Release notes

1. Improved heart rate measurement:
   • Stress/relaxation level is now displayed during the breathing exercise if heart rate monitoring is running.
   • Heart rate measurement details view now shows the progression of the stress or relaxation level.
   • A diagram showing the energy distribution in the heart signal has been added to the detailed view of the heart rate measurement. The diagram can be switched on/off at the Pro settings.
   • Points at the Poincare plot are now colored to visualize stress/relaxation.
   • A demo heart rate measurement has been added.
   • Heart rate measurements can now be deleted.
   • Heart rate recordings that fail to load are now visually marked. (Thanks Uwe)
   • A details page for heart rate recordings that failed to load has been added.
   • A single message is now shown if multiple heart rate monitoring files fail to load. (Thanks Uwe)
2. Bugfixes:
   • A bug, that caused a crash on Android 14 when leaving the settings screen while notification permission has not been granted, has been fixed.
   • A bug, that caused a breathing exercise to stop prematurely if the screen was switched off, has been fixed.
   • Vibration subsystem has been replaced. This fixes a bug that caused vibrations not to work on newer devices. (Thanks Julia and Jürgen)
   • Audio subsystem has been replaced. This fixes a rare bug that caused the beginning of audio guides to be skipped. (Thanks Muriel)
3. Polishing:
   • Menu label “Breathing Exercises” has been renamed to “Exercise Editor”. (Thanks Katharina)
   • Onboarding can now be navigated through horizontal swipe gestures.
   • Info buttons now show their explanation in a dialog. (Thanks Carsten)
   • Exercise diary can now be deleted.
   • Bluetooth subsystem has been replaced im preparation for the upcoming releases on desktop operating systems.
4. Landscape format is now supported.
5. French, Italian and Spanish translations have been added.
6. The Icon has been replaced.
7. Many (100+) performance and detail improvements.

1. During the exercise, the ball and heart shapes now show their minimum and maximum size.
2. A setting to enable/disable the display of the ball and heart shape’s minimum/maximum size has been added to the Pro-screen.
3. A bug that caused jerky animations has been fixed.
4. An option to display the remaining exercise duration has been added to the settings screen.
5. Spoken audio guides have been added in English, German and Spanish languages.
6. Ambient audio now slowly fades in/out.
7. Audio guide has been changed: Inhale now uses a higher pitch tone than exhale.
8. A rarely occurring bug that caused the app to get stuck at the loading screen has been fixed.
9. Heart rate recordings are now properly sorted.

Breath Ball 6.0 is a complete redesign from scratch. It brings many new features:

1. Breathing exercises can now be done with the screen switched off.
   • Vibrations as well as three different instruments (bell, harp and marimba) are now available for practicing with the screen off, to indicate the change in breathing phases (inhale, hold, exhale).
   • If a headset is used during an exercise and the screen is turned off, the breathing exercises can now be controlled using the headset buttons,
2. Support for Bluetooth heart rate monitors has been added:
   • The recorded heart rate can be exported for analysis in Kubios HRV.
   • Detailed view for heart rate recordings including Poinclaire plot and playback of the recording in fast motion.
3. Exercise diary and mood monitoring have been added.
   • Data can be exported for sharing with therapists or trainers.
   • Mood monitoring can be disabled at the Pro-settings screen.
4. Reminders have been implemented for study participants to prevent forgetting the daily breathing exercises.
5. Breathing exercises can now include pauses, which makes Breath Ball a very good fit for the Buteyko and Wim Hof breathing exercises.
6. To help you fall asleep, the background sounds can now continue to play after a breathing exercise. In addition, the background sounds now slowly decrease in volume before stopping completely.
7. Visibility for visually impaired users can be improved by adjusting line width, font size and colors.
8. Breathing phases can now last up to 25 minutes. This is particularly useful for divers to practice holding their breath. Disabled by default, but can be enabled at the Pro settings screen.
9. Box breathing has been added.
10. Significantly reduced power consumption.
11. New help and explanations make Breath Ball easier to understand, especially for users who are not familiar with apps.
12. The design of the app has been improved.
13. In-app purchases are now optional. All Pro features are now free of charge!
14. Still no ads and no tracking. Users remain 100% anonymous when using Breath Ball.

Breath Ball 6.0 is unfortunately not compatible to the previous versions, hence all settings and custom breathing exercises are lost during the update. Sorry for that.

• A bug that caused sporadic graphical glitches has been fixed.
• A bug, that prevented the pro features from unlocking when Breath Ball is installed on a second device, has been fixed. (Michel, thank you!)
• A bug, that caused a crash if Breath Ball was moved to the SD card, has been fixed.

• A breathing exercise to relieve the symptoms of COPD and Asthma has been added.
• Additional explanations have been added. New users will now find it easier to get started with Breath Ball.
• A tutorial explaining how to create your own breathing exercises has been added.

• Slow paced breathing after Prof. Dr. Thomas Loew has been added to the predefined breathing exercises.
• A tutorial has been added to each breathing exercises.
• A bug, that caused the pro features to disappear, has been fixed.
• The 3D-Engine has been updated.

The in-app tutorial has been removed. A new Tutorial will be made available on the website in the next few days.

