Smiling Mind: Meditation App Reviews

I think that overall it does a great job of making mental health tools accessible to all ages and creates a simple and adjustable format for those who have never engaged in mediation or those who regularly mediate. My instinct would be to give SmilingMind 4.5 stars because I think there could be more visual pieces not only to make it more inclusive of those with hearing impairments, but to also diversify the ways which people engage with mediations. In my exploring of SmilingMind , I did not discover breathing visuals or other short videos explaining how to do certain tasks. It is not a necessary feature but would make SmilingMind more inclusive and accessible. I think SmilingMind should also expand the pool of the cultural and linguistic options, to better include those who do not speak English. A recent study found that “nearly half (48%) of school-aged children experience sleep disturbance that results in less than the recommended sleep duration, which may negatively impact mental health and behavior”, in the United Sates (Puzia, et al., 2020). Puzia et. al. researched children under the age of 18 using the Calm app to help decrease their sleep troubles. More than 96% of parents, whose children used the Calm app when lying down to go to bed, believed that it was helpful to put their child to sleep. Similar to Calm, Smiling Mind allows for access to mediation tools not just for sleep but in dealing with stress and other life challenges individuals face.

I love, love, love SmilingMind. One thing though is that the music doesn’t shut off automatically after a meditation, which is a little annoying for the sleep ones. However, the programs are great, a wonderful mix of options, and the narrator is lovely and just the right amount of guidance for my and my kiddos (9 and 11). The only changes that’d be awesome are if it integrated with health, and the dashboard showed the actual length of each day.

All that being said, meditation and mindfulness aren’t panaceas. They’re great for you and they help a lot to reduce day-to-day anxiety and manage stress, but expecting a mediation app to stop panic attacks with no other interventions is kinda like expecting jogging to fix a broken wrist. It’s not that jogging isn’t good for you or that you’re doing something wrong when you keep jogging and your wrist keeps hurting. It’s that it’s probably not the intervention you need to fix your wrist. And if your wrist is broken, or you’re suffering from panic attacks and really debilitating anxiety, you deserve the care that can help those things truly heal. Check out DBT, CBT, or the Work of Byron Katie—all interventions that can help greatly with anxiety and racing minds and integrate really well with mediation.

I am a psychotherapist and have nearly all my patients use SmilingMind at home and in between sessions. Some of them love it so much that they will also share it with their friends and family, and some will even use SmilingMind together with their family. I’ve been using SmilingMind for several years and while I have seen a lot of other mindfulness apps emerge in that time, I keep coming back to this one.

I just have a couple usability issues to point out. It would be really nice to be able to change my email. I recently had to create an entirely new account because this option wasn’t available. Many of my patients have difficulty navigating in SmilingMind to find the programs. There’s got to be a way to make it a little simpler. Lastly, the iPad version of SmilingMind has some formatting problems that render SmilingMind unusable. When setting it up, I can only log in, then am met with a blank screen.

I love SmilingMind! I chose SmilingMind to try because of it being completely free, and I so appreciate that it is a free app for listeners. I was skeptical of meditation, but after giving SmilingMind a try, it has changed my mind. I listen to these meditations every night to help me unwind from my day and fall asleep.
It has a great variety of programs to choose from.
Personally, I really like that the meditation music continues to play even once the meditation ends, as it helps me to continue to relax and fall asleep without the abrupt ending. Instead of getting rid of this option, maybe have a sleep timer setting option so that listeners can choose if they want the music to continue playing or shut off immediately when the meditation ends. (Similar concept to a sleep timer that many music apps have).
Thanks for having such great options for meditations, and keeping it as a free app for listeners!

We seriously love SmilingMind. My kids love it, my husband, myself... I have recommended SmilingMind to a pediatric occupational therapy group (and they downloaded and use it), to my friends, to my family, my coworkers, my kids teachers...
I mean, they teach you meditation and mindfulness, give you coaching, guide you through an array of different meditation, give you exercise, tools... they have them for different age groups, school grade, activities, different emotions... AND IT’S FREE?! My only wish is that my app would download from onto my phone or iPad so I can listen to my favorite guided meditation if I can’t use WiFi or cellular (airplane or out of network type of situations). They offer that service as well but for some reason it’s not working on my phone or iPad (but I rarely am out of network or on an airplane so it hardly makes a difference for me).
Awesome app. Love it. Keep up the good work. Keep on spreading the happiness!

