Mind is a simple, beautiful meditation timer. Drag the slider to the number of minutes you want to focus, tap and go. There are no settings and no messy UI elements.

Mind is as simple as it gets

Mind is a timer. That’s it. And it was designed that way intentionally.

I’ve covered meditation apps in past. I’m a long timer user of InsightTimer and have done a few rounds with Buddhify. I’m currently checking out HeadSpace, and will review it sometime in the near future. The point being that I’m a fan of using technology, which is usually meant to speed us up, to help slow down. I’m also a data junky so I like apps that track my progress, provide statistics, provider reminders, etc. If you’re on iOS and you search meditation apps on the Apple AppStore you’ll have to slodge through quite a bit of… well, crappy apps. There are a few gems but you have to dig in and find them. If you’re a minimalist, Mind is probably the best that you’ll find. Best of all… it’s free.

Study after study are confirming that meditation has immediate benefits, and can even lead toward better productivity. For those who like guided meditation or apps with all the bells and whistles possible, Mind is not the app for you. What makes Mind stand out is it’s simplicity. Fred Oliveira is the developer behind Mind. He is a full-stack developer and designer, an O’Reilly author, as well as a mentor at 500 Startups. His reason for creating Mind is simple, he “wasn’t satisfied with the choices I had in the App Store”… so he built one himself.

Using Mind for Meditation

Mind is a one screen application. When you launch the app you’re prompted for how many minutes you’d like to meditate. Moving the colored slider in the middle of the screen left or right will increase or decrease the amount of time displayed. You click the ‘Tap here to start the clock’ button and the screen displays ‘Relax. Focus on your breathing.’ and that’s it. When the timer runs out you hear three simple bells. That’s it.

If you’re particularly data-centric like me, or if you need something cross-platform, then this probably isn’t the timer for you. However, if you want a gorgeous iOS meditation timer with no frills and no fluff then Mind is excellent. Yes, you could just use the timer on your phone, and there would be nothing wrong with that. If you’d like a dedicated meditation app, you should give Mind a shot.

Mind is available for iOS 5.1 or later and is free. You can get Mind via the AppStore.