• There are now two predefined breathing exercises:
  1. Cardiac coherence, to calm down quickly, reduce anxiety and relief stress.
  2. Dr. Andrew Weils 4-7-8 breathing exercise, to fall asleep faster and wake up better recovered.
• Loading has been optimized. Breath Ball now starts between 30% and 60% faster.
• Memory consumption has been optimized, making Breath Ball run smoother on older devices with low memory.

• This is an optimization update. It reduces download size and improves performance.
• Size has been reduced by approximately 8MB.
• Social sharing has been removed.

Breath Ball’s second anniversary update:

• Shrinking and expanding of the ball has been adjusted to match the latest scientific research. This makes the breathing exercise feel more natural. Many thanks to Dr. Wolfhard Klein for sharing his research.
• The user interface has been completely redesigned, making Breath Ball even more beautiful and easier to use.
• You can now adjust the size of the user interface to your liking.
• Editing of breathing exercises has been simplified.
• Plus many, many more…

This is the Happy new year 2019 update. The following things have changed.

• A bug that caused a crash notification after system boot has been fixed.
• The engine has been updated.

All the best 2019!

Merry Christmas and a happy new year! The Christmas update brings you:

• Improved performance on older devices.
• Many little visual improvements.
• A details page for each of the Pro features.

• The free trial period is now longer (two full days) and can now be used more often.
• You’re now able to create up to three breathing exercises in the free version.
• Message boxes can now be closed using the ESC- or BACK-key.
• The store screen has been significantly polished.

Various improvements to the sharing/invitation screen.

• You can now invite your friends to Breath Ball.
• Instructions shown during the breathing exercise are now centered on the screen.
• Tutorial messages have been improved.
• A bug that prevented the store-icon from being completely hidden has been fixed (Aaron, thank you for reporting this).

• Instructions (inhale, hold your breath, exhale) can now be shown during the breathing exercise. They are enabled by default but can be disabled on the settings screen.
• A bug has been fixed that caused the app to crash at the store screen.
• Performance has been increased. This is only noticeable on old hardware.

This is the happy Halloween update. It brings you:

• A terrific jack-o-lantern to guide your breathing. It’s well hidden and wants to be found first.
• The terms of service and privacy policy can now be accessed at the help screen.
• The user interface now considers a notch and is no longer overlapping it.
• Various visual improvements.

Happy Halloween & enjoy using Breath Ball.

Here’s an other update to help you get calm and cope with stress, anger and frustration. This is what’s new:

• A new audio guide setting has been added. It is used to en-/disable an audible notification after an exercise has been finished.
• A new startup screen has been added. It shows the address of Breath Ball’s new website. You are just looking at it at: https://breathball.com
• You are now asked fewer times to a rate/review the app.
• A bug, that in some rare circumstances caused a crash when exiting the app, has been fixed.

• Now you can calm down even faster with the relaxing sounds of nature! Five ambient audio tracks have been added to help you get calm quickly.
• Breath Ball Pro users can now choose between a ball, a heart and a progress bar.
• A bug, that caused an “application not responding” error message after exiting Breath Ball, has been fixed.
• Plus a lot more…

• You can now define breaths with a length of up to two minutes. This is especially useful for (advanced) pranayama users.
• The user-interface has been polished. Just a few subtle changes, but they make the app look nicer.
• The size of various UI elements have been increased. This makes Breath Ball easier to use on small screen devices.

• An exit button has been added. (Thank you Nicole!)
• You can now use the breath ball pro features more often.
• There’s now a “buy once and use for a lifetime” alternative to subscriptions.

• The screen will now automatically switch off after a breathing exercise has finished. This enables you to use this app to aid you fall asleep. (Victor, thank you)
• Night mode has been added. It darkens the screen and reduces blue light to help you fall asleep faster.
• Additional color settings have been added.
• You can now reset the color settings to their default values. (Nancy, thank you)

• Premium subscriptions have been added. You can test it free of charge two days after the initial installation of the app.
• You can now dynamically adjust the breathing speed during the exercise while in premium mode.
• While premium version is enabled, the breathing exercise configuration enables you to automatically generate a transition between two breathing patterns. This makes the configuration of complex breathing exercises very comfortable.
• Audio guide is now louder.

• You can now configure up to two breathing exercises.
• You can now add up to 50 breath cycles to each breathing exercise.

• The user interface has been redesigned.
• A short tutorial has been added. It explains how to set up the breathing pattern as well as the basics of the breathing exercise.
• An option to configure the length of the breathing session has been added..
• A line chart to visualizes the breath pattern has been added.
• Additional settings for the audio guide have been added.
  And many small improvements.

This is the happy valentine’s day update. It brings you:

• An improved audio guide, enabling you to relax and meditate with your eyes closed.
• Some visual improvements. For example: The breath ball now keeps moving smoothly while switching between simple and advanced breathing exercises.
• A little, beautiful surprise. I won’t tell you, but maybe you’ll find it… (there should be enough hints in this message)

• Audioguide has been added. It enables you to exercise with closed eyes.
• Breath Ball now looks more beautiful.
• A new icon has been added.

• Advanced mode has been added. It enables you to customize your breathing pattern.
• Japanese translation has been added.

• Various performance optimizations.
• The user interface has been polished.
• A request to rate Breath Ball has been added.

Breath Ball’s first official version has been released for the patients of the Neurological Therapy Center Gmundnerberg.

Work on Breath Ball started. The initial idea is from Dr. Wolfhard Klein.