I love everything about SmilingMind itself. As an American, I seriously love the Australian accents featured in each meditation. And I immensely appreciate the services being offered for free. However, I do have one (and only one) complaint and that would be that my app crashes - quite literally - every time that I try to open it from the notification screen. By that, I mean that whenever I receive a “you have not meditated in ___ days, click here to do your next meditation” or a “it is time for your daily meditation” notification and I click on the given notification to open the Smiling Mind app, SmilingMind crashes and takes my phone back to its home screen every time. If this slight bug could be addressed, I’d absolutely change my rating to a 5-star and be happy to do, and I’d officially have no complaints left. Regardless, thank you for a great app and I am a big fan of it!

So I started mediation after a little bit of brief interest and my first pick was Headspace bc it was the only one I knew of, but I didn’t like the paywall of it so I looked for alternatives, and found this.

100x better than Headspace first and foremost, very user friendly, and I love how it’s a nonprofit! I’m getting more comfortable with the program and I love how it’s set up.

I would give it five stars, but I was hoping for a dark mode, lol! I have eye strains and it helps a bit personally so if that was a potential feature to be added then great! Otherwise, amazing app! Nice job developers!

Wow, first off - SmilingMind is 100% free! No “free trials” then having to pay a ridiculous amount of money or only being able to use some tracks. Secondly, since having traumatic brain injury, depression, and anxiety I have always heard people (medical professionals too) say “try meditation” and I just never was into it. It always bored me .. and I was a bit scared. But, with SmilingMind being absolutely no cost whatsoever, I finally get to practice and practice and go as slowly as I want and it has paid off! Even though I am new to SmilingMind, it has already done wonders for me! I have stopped taking melatonin at night to help me sleep because I always do a meditation from SmilingMind before I go to bed!

Wow, I really just cannot say enough about SmilingMind!

I have had a incredibly hard time falling asleep and going throughout my average day due to my diagnosis of depression, OCD,ADHD and anxiety and can never just sit and meditate or even just focus on a meditation but SmilingMind has 100% changed that. I swear by it. Every night any session I listen to even two minutes in I am out cold. I have never been able to stay awake for a full mindfulness video because it is so relaxing and causes me to fully be one with myself. There are a TON of different modules and sessions to listen to and I recommend SmilingMind to everyone and anyone teens kids adults just everyone I love SmilingMind and I have nothing negative to say about it. Thank you smiling mind for helping me get a better sleep and better mind!

I just started using SmilingMind, along with my child, and I don’t know what I would do without it. We both have ADHD so sitting is hard, but knowing I can start off with 1 or 3 minute sessions is not overwhelming. They are so useful and help me to stay calm or more focused. I do want to build up to longer ones, but baby steps. I just used the SOS because I was agitated and I needed to calm down and it worked! Yesterday I used the gratitude one and felt happy. Also, thank you for making SmilingMind free. I can’t fit more money into our budget currently so I can’t thank you enough for this. My daughter just started yesterday but I think it will help with her anxiety. Also, the daily check in is a great feature

Having just started medical school in the US this past year, I became stressed out and started taking a negative outlook on life. I was also not treating those closest to me with the respect and love they deserved. After breaking up with my girlfriend, I decided to actually give myself time to meditate and reflect each day on who I was and how I could change. Doing Smiling Mind meditations regularly has made me more mindful of my emotions and how I don’t have to react to them immediately. I’ve also enjoyed the sleep meditations because the soothing Australian accents usually knock me out before the recording is even over. Thank you guys for making SmilingMind and making it free and available for everyone

I have been using Smiling Mind for about a month now and it is amazing!! It is the first completely free meditation/mindfulness app that I have found and it is very well put together. There are different sections based on who is meditating and there are so many different sections. I have done the Intro and am now doing the foundations course. SmilingMind has really allowed me to learn how to practice and incorporate mindfulness into my life even when I feel too busy to sit down and pull out SmilingMind . I think that SmilingMind is perfect for anyone who is interested in mindfulness/meditation, but doesn’t want to pay a lot like most of the other popular meditation apps!

SmilingMind is actually the best app ever. At first, I tried a few other meditation apps. THEY ALL had in app purchases. They were bothering me and you basically couldn’t do anything on those apps. So I found smiling mind and it didn’t say in app purchases. Trust me, it doesn’t rip you off because you don’t pay anything. It has made me happier and I’ve only taken one class. Now I love meditation thanks to SmilingMind, and vow to do it everyday. I felt happier after taking just one three minute thing. They have lots of classes to help you with anything. SmilingMind is awesome! THIS TRULY is the only app without in app purchases and still gives you everything you’d want. PLEASE GET!!

