Revenir: mindfulness bell

SIRIX

About this app

Revenir is a meditation bell and a mindfulness reminder for Android: it rings every so often so you come back to the moment you are in. Free, no account, no adverts and no internet connection.

It is not a guided meditation app. There is no voice telling you what to feel, no sessions to complete, no streak to lose if you skip a day. Just a sound every so often and a short line under the logo. What you do with that moment is up to you.

WHAT IT IS FOR

Sitting for twenty minutes in the morning is fine, but it leaves twenty-three and a half hours uncovered. A mindfulness reminder spread through the day fills that gap: mindful breaks at work, remembering to breathe and drop your shoulders while working from home, cutting off rumination, marking study blocks, or an interval meditation timer. There is no right way to use it.

HOW IT WORKS

You choose how often it rings: a fixed interval from 1 minute to 2 hours, or a random one between a minimum and a maximum so you cannot anticipate it. You mark the stretch of the day when it must stay quiet. Two minutes of setting up and you never have to open it again.

If you need silence for a while — a meeting, a cinema, a journey — the pause button stops it for 1 to 24 hours and it resumes on its own.

You can pick the days of the week it rings on and, if you work fixed hours, a stretch that stays quiet only on those days.

MEDITATION TIMER

If you sit down to meditate there is a countdown with a sound at the end, and it can start on its own each day at the time you set. While it runs, the bell stays quiet.

WHICH PRACTICES IT FITS

The bell of mindfulness at Plum Village, the zendo bell that opens and closes zazen, the bells that hold up a vipassana retreat, the stop exercise of Gurdjieff's Fourth Way. They all use the same thing: a sound that comes from outside, that cannot be foreseen, and that interrupts the automatic. Revenir teaches nothing and replaces no teacher; it only marks the moment.

That is where the random interval comes from. Gurdjieff warned that a person gets used to the alarm clock and stops hearing it: a reminder on the half hour becomes predictable within days, and one that may come at any moment does not.

NO DATA, REALLY

Revenir has no account, no sign-up and no login. It does not ask for your email. It carries no analytics, no advertising and no trackers.

And it does not request the internet permission: the app cannot connect anywhere. You can check that in the permission list. Your settings and your notes stay on the phone and disappear when you uninstall it; Android's backup is switched off on purpose so they do not travel to the cloud either.

WHAT IT COMES WITH

• Bowls and bells included, or any audio file on your phone
• Fixed interval, or random between a minimum and a maximum
• Quiet hours: a stretch when it does not ring and does not even wake the phone
• Pause from 1 to 24 hours, which resumes on its own
• Alarm mode, so Android does not delay the reminder
• Stay quiet in silent or aeroplane mode, if you prefer
• Light or dark theme, thirteen calm palettes and a hue of your own
• Backgrounds: soft gradients or a photo of yours
• A short line under the logo, whichever you like
• Meditation with a countdown and a sound at the end
• Daily meditation, which starts on its own at the time you set
• The days of the week it rings on
• Working day: a stretch that stays quiet only on the days you work
• Notes, which stay on this phone only
• Ten languages, and you can change it for Revenir alone

From your own palette you pick the hue and the app works out the rest: it adjusts the lightness of each piece so the text on top stays readable with any colour.

FREE, AND NO SMALL PRINT

Free always. There is no paid version, no in-app purchases, no locked features and no trial that expires. It is the whole app.

It works on Android 6 and later, and the download is around three megabytes.

What’s new

Meditation with a countdown, which can start on its own each day at a fixed time.
New scheduling settings: the days of the week it rings on, and a working day — a stretch that stays quiet only on the days you work.
Seven more languages: German, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Dutch, Catalan and Turkish. Ten in all.
Main screen and settings reorganised.