Show HN: Like Headspace, but free forever | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Like Headspace, but free forever

meditofoundation.org

81 pointsscouech35 comments

I subscribe to Headspace and like it OK, but I definitely subscribe because I like that particular dude's voice and it's a positive trigger for me now. Otherwise there's nothing particularly special about them compared to Insight Timer or any other mature service.

This looks cool, but it's also the most direct advertisement I've seen on HN.

> This looks cool, but it's also the most direct advertisement I've seen on HN.

Thank you :)

We have some more content coming soon, a lot more sleep stuff too. A content apps like headspace don't have + CC content too from different mental health organizations

For what it's worth, I'd have been more positive about your post if the website weren't solely a meditation blog and a link to the app stores with very little info on the app itself.

I like checking out apps via Show HN -- via their websites or technical blog posts. I'm not generally going to up someone's download count from one of these posts by actually spending time with the app before I'm introduced to it.

That's good to know! We will improve the website at some point. We are all volunteers, so help is welcome :)

I subscribe for the very same reason. I only listen to the recordings of the founders voice. The rest, especially the American (sorry) accent I find less soothing.

We have a a voice actor (American), someone who isn't a voice actor (British), and we have more voices coming soon (British, female). :) We want to make sure there is a variety of voices to satisfy everyone

+1 thanks for this app.

I prefer the voice actor. His voice tone, breathing and speech pace set him apart from the other person IMHO.

I don’t really see how this is more of a direct advertisement than other Show HN posts and the service is free.

There's no content to check out at all between here and the download link, primarily. Therefore it can't be for anything other than specifically to get downloads.

Curious that searching the term "medito" in the play store found nothing. Makes it hard for word-of-mouth referral. I'm in the Canadian store if that is helpful.

hey! We had a problem with indexing on Monday. So it will take a few days to list it properly. It's a bit annoying.. If you search for "Medito Foundation" it should show up! Sorry about that

I know it's a bit low-brow to advertise other products on launch posts, but headspace never worked for me, beyond a week or two.

What finally got me into the habit was Sam Harris' waking up course. The non religious angle, removing all the wishy washy stuff, and just varying the angles at which to tackle the problem.

I highly recommend it, specially for the HN crowd who are probably more like me.

Agreed! I've been really enjoying Waking Up.

We are taking the same approach with this. Waking up is great, just expensive. We have more content coming soon, in the same area than Waking Up (more philosophical etc)

Re: "worked". What was your goal?

Curious why it's a Dutch organisation seems most members are non-Dutch. Tax reasons?

we live in the Netherlands :)

Hopefully this app helps with my severe PTSD from Arjen Robben cutting in with his left...

As an United fan, I relate and hope so too.

I have been using insight timer free version for years and really happy with my experience!

that's great to hear! We are basically building something similar to Insight Timer, but totally free. With more refined content, and with a clear path for new comers :)

Hi, I see the permissions list and its small enough to be comfortable with. How is my data going to be used?

Hey!

The current privacy policy is available via the play store or app store, and here: https://meditofoundation.org/privacy

We don't use Google or any other third parties for data collection.

For analytics purposes and improvements, we use our own, independent service thanks to an open-source tool called "Matomo". What we collect:

    Your location (not 100% accurate, but at least we know your country, and area you are using our products from)
    The operating system you are using
    Your device's size
    How many times you have been using the app
    What you did in the app (where you have tapped, what you have listened to for example) and for how long.

This service does not share your data with third parties. The data is not shared with, or sold to anyone. The data is anonymized, meaning we don't know your name, IP address, or any personal information about you.

What’s wrong with charging for a valuable service?

People with a limited budget don't use it, which makes the service less useful.

Correction: It’s not valuable enough for people on a limited budget.

The benefit they could derive is perhaps the same. However, they cannot prioritize it the same way as others with a higher budget.

Those in bad mental health benefit from meditation more than others and poorer people tend to be in worse mental health. So those with a limited budget actually derive more benefit.

A service you can't use is useless to you. So a service fewer people can use is less useful.

Even if everyone prioritized the service above other things, the things they forego become useless to them – a side effect attributable to charging money.

If something is valuable, it shouldn't be restricted those with money. We aren't stopping people for charging for a service like that, we just want to offer what those paid services offer, but for free.

You can’t offer what paid services offer, because you don’t have the revenue stream to support it.

And everyone has money. Their agreement to spend some on your product establishes its value. If it has to be free for them to use it, they are saying your product lacks value.

We can offer what paid services offer, because what they currently offer is not as complicated as they make it look like. Of course we don't have the same infrastructure, fancy offices and 200 employees, but content wise we can produce the same content + add content that isn't our and made available under CC license for example.

Not everyone has money no.

Regarding your last point, maybe you should check a website called wikipedia for example :)

Are you... upset? that they're releasing a free meditation app? What's the problem here / what's your actual point?

I don’t like to see developers go unrewarded for useful work.

The fact the developers voluntarily donate their labour establishes that they feel adequately rewarded.

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