Nefes: Quit Smoking
An iOS app that helps you ride out a craving with a 3-minute guided breathing session. Designed and built by me, from first idea to the App Store.
- Client
- OkayMedia (my own product)
- Category
- App
- Year
- 2026
The idea
Most quit-smoking apps either try to scare you or reset your counter after a single cigarette and leave you feeling guilty. I wanted the opposite: something calm, non-judgemental and genuinely useful in the hardest moment, the few minutes when a craving hits.
The heart of it: the “I’m craving” button
One tap opens a 3-minute breathing session. A circle grows and shrinks on a 4-7-8 rhythm, each phase change comes with a gentle haptic, and after 60 seconds the user’s own “why I’m quitting” note appears. At the end: “It passed” or “Still hard”, and if it is still hard, another round.
Design decisions
- Forgiving: Smoking one cigarette does not reset the counter. The slip is logged and progress carries on.
- Private: No account, no network connection. All data stays on the phone.
- Calm: No scare imagery. The craving screen is always dark and distraction-free.
- Few notifications: At most one reminder a day, plus health milestones.
- For everyone: Large text sizes, VoiceOver and Reduce Motion are supported.
Business model
The app is free. The craving session, the counter and the health timeline will never be paid. A one-time Nefes+ purchase unlocks widgets, extra breathing exercises, ambient sounds and themes. No subscription.
Under the hood
SwiftUI, SwiftData, Swift Charts and StoreKit 2, with no third-party libraries. The calculations live in their own layer, separate from the UI, and are covered by automated tests.
The app itself is in Turkish for now; an English version is planned.