This is the best mental health/check in app I’ve ever come across. I was so tired of mediation apps bombarding me with ads and the pressure to pay more for better services (it’s like.. the last thing I need when I’m trying to relax...) But Smiling Mind truly makes me feel like the people who created it actually care about the practice of mediation and not about making a buck. I find the directions to be clear and grounding, and I appreciate the wide variety of lessons and tips—they even have a series dedicated to relieving stress during quarantine. I highly recommend SmilingMind if you struggle with anxiety and/or depression!

I’m 12 and I have anxiety, and SmilingMind has session for 10-12 year olds and SmilingMind developer(s) are not really expecting for a 10-12 year old to have trouble sleeping, having anxiety, depression, etc. (or that’s what it seems like)

Update: I have been using it for a couple weeks now and nothing has really changed for me or SmilingMind , I still get incredibly nervous on trips that take over a couple hours.

Another Update: Still no change I’m going on a 12 hour car ride soon and SmilingMind has done nothing, I still hyperventilate when I go on trips, get worried at random times. I have a feeling that the car ride is not gonna turn out well. I have and will still try to turn the other cheek on SmilingMind but I don’t know if it will do anything more for me beside bring my self esteem down.

I have been looking for an app just like this and FINALLY FOUND IT! I am a clinical psychologist working with people of all ages (2 years through adulthood). All the other mindfulness apps I have found only provide a few free options, but you have to subscribe for full access. SmilingMind provides EVERYTHING for free. I will be using these mindfulness exercises in and out of my therapy sessions. I will be encouraging my clients to download and use it. It is AMAZING. I really enjoy the rating your mood feature- it’s interactive for kids to enjoy and a nice tracker for adults aiming to improve their mood. Thank you for this resource!!

Ok first of all let me tell you that they do not give your information to 3rd party company’s. I love SmilingMind so much. I have been searching for a free meditation app for over 2 years now. I couldn’t find one until now. This is the only meditation app I have ever seen that it is completely free. It has over 50 courses with about 70 meditations in each course. SmilingMind is great. You don’t need to pay for a premium. The meditations are great after just a week I am so much happier and stress free. However I would not recommend this for serious anxiety or depression. But I still love SmilingMind and would HIGHLY recommended.

SmilingMind really helps me be calm and relaxed. I love it! I do at least one every day, but it ends up being three! I hope that they make more soon, because I might run out of sessions!
Also, it is hard to believe that people did all this work without having to pay for anything! It was very difficult to find an app that was 100% free and this good!
A lot of people say "Well, why do they have to have a log in?" But it is honestly no work at all to make a login, especially if SmilingMind is so great! And what do you expect? To make the sub accounts and save your sessions better, it needs a login.

I have tried to sleep and meditate for a long time but now I can do it! I memorized the meditation(s) so I can do it alone! I love this and without it I had never been able to fall asleep before but now, I’m feeling great! Thank you to whoever that made this and took me into a journey. I wish though to motivate me is that maybe you could add like jewels in there so you could motivate people and/or kids to come here to SmilingMind everyday. I’d also like more of a reminder to come on here to start a good habit. Other than those I’ve been doing great. Thank you.

I’ve tried a whole bunch of different meditation apps, and none compare to Smiling Mind. The guided meditations are thoughtful, relaxing, and engaging. I never feel bored during a session, and there’s always a session that feels right for my mood/day. I’m looking for relaxation in my meditations, and the way the sessions focus on my breathing/the motions of my body helps me keep my focus and really feel the benefits — no other app I tried did this. Thank you to the developers, I have used Smiling Mind for years and plan to keep doing so!

SmilingMind has changed me and I am so happy that I discovered it. I am 16 and I love the kids programs they let my imagination run wild. The teen and adult programs are also so amazing. It is completely free!! I was expecting costs but I got on SmilingMind signed up and no costs. Most of the other meditation apps cost money but this one doesn’t. The people talking seem like they are talking personally to you even though they are talking to millions of people. Their voice is so calming and I fall asleep in 5 minutes with an amazing sleep experience. I don’t know how they do it! I love love love SmilingMind!!