Calm down before a meeting — without anyone noticing.
Tacet is the breathing app you use with the screen off. It paces your breathing with vibration instead of sound or video. The screen goes dark. You put the phone face-down on the table, or keep it in your hand, and follow a rhythm only you can feel.
Get Tacet on Google Play How it works
Three sessions a week, free. No account, no trial timer.
The problem
Most breathing exercises ask for something before they help.
Headphones in, an animation to watch, a list to choose from. That works at home. It doesn't work in the minute before a client call, at your desk in an open-plan office, on a train, or in the gap between one thing and the next — the exact moments you most need it, and the exact moments you have the least to spend on setting anything up.
You are not short of techniques. You are short of window. So the only move available is to hold it in until later, and containing something is not the same as recovering from it.
Tacet is a silent breathing app in the literal sense. No audio. No visuals. Nothing for anyone around you to see or hear.
How it works
Four steps, and then it is over.
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Start it in one tap
Choose one, two or five minutes. The app opens on the length you used last time, so for most sessions that is a single tap. That is the whole setup.
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The screen goes dark
Vibration takes over and paces the breath against your palm or through a pocket — in, hold, out, rest. It opens on a faster breath and settles onto a calmer one, because you cannot slow down from a standing start.
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Tap to check, hold to stop
One tap shows the time remaining, then clears itself. Press and hold to end early — a brushed sleeve or a knocked pocket never cuts your session short.
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A softer pulse says you are done
You feel the session end without looking. Your streak updates. That is the whole app.
Where people actually use it
A minute you already have.
- Anxiety at work — a quick reset at your desk between calls
- Nerves before a presentation, an interview, or a difficult conversation
- The minute between one thing and the next, when you have to walk into the next room and be completely fine
- Quick anxiety relief in a waiting room or a queue
- Calm on public transport when you're overstimulated and can't get off
- In the corridor before you walk in
What makes it different
The restraint is the product.
A guide, not a library
One thing to do, at three lengths. No hundreds of sessions to fall behind on, no courses, no teachers, no sleep stories.
No meditation vocabulary
If you have tried the big meditation apps and quietly stopped using them, this is built for the reason you stopped.
Private by construction
No account. No sign-up. No sync. Your streak and your session history stay on your phone. Tacet collects anonymous usage statistics to work out what to fix — never your name, your location, or anything that identifies you, because the app never asks for any of it.
Discreet all the way down
The name, the icon and the reminder wording are all deliberately plain. A glance at your home screen or your lock screen by a colleague says nothing about you.
Nothing depends on hearing
There is no audio anywhere in the app, which makes the whole practice usable if you are deaf or hard of hearing.
Usable without sight
Every control is described for screen readers, including the session lengths, the streak and each settings row — and during a session, the time left and how to end it.
One press, from the home screen
You don't have to open the app.
Widget
Put Tacet on your home screen and start a session with a single press. On Android the app can ask your launcher to place it for you.
Tile and Control Centre
A quick-settings tile on Android; a Control Centre control on iOS, one swipe away from any screen.
Shortcuts and the Action Button
On iOS, start a session from Shortcuts, from Siri, or by assigning it to the Action Button.
Every one of these starts the length you used last, so a one-press launch never asks you a question — and pressing it twice by accident does not restart a session already running.
Vibration strength is yours, and it's free
Strong enough to follow. Quiet enough that nobody hears it.
Some phones buzz harder than others. Tacet includes a strength control, free for everyone regardless of subscription, so you can tune the pulse until it sits right in a hand, in a pocket, or on a desk. On the handful of devices whose hardware has no strength control at all, the app tells you plainly rather than showing you a slider that does nothing.
Free use and subscription
Three sessions a week, free.
Free
Three sessions a week, full length, full mechanic. The allowance resets every Monday and the home screen shows what is left, so the limit is never a surprise. Sessions started from a widget, tile, control or shortcut always work — the moment you most need the practice is never met with a price.
Unlimited
A subscription removes the weekly cap, monthly or yearly at the same feature level — the only decision is billing cadence. Prices are shown in your own currency by the app store itself. Restore it on a new device at any time; decline and stay free at any point.
Questions
Before you install it.
Can people around me tell I'm using it?
That is what the app is built for. There is no audio and nothing on screen — the display goes dark for the whole session, so the phone looks idle. You set the vibration strength yourself: strong enough to follow in your hand, quiet enough that nobody across the table hears it.
Do I need headphones?
No. Tacet has no audio at all. The breath arrives entirely through touch.
Do I have to create an account?
No. There is no account, no sign-up and no sync. Your streak, your preferences and your session history stay on your own device rather than on a server.
How long is a session?
One, two or five minutes. The app opens on the length you used last time, so a return visit is one tap rather than a decision.
Will it work on my phone?
On a phone with a high-fidelity haptic engine you feel a full breath envelope that swells and fades. On simpler hardware you feel a recognisable version of the same breath. On a device with no usable vibration motor, the app tells you plainly rather than leaving you wondering why nothing happens.
Will it nag me?
Only if you ask it to. A daily reminder is optional, set to a time you choose, and you are only asked about it after you have already completed sessions. The wording gives nothing away — just the app name and a neutral line.
Availability
On Google Play now. iPhone is in review.
Tacet is out on Android and you can install it today. The iPhone build is written and sitting in App Store review; it is not available yet, and there is nothing to sign up for here — no email box, no waiting list, nothing collected.
