Breathing Rate Monitor
Measure your breathing rate with your phone’s mic — then watch it drop as you slow down toward the ~6 breaths-a-minute calm zone. A live taste of breath biofeedback, no wearable needed.
⚠ Rough biofeedback estimate, not a medical monitor. Needs audible breathing in a quiet room. All audio is processed on your device; nothing is recorded or uploaded.
- 1. Find a quiet room and tap start (allow the mic).
- 2. Breathe audibly — exhale through the mouth with a soft “haaa”.
- 3. Watch your rate, then slow it toward 6/min.
Educational biofeedback estimate, not a medical respiration monitor. It needs audible breathing in a quiet room and can be thrown off by background noise. A normal resting rate is ~12–20/min; slowing toward ~6/min is the HRV resonance zone. Audio is analysed live on-device and never stored.
Breath is the lever. The app is the dashboard.
This shows your breath rhythm. ONDA Life shows what it does to your nervous system — pacing breath against your live HRV so you can see yourself calm down in real time.
Download ONDA Life on the App Store →Sources & methodology
Each breath makes a soft rush of sound as air moves; the microphone hears it, and this tool measures the loudness (the audio envelope) many times a second, smooths it, and finds the rhythm of the rise-and-fall to estimate your breaths per minute. It works best when you breathe audibly — ideally exhaling through the mouth — in a quiet room, and it is a rough biofeedback aid, not a clinical respiration monitor. The real value is the feedback loop: seeing your rate lets you consciously slow it toward about six breaths per minute, the "resonance" pace that maximises heart-rate variability and parasympathetic tone (Lehrer & Gevirtz 2014; Zaccaro 2018), and even a few minutes there measurably calms arousal (Balban 2023). All audio is processed live on your device and is never recorded or uploaded.
- [1] Lehrer PM, Gevirtz R (2014). Heart rate variability biofeedback: how and why does it work?. Frontiers in Psychology, 5:756.
Why ~6 breaths/min (resonance frequency) maximises HRV and engages the baroreflex — the target this tool nudges you toward.
- [2] Zaccaro A, Piarulli A, Laurino M, et al. (2018). How breath-control can change your life: a systematic review on psycho-physiological correlates of slow breathing. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 12:353.
Systematic review linking slow breathing to higher HRV, parasympathetic shift and reduced arousal.
- [3] Balban MY, Neri E, Kogon MM, et al. (2023). Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal. Cell Reports Medicine, 4(1):100895.
RCT showing a few minutes a day of slow, exhale-emphasised breathing improves mood and lowers arousal.
Common questions
What is a normal breathing rate?
For a healthy adult at rest, about 12–20 breaths per minute is typical. Slow, relaxed breathing tends to sit lower, and deliberately slowing to roughly 6 breaths per minute is the sweet spot for raising heart-rate variability and calming the nervous system. This tool shows your current rate so you can guide it down.
How does a microphone measure breathing?
Air moving in and out makes a faint rushing sound. The mic captures it and the tool tracks the loudness over time — that signal rises and falls with each breath, and the rhythm of those rises gives your breaths per minute. It’s acoustic, so it needs audible breathing in a quiet room; it’s a biofeedback estimate, not a medical spirometer.
Why aim for about 6 breaths per minute?
Around six breaths a minute is the cardiovascular "resonance frequency", where your heart rate, breathing and blood-pressure rhythms sync up and HRV is maximised (Lehrer & Gevirtz 2014). Breathing there shifts you toward the parasympathetic "rest-and-digest" state. It’s the basis of HRV biofeedback and coherent breathing.
Is my microphone audio private?
Yes. Everything is processed in your browser, on your device, in real time. No audio is recorded, saved or uploaded — the sound is analysed for its loudness rhythm and immediately discarded, and the mic turns off when you stop.
It’s not detecting my breathing — what helps?
Find a quiet room, hold the phone fairly close, and breathe audibly — exhaling through the mouth with a soft "haaa" works best. Background noise, fans or music will confuse it. If it still struggles, the on-screen Breathing Pacer is a reliable alternative that paces you without needing the mic.