Life & fun · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to TheraJoy
Joy-Cons have some of the best haptic motors ever put in a consumer device. They come in pairs. So I turned them into a bilateral stimulation tool for EMDR therapy. The app pairs to your Joy-Cons over Bluetooth (no Switch needed), alternates pulses left-right at whatever speed and intensity you set, and gets out of the way. No account, no analytics, runs entirely on your iPhone. Existing BLS devices are either wired buzzers from 2003 or $200 proprietary hardware. This is neither. Demo + info: therajoyapp.com
Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes.
- 1SH
Hey HN, We've been working in neurotech over the past few years, primarily focusing on improving sleep. A friend asked if I would build her a vagal nerve stimulation device. These are devices used to improve relaxation, and “vagal tone”. She didn't want to shell out hundreds for the existing solutions. I originally said no, but then I thought, what if we leveraged smartphone haptics to achieve the same effect as these expensive devices? After some tinkering, Harbor: Immersive Calm was published to the app store last week. https://getharbor.app It’s pretty basic and very MVP, no…
2023 · getharbor.app · its alternatives →
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Pulsetto▲118Reduce stress, improve sleep & relax in under 4 minutes
2023 · indiegogo.com · its alternatives →
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Tweny▲263Focus timer that actually cares about your eyes
Dec 2025 · apps.lvrpiz.com · its alternatives →
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Mantra Timer▲190A minimalist mantra meditation timer for iOS.
Jun 2026 · mantratimer.app · its alternatives →
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Momotaro▲229Minimal, calm timer for iOS that invites you to focus.
Dec 2025 · momotaro.app · its alternatives →
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- 9AS
I recently learned about some fascinating research done at MIT for potentially treating Alzheimer’s using light and sound stimulation at 40 hertz. Nothing has been proven yet, but it seemed compelling to me, especially given the safety and simplicity of the treatment (i.e., no drugs, no electrodes, just looking at light and hearing sounds). I wanted to try it myself, but was surprised how hard it was to find something free and easy to use to generate such pulses. Which is odd because I remember some freeware DOS program I tried back in the 90s which did all this kind of stuff (anyone know…
2024 · alzheimersbuddy.com · its alternatives →
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Breva▲108Turn your Mac trackpad into a gentle breathing guide
Jul 2026 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →
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A bit more context - the cloth sim is part of my app, Lungy (https://www.lungy.app). It's designed to be an active meditation / relaxation app, so you can play relaxing instruments in space and immersive breathing exercises. The original Lungy is a breathing app available for iOS, that uses real-time breathing with interactive visuals. The cloth sim is a Verlet integration, running on a regular grid. For now, I have tried a couple of different cloth scenes - a sort of touch reactive 'pad', where different parts of the cloth are mapped to different sounds and a cloth that blows…
2024 · youtube.com · its alternatives →
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ChillScape▲80An interactive sound therapy app for meditation
2018 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →
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omscillate▲90A unique meditation app that focuses on vibration patterns
2023 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →
- 18
Stimulation device & AI-powered app for orgasm control
2022 · kickstarter.com · its alternatives →
- 19
Sense Relief▲75Relief from VR & motion sickness with your Apple Watch
2023 · sensereliefapp.com · its alternatives →
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Wearable to boost your memory, focus and creativity
2019 · indiegogo.com · its alternatives →
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Feel good, relax, and sleep better with guided meditation
2018 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →
- 24
Two years ago, someone on HN shared an interesting ADHD hack: a tiny LED that blinks at 120 bpm and gradually slows to 60 bpm, supposedly helping your brain sync and calm down into focus mode. I found Qiaogun's implementation (ADHD_Blink) for M5StickC Plus, and adapted it for the newer M5StickC Plus2 with some tweaks - simpler 50% duty cycle flash, configurable ramp-down, auto sleep, etc. Honestly, I'm not sure if it actually works. I'll be trying it out myself to see. But the building process itself was quite fascinating. I used Claude Code for the entire implementation - from reading the…
Jan 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →