Shimmr for press.
Everything in one place.
Descriptions you can copy, the key facts, screenshots and video. For anything else, write to [email protected].
In one sentence
Shimmr is a binaural beats app you make your own: start from a guided meditation journey or a session for sleep or focus, then fine-tune every layer in the mixer, from the volume and pan of each tone to the rain, noise or music underneath, and save it as your mix.
In a paragraph
Shimmr starts you with guided meditation journeys and sessions made for sleep and focus, then lets you shape them. In the mixer you set the volume and pan of every layer (tones, ambience, noise and your own music), add reverb or EQ, soften the high end, and save the result as your own mix. Shifts glide you from one state to another, like Awake → Asleep, and Journeys are guided meditations where a voice takes you deep and brings you back. Every sound is created as you listen, it works offline, and it needs no account.
The longer story
Shimmr is a sound app for meditation, sleep and focus, made by an independent developer in Stockholm for people who like to shape their own sound. Every tone is created on your iPhone or iPad as you listen, never played from a recording. Start from any session, then fine-tune it in the mixer: the volume and pan of each layer, reverb, EQ and how the session fades out. Save it, and it’s yours.
That is the idea behind Shifts. A Shift starts where you are, moves the beat towards where you want to be, then holds it there. Awake → Asleep glides from alpha down to delta. Scattered → Focused rises from theta to beta. Journeys are guided meditations into deep states: a voice and the sound move together, with a slow way down, a long quiet stretch and a gentle way back. In Sound Canvas, you place sounds around you and hear the beat change as you move them.
Shimmr is careful about what it promises. Its website explains the research on binaural beats in plain words, including where the evidence is small or mixed.
Fact sheet
- App
- Binaural Beats: Shimmr
- Developer
- Gareth Richards, Stockholm, Sweden
- First released
- 25 July 2024
- Current version
- 3.0, with Journeys (October 2026)
- Platforms
- iPhone and iPad, iOS 17 or later
- Category
- Health & Fitness
- App language
- English
- Listing and website
- English, German, Spanish, French, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazil)
- Price
- Free to download, with an optional Premium subscription
- Privacy
- Data Not Collected (Apple’s privacy label), no account needed
- App Store
- apps.apple.com/app/id6479964631
What makes it different
- Make it yours. Every session opens in a mixer: set the volume and pan of tones, ambience, noise and your own music, add reverb, EQ and a high cut, choose how it fades out, and save the mix.
- Created as you listen. Every tone is made on your device while it plays, so each ear hears an exact tone and a session can change as it goes.
- Shifts. Sessions that take you from one state to another, like Awake → Asleep or Scattered → Focused, then hold you there.
- Journeys. Guided meditation where a voice and the sound move together: a slow way down, a quiet stretch, a way back. Step by step, starting with Arrival.
- Sound Canvas. Place sounds in a space around you. Move a tone and you hear its beat change while it plays.
- A full library. Binaural sessions from delta to gamma, isochronic tones that work on speakers, solfeggio tones, many colours of noise and nature sounds.
- The small things. A sleep timer that fades out, playback with the screen off or alongside other apps, offline listening and Apple Health mindful minutes.
Screenshots
Downloads
- Full press kit (.zip, 13 MB): app icon, every App Store screenshot for iPhone and iPad, a 27 second film and a screen recording.
- App icon (PNG, 1024 × 1024)
- Film (MP4, 27 seconds)
You may use these to write about Shimmr. Please don’t change the icon or the screenshots, and please don’t use them to suggest an endorsement.
Story ideas
- Built for control. Play a session as it comes, or open the mixer and shape every layer: volume, pan, reverb, EQ. In Sound Canvas you can even place each sound in the space around you.
- Sound that moves with you. Shifts change the beat over time, the way you actually drift off or settle into work, rather than repeating one sound.
- Honest about the science. Binaural beats have a modest, measurable effect for many people, and the bigger claims are not proven. Shimmr says so, with sources.
- Private by design. No account, no sign-up, and Apple’s Data Not Collected label. It works on a plane, in a tent or in flight mode.
- Made by one person. Designed, built and sound-designed by a single developer in Sweden.
Background reading
Plain-language guides with cited studies: what binaural beats are, whether they work, side effects and choosing an app.
Contact
Interviews, review access and questions: [email protected]. Replies usually within a day or two.
