The Best Wellness Apps On Android For Meditation
While some may view meditation with skepticism, multiple studies have reported the positive effects it has on your well-being. It helps people control their eating behaviors, get better sleep, and lessen pain. Meditation is also an effective way to manage stress and anxiety, both of which are becoming increasingly common these days.
Fortunately, the advent of smartphones has made meditation a lot more accessible. A quick visit to Google Play reveals scores of apps designed to help you start practicing meditation to gradually make it a part of your daily routine.
Of course, they all come with a variety of features and price points, and it can be quite daunting to pick just one among the multitude of meditation apps available online. No worries, though — we've rounded up five of the best meditation apps for your Android device, from free to paid ones, so you can jumpstart your mindfulness journey without too much hassle.
Medito
If you've never tried meditating before, then you might want to check out Medito. The app comes complete with a beginner course that teaches you the science of meditation and how to start practicing it. You'll learn basic concepts such as introducing mindfulness into your life and handling distractions while meditating.
After finishing the nine-step course, you can move on to the Daily Meditation sessions. These three to 20-minute sessions are guided, which means you'll hear a voice in the background telling you what to do. If you prefer unguided sessions without any narration, there's a Timer option that runs from three minutes to an hour. During a Timer session, you can choose to meditate in complete silence or with some background noise like rain, wind chimes, or waves.
Medito also features "meditation packs," a collection of meditation sessions for specific purposes. There's a Gratitude pack that comes with five ten-minute sessions to help you practice gratitude. There's also a Breathing Exercises pack for practicing breathwork. Apart from guided sessions, you can find unguided meditation packs with calming meditative music or nature sounds.
The best part about Medito is that developers believed in making meditation accessible to everyone, so the app is completely free with no ads cluttering the screen and no sign-ups required. You also have the option to download the specific sessions so you can meditate while on the go.
Smiling Mind
Designed by psychologists and teachers, Smiling Mind is a free meditation app that caters not only to adults but also to kids, families, educators, and business owners. Each one of these categories comes with its own distinct set of meditation sessions. For instance, in the Adults section, the programs include Daily Commute for meditating on the way to work or school, Digital Detox for unplugging from your phone, and Stress Management for dealing with stress. Meanwhile, in the Kids section, there's Sleep for Kids for meditating before going to bed, Mindfully Back to School for the back-to-school period, and a 10 to 12-Year-Olds section for teaching mindfulness to preteens.
The meditation sessions are either video or audio, and you can turn on the captions if you wish. There's also an option to set a reminder in the app, so you won't forget to meditate daily. In addition, as an app developed in Australia, Smiling Mind includes meditation sessions in indigenous Australian languages like Pitjantjatjara, Kriol, and Ngaanyatjarra. Arabic and Dari languages are also supported.
Healthy Minds Program
Another beginner-friendly meditation app, the Healthy Minds Program features comprehensive lessons led by scientists and meditation teachers. The lessons walk you through the concept of neuroscience-based meditation and help foster your skills in stress management, gratitude cultivation, and relationship building, among others. In between lessons, there are guided meditation sessions that you can set from five minutes to half an hour. You can also select the type (seated or active) depending on whether you're sitting or on the go.
If you prefer not to go through the lessons, there are other meditation sessions you can do. Some are as short as one minute, while others can run for 30 minutes. You can also find an unguided session in the app, but it's silent and doesn't come with background noises.
Similar to Medito, the Healthy Minds Program is completely free. However, you do need to create an account to save your progress.
Calm
With over 50 million downloads on Google Play Store, Calm is one of the top go-to meditation apps for your Android device, and it's easy to see why. Calm has a sizeable collection of guided meditation sessions that you can browse by goal (such as stress reduction, habit building, and falling asleep) or by time (three to 60+ minutes). On top of the guided sessions, Calm also features an extensive selection of unguided sessions called Soundscapes that come with nature and city sounds and other classic background noises.
You can also find a dedicated kids section in the app, perfect for introducing meditation and mindfulness to your little ones. If you're a beginner at meditation yourself, Calm has a course you can listen to daily to give you a better grasp of the practice.
The only downside of Calm, however, is that it's a subscription-based app. You'd need to subscribe to the annual or lifetime plan to get access to all the meditation content.
Glo
Glo is the app for you if you're after both fitness and meditation. It combines yoga and meditation sessions in a single place, so don't need to install a separate yoga app on your phone. The yoga classes typically last 30 minutes to an hour, while the meditation classes are anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes. Each class is labeled with the intensity level (1, 2, or 3), so you can immediately know whether a class is suitable for you. In addition to recorded classes, Glo also offers live sessions.
All the classes on the app are guided, but if you're looking for an unguided meditation session, you can find a Timer mode complete with ambient background sounds. Unfortunately, the duration can only be set up to two minutes. Similar to Calm, Glo requires a subscription. You can, however, try the seven-day free trial before committing to the monthly or annual membership.