At the beginning of this blog series, we evaluated the scientific evidence for breathing exercises as a treatment for Long COVID. Breathwork can enhance lung capacity and respiratory muscle strength, and positively affect both physical and mental well-being. However, breathing exercises have to be adapted to individual needs.
Breathing apps can help incorporate breathing exercises into daily routines, provide insights on various exercise types, and guide patients during practice. We identified and evaluated a selection of breathwork apps for their potential use by individuals affected by Long COVID, based on their features, overall user experience, and user feedback.
In the previous blog post we presented three open-source apps that provide simple solutions to support breathing exercises. In general, these apps are all free of charge, easy to use and give the user the possibility to create customized breathing exercises. However, they are lacking guidance and background information.
Besides these free options, there are several breathing apps available, that include a wider spectrum of exercises and guides. While most of these apps have a limited free version, the users have to sign up to a paid subscription plan to access the full spectrum of content. In this blog we will evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of two such apps.
Breathwrk
The Breathwrk app offers a variety of breathing exercises categorized by goals such as calming, energizing, and improving sleep. Breathwork includes short exercises that can easily integrated in everyday life, but also longer classes with pre-recorded guidance.
The visuals accompanying the breathing exercises are generally calm and can be adapted individually. This might be especially helpful for people who are sensitive to visual impulses. Moreover, there are options to add vocal guidance or vibration signals as well as relaxing music for each exercise. The possibility to manage settings individually for each exercise can help reducing stimulation and thereby prevent overstimulation.
Breathwrk includes symptom-specific breathing exercises, including a set of exercises specifically designed for Long COVID patients. However, most of these exercises are only available in the Pro version. Breathwrk can be connected to Apple Health to allow tracking of your progress.
Approximately 1-2 exercises per category are included in the free version of the app. To use the full spectrum of content, an update to the pro version is necessary. A subscription to Breathwrk Pro costs CHF 50/year. Breathwrk is compatible with both iOS and Android. However, the app is only available in English.
Positive user reviews highlight the app’s effectiveness in reducing anxiety and improving sleep, which could be beneficial for Long COVID symptoms.
Breethe
For people who prefer following guided breathing exercises, meditations and sleep stories, the app Breethe offers a wide range of programs. The app includes numerous exercises that are grouped in different categories and goals.
Starting out, users have to fill in a short questionnaire stating what they are currently struggling with and aiming to improve through breathing exercises and what their goals are, e.g., improving sleep, decreasing anxiety or learning to relax. The app then offers several programs and techniques that can help to achieve the set goal.
Breethe includes programs for hypnotherapy, tapping exercises, affirmations and short tests on mental health and habits. There is a possibility to chat with an AI coach on mental health problems or for relationship advice, emotional support, and sleeping advice.
It is not clear if there is any scientific or medical basis for either the tests or the AI coaches and we at Altea suspect that there is none. Therefore, we would not recommend relying on any of these tests or the AI coaches for psychological advice. If you are dealing with mental issues, we strongly recommend to seek help of a professional.
Even though these additional features let the Breethe app appear less professional, the breathing exercises and meditations could still be beneficial. However, only limited content is available in the free version and numerous pop-ups advertising the premium version may impact the user experience significantly.
The breathing and meditation programs are mainly voice-guided, background music can be stopped. The general layout of the app is very appealing but might be visually overwhelming for some Long COVID patients. It is possible to connect Breethe with Apple Health.
Breethe premium is available for CHF 97/year for iOS and Android. The app has many users who are pleased with its calming and sleep-improving features. However, it can be assumed that most of them are healthy and use the app for stress reduction rather than therapeutic reasons.
If you have already had good experiences with breathing training apps, please share them in the Altea forum with other people affected by Long COVID and discuss which app brings the most benefits.
