The Best Meditation Apps
“Recommendations to guide connection to your breath, mind, and self.
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Meditation can feel elusive for some, but getting out of your own head and into a place of peace is worth working towards. The practice is prehistoric and treasured in many cultures and religions, taking on unique contexts in each. However, there’s no cultural or religious prerequisite for those interested in practicing—meditation doesn’t need to feel daunting or the community impenetrable, even if it seems that way. Today, we can access an almost endless reserve of resources that offer insight to still the mind and encourage us to tap into the benefits of meditation with a bit of time and repetition. As always, we looked to passersby, and they offered us their meditation resource recommendations, spanning apps to online guides to Instagram live.
Insight Timer
recommended by Jessica Comingore, Mari Orkenyi, and Elizabeth Novogratz
Insight Timer offers meditations that fit a vast and flexible range of preferences, varying greatly by length, purpose, and style. Graphic designer Jessica Comingore says, “They have an amazing library of meditation teachers at your fingertips and recently added live classes for everything from meditations, to yoga, to breathwork.” She “can’t recommend it enough.” Meditation teacher Mari Orkenyi, who has her own practice, recommends Insight Timer as well, agreeing that it’s one of the strongest options available because of its in-depth practices and various resources.
Ten Percent Happier
recommended by Mari Orkenyi and Elizabeth Novogratz
For Mari, Ten Percent Happier is right up there with Insight Timer, also finding strength in its depth and variety. The app has a library of over 500 guided meditations tailored to sleep, anxiety relief, parenting, and everything in between. They also have quick bites of information and wisdom for those wanting to learn more about mindfulness as they’re on the go.
Dharma Punx
recommended by zenat begum
Dharma Punx is an NYC-based secular Buddhist group that holds guided weekly and daily meditations led by Josh Korda or Kathy Cherry. They use a self-sustaining model, and the organization is truly rooted in community. If you’re looking for something that feels more communal and personal, Dharma Punx fulfills that. They even have a podcast for feeling connected on your own time.
Liberate
recommended by Annika Hansteen-Izora
Liberate is a subscription-based app that is designed for the Black community. Its courses are led by teachers who are BIPOC, and all differ in their lineages, perspectives, and approaches to meditation. Part of Liberate’s healing work is to name and offer resources for common cultural experiences Black folks share, like internalized racism or micro-aggressions.
Ethel’s Club
recommended by Annika Hansteen-Izora
Ethel’s Club is a digital community for people of color whose offerings span yoga, breathwork, meditation, fitness, skin, and beauty. These various focuses of the platform strengthen it and make for a multi-disciplinary social resource. The app is also named for the grandmother of its founder, Ethel Lucas, “a matriarch figure in a tight-knit Black community.” Her spirit of celebrating people of color and energy lives on in the app that creates healing spaces using “conversation, wellness, and creativity.”
Balance
recommended by sukey novogratz
What makes Balance unique is how personalized it is—the app automatically uses its algorithm to tailor recommendations directly to you. It does this by asking you a series of questions each day to discern your precise needs and then organizes a 10-day plan aligned with what you’re looking for.
Calm
recommended by fatima jones
Calm is one of the most widely-recognized meditation devices, with millions using it. It accommodates any level of experience and welcomes beginners, but it also includes hundreds of programs for more advanced users. Like many of the bigger apps, it includes meditations for everything. But sleep seems to be a big focus; “I often start listening as I am in bed and fall right to sleep,” says publicist Fatima Jones. Calm also includes recorded Sleep Stories by celebrities (like Idris Elba, LeVar Burton, and Leona Lewis) if that’s your thing, although Fatima bypasses them, opting instead for other guided meditations.
Smiling Mind
recommended by elizabeth novogratz
Smiling Mind’s content is all free, so this option is great for beginners who want as little pressure as possible while feeling out different practices. They also created a specialized sister app called Mind the Bump which provides meditation and mental health guidance for individuals and couples expecting a baby and preparing for parenthood.
Other recommendations include Kevin Courtney’s 20-minute meditation on Instagram live (recommended by Jill Lindsey and Carolina Santos-Neves), Passerby Mari Orkenyi’s free meditation recordings, Dr. Joe Dispenza (recommended by Crystal Moselle), @itsjackiecantwell (recommended by Carolina Santos-Neves), and TUAWKI (recommended by Marawa Wamp). Our playlist of albums to sleep or soothe psychic anxiety also offers a loose way to let your phone assist your practice. And if breathing with no guidance and sounds at all feels best for you, that’s perfect, too.
Words by Marina Sulmona & Eva Berezovsky