps but one has become a regular part of my meditation practice.

Quick Summary:  A meditation app called Insight Timer from Spotlight Six Software is a fantastic addition to any home meditation practice.  Key features are high quality bells, lots of control to personalize to your meditation style and the ability to connect with a world-wide group of meditation practitioners.  This app is available for the iPhone, iPad and Android platforms and comes highly recommended.

The Review

Insight Timer Main Screen

I have been using this app for a number of years.  When I first started using it I was attracted by the quality of the bells/chimes.  When practicing by yourself it can be quite distracting to worry about the time.  I wanted to be able to set a timer and have a traditional (for zazen) set of chimes to signal the beginning, intervals and end of a meditation sitting period.

Insight Timer gives you all the knobs to control chimes and a number of different bells to associate with different parts of a sitting period.  In my case I set the timer to do the initial chime using a Basu bell after a 10 second delay and then every half hour a chime using the same Basu bell until the end of the sit.  At the end I set the timer to ring a Kangse bell 3 times but there are loads of options to fit your style.

The next thing I started playing with was the ability to keep a journal at the end of the sit.  One of the things I like about this feature is that your journal stays local to your device.  You can also email yourself a copy of the journal as an easy backup.

Insight Connect Main Screen

Insight Timer has  "Friends" feature similar to Facebook.  You can invite other meditators to be friends.  What's really cool about this feature is the ability to establish a world-wide digital sangha.  Now I have meditation friends across the US, Germany, Australia, Japan, Malaysia, and lots of other countries.

The main screen has tabs which allow you to see who recently Completed meditating, Live meditators, meditation Friends, and Nearby meditators.  If you're curious about the number or length of your meditation sessions you can go to the statistics section.

Main Stats Screen

Recently a "Groups" feature was introduced.  It's been fascinating to watch it evolve.  Some groups are targeted at local geographies some are topically based and world-wide.  It is a great way to share and support each other's meditation practice.

Main Groups Screen

Even though the app is rich with features, its well designed interface makes it easy to use and navigate.  This app is an amazing tool to support any meditation practice.

Friendly Bows (and thanks to Brad the developer) _/|\_