Insight Timer - Meditation App

Description of App

Imagine the sound of beautiful Tibetan singing bowls, gently and peacefully guiding you through your meditation session. Your attention focused inward with no need to worry about the clock…

Insight Timer gives you this and much more. It's simple enough to get started with just a few taps, yet powerful enough to handle the most sophisticated meditation routines with advanced features such as interval bells, presets and a meditation journal.

With the Insight Connect feature, you can become part of a global meditation community - seeing at a glance people around the world who are meditating with you. Link your Facebook or Twitter account and you and your friends can follow and support one another's practice. You can also make new friends who share your love of meditation.

  • You'll love our bells! Recorded with high quality digital audio equipment at a famous meditation center, these new bell samples are amazing. Crystal clear with extra long fade outs. They sound great with the built-in speaker, but to get the full effect, try using headphones or external speakers.
  • Choose from eight different bells of varying size and metal compositions - from bright and clean to deep and complex with lovely overtones. A wood block sound is also included.
  • Bells can be configured to ring at the start, the end, and at specified (or random) times during your session. Each bell can be set to ring once, twice or three times. The delay between strikes is configurable from 1 to 20 seconds.
  • Powerful logging and statistics features allow you to track your progress over time. Multiple charts, a complete session log and helpful statistics give you a complete picture of how your practice is evolving.
  • Presets allow you to save an unlimited number of configurations and assign names to them. If you have multiple meditation routines (such as Morning and Evening), this makes it easy to switch between them without any configuration changes.
  • You may set a background image from your own photo album. While the timer is running, your image is shown full screen. Optionally, the time display and controls can be hidden so that they are shown only when the image is tapped.
  • Meditation Journal: You may enter notes about each session when the timer ends - a practice that many people find to be helpful and therapeutic. Your journal entries can be exported via an email attachment. Journal access may be password protected to ensure privacy.
  • Insight Timer will run in the background. You can start the timer, then run other apps and the bells will continue to ring. When the timer is finished, a message will pop up to alert you.
  • Insight Timer is geared toward meditation, but it also works great for yoga, Reiki, exercise or any other activity that you wish to time.
  • Optional labels for interval bells. Each bell's label will be displayed on the screen when it rings. You can use this to guide you though the different phases of your routine.
  • Pause and resume your timer session.
  • Bells will ring even when the device is locked so you can turn off the screen to save power and eliminate ambient light.
  • Optionally vibrate with or instead of bells.
  • iPod tracks will continue to play while the timer is running. 
  • Bells will ring even if silent switch is on.

Version

8.3.1

Free or Paid

Paid

Apple Watch Support

Not Known

Device(s) App Was Tested On

iPhone

Accessibility Comments

Pretty straight forward. On the timer screen, the unlabeled button comes before the setting it changes.

VoiceOver Performance

VoiceOver reads all page elements.

Button Labeling

Most buttons are clearly labeled.

Usability

The app is fully accessible with VoiceOver and is easy to navigate and use.

Recommendations

1 people have recommended this app

Options

Comments

By Sandra on Sunday, March 25, 2012 - 03:20

Are you sure this is "fully accessible with VoiceOver"? I am not sure how it would be possible to set the type of bel you want to use for a timer with VoiceOver. How do you do it?

By Austin Seraphin on Sunday, March 25, 2012 - 03:20

In reply to by Sandra

Partially true. The timer screen has three unlabeled buttons. The first sets the timer duration. The second sets the beginning bell. The third sets interval bells. I don't know how to set the ending bell. I'll email the developer. Other than that it works great.

By Dan Lococo on Sunday, November 25, 2018 - 03:20

I used this app for more than five years but have given up on it. Each update to the app appears to have more unlabeled buttons and is harder to navigate with Voice Over. I've contacted the developers on a number of occasions but they don't appear to be concerned with accessibility.

By mendi on Sunday, November 25, 2018 - 03:20

Unfortunately, I am having the same experience. For a brief moment, after I had contacted the developer, it appeared things might be headed the right direction, but now, it seems to be getting worse again, and like you, when I did say something, the developers only seemed to give a half hearted response. This is too bad, as it was one of the better free meditation apps. I have since deleted it from my device.

By Lauren T on Sunday, November 25, 2018 - 03:20

I'm actually finding, surprisingly, with each update that the app is becoming more accessible. What I still cannot do is select the bell I want. Apparently there are eight choices but I have no idea how to toggle between them with VoiceOver.

By Just Another B… on Tuesday, May 25, 2021 - 03:20

It seems as if this app was very accessible but over the last week or two there have been regressions. After searching, it is not possible to swipe right to hear search results. Dragging a finger around seems to work but is inconsistent. Anybody else out there using this app with any success?

By Ida Grace on Thursday, May 25, 2023 - 03:20

Hello everyone. I know it's been awhile since this app entry was updated, but I am having trouble figuring out the timer. The unlabeled buttons on the timer on my app, both on my i phone 13 minnie and on my ipad, switch between my preset, which runs for 50 minutes, 5 minutes, or no limit. I'm trying to make several presets for my different meditation routines, and nothing seems to be working. Contacting the developers has yielded the same result as many of you; they give me half-hearted responses, they keep telling me to uninstall the app, restart my device, and then reinstall the app, as if it is our fault that the app is inaccessible. Any ideas? Should I maybe send the link to this app directory to the developers so they can see all of our comments?

By Ekaj on Monday, November 27, 2023 - 03:20

Hello. Subject says it all. I do have a question though for those of you who use the app. It may or may not have to do with accessibility. Are the courses being offered by the Radical Compassion Institute automatically included in the app purchase, or would I have to purchase their courses separately? I saw a link to the Insight Timer app on the new APH Connect Center website. I tried contacting Tara Brach or one of her associates through her website, but haven't heard back and I'm asking for a new iPhone this Christmas. I actually took the free courses co-taught by Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield, but there are others which I would like to take if possible. Tia for anyone's assistance with this, and have a wonderful day.