Insight Timer

Insight Timer is a meditation, relaxation, and mindfulness practice app for the web, iOS, Android, and Chrome. The app version begins by asking users what brought them to the app. They can then choose from struggles like anxiety to self-esteem. Users can also select options to improve sleep, improve performance, manage stress, or even streamline mornings. For those just looking to develop a self-guided meditation practice, there's an option to choose a timer, bells (to structure the activity), and a type of meditation activity (e.g., walk or prayer). There's also a more structured set of guided meditations (varying in theme and duration) with wellness experts, including daily live meditations. Any meditations can be saved to a playlist or downloaded (with the premium paid version) for offline listening. Users can also follow facilitators, or "teachers," and get notified when these teachers offer new content.

There are some educational options as well. The "talks" selection delivers content in a podcast format from experienced thought leaders, and the "courses" in the premium paid content offer lectures in a structured and weekly layout. Insight Timer also offers content for kids and children as well as soundscapes to support sleep routines that could work well during preschool or kindergarten relaxation time. For individuals, Insight Timer has progress tracking, including a graph that charts daily, weekly, or monthly engagement.

Insight Timer effectively focuses on two core components of social and emotional learning: emotional awareness and regulation. It will develop students' meditative and relaxation coping techniques, which are valuable skills in school and beyond. Importantly, students go beyond learning the techniques, building regular practices and making meditation into a daily habit. The structure of the meditations, backed by the helpful guiding hands of the expert facilitators and the real-time progress-tracking, encourages students to stick with their SEL development.

While other apps offer only guided meditations and visualizations, Insight Timer adds paid courses and interviews from influential thought leaders. These premium extras are valuable for contextualizing meditation as well as helping students with specific issues or needs develop skills tuned to their individual situations. However, these features are best suited to older students or those who are self-motivated. While all of this makes Insight Timer one of the better meditation apps out there, there's one thing lacking that's present in some of these other apps: accessibility features such as closed captioning.