AVRHutResonant Breathe Bar Free
A small macOS menu bar app that paces your breathing — including the slow ~6-breaths-per-minute rhythm that researchers call resonant breathing.
- Lives in your menu bar: No window to manage. Click, breathe for a few minutes, get on with your day.
- Common breathing patterns built in: Resonant breathing (≈5–6 breaths/min), 4-7-8, and Box Breathing — plus a custom mode if you want to set your own cadence.
- Visual or text guidance: An animated circle or plain text — whichever you find easier to follow.
- Local-only: No accounts, no telemetry, no network calls. The app does not send anything off your Mac.
- Native and small: Built in Swift, runs unobtrusively in the background.
- Session cycle limits: Set a target number of breath cycles (1–99) so a session ends on its own, or leave it open-ended.
Heart rate variability (HRV) is the small variation between consecutive heartbeats. Slow paced breathing at around 5–6 breaths per minute has been associated with increased HRV in published studies (e.g. Lehrer & Gevirtz, Frontiers in Psychology, 2014). The app gives you a simple way to practice that cadence — it makes no medical claims.
Requirements: macOS 13.0 or later.
What the research says
Slow paced breathing — particularly at the individual resonance frequency of around 4.5–6.5 breaths per minute — has been studied for decades. A few starting points if you want to read the source material yourself:
- Lehrer & Gevirtz. Heart rate variability biofeedback: how and why does it work? Frontiers in Psychology, 2014. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00756
- Steffen et al. The impact of resonance frequency breathing on measures of heart rate variability, blood pressure, and mood. Frontiers in Public Health, 2017. doi:10.3389/fpubh.2017.00222
- Laborde et al. Effects of voluntary slow breathing on heart rate and HRV in adults: a meta-analysis. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 2022. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104711
Resonant Breathe Bar is a pacing tool, not a medical device. It does not diagnose, treat, or measure anything. Talk to a clinician about your own health.
Breathing Patterns for Every Need
Choose from scientifically-proven patterns or create your own custom rhythm:
Resonant breathing
Inhale 5s, exhale 5s (or 6 / 4) — about 5–6 breaths per minute. A reasonable starting point.
4-7-8
Inhale 4, hold 7, exhale 8. Popularized by Andrew Weil; often used before sleep.
Box breathing
4-4-4-4: inhale, hold, exhale, hold. A simple square rhythm.
Custom
Set your own inhale, hold, and exhale durations.
A few small things, done carefully
- One click to start. The app lives in the menu bar — there is no main window to find.
- Local only. No accounts, no telemetry, no network calls. Verifiable with Little Snitch.
- Native Swift. Small, low-memory, gentle on battery.
- Visual or text guide. Pick the mode you find easiest to follow. Adjust color and opacity.
- Optional sound cues. Quiet phase transitions, or silent.
- Keyboard shortcuts. Start, stop, and open settings without the trackpad.
Free, with no catch
Resonant Breathe Bar is free. No premium tier, no locked features, no subscription. If it's useful and you want to chip in, the coffee jar is here — but the app does not change either way.
What's new in v1.1
- Breathing cycle limits — Set a fixed number of repetitions (1–99) so a session ends on its own. Useful before a meeting or before sleep.
- Contact in-app — Reach us from the About window, or email [email protected].
- Fixed links — Documentation and blog links now resolve correctly from inside the app.
Try it for a few minutes
Five to ten minutes of slow paced breathing is a small experiment to run on yourself. The app is free; the practice costs nothing but the time.
Download Resonant Breathe BarFree • No sign-up • macOS 13.0+