As someone who considers themselves to be into meditation, I don\u2019t meditate very often. I\u2019ve had Headspace on my phone for over a year at this point, but I\u2019ve probably used it fewer than 20 times. In the last couple of days, I\u2019ve been trying out a recently launched meditation app for iOS called Aura.
Aura\u2019s bread and butter is short, three-to-seven-minute meditations based on your current mood \u2014 be that stressed, anxious, happy or sad. Other meditation apps tend to focus on longer, at least 10-minute-long meditations. Aura also collects data around demographics and age to better understand what types of meditations certain people are looking for.
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to build intelligence around how to make people happier,\u201d Aura Health co-founder and CEO Steve Lee told me. \u201cMost people really have a hard time forming a habit around meditation and building a foundation for that. We\u2019re playing around with the shortest possible amount of effort it takes to make it a habit while receiving the benefits of meditation.\u201d
Aura is free to use if you\u2019re just into one, three-minute meditation a day. Premium users, who pay $12.99 a month or $7.92 a month if they buy the full year in advance, get access to seven-minute meditations and can access them more than once a day.
There are currently about 200 meditations available, which Aura Health serves up to you based on the mood you say you\u2019re in.
\u201cWe\u2019re fundamentally an intelligence company,\u201d Aura Health co-founder Daniel Lee said. \u201cWe\u2019re leveraging machine learning to personalize every session for users.\u201d
Aura Health is currently bootstrapped, but the company says it\u2019s open to raising funding in the future. Other companies in the space, like Headspace and Calm, are pretty well funded. Headspace has raised over $30 million and Calm has raised $1.5 million.<\/p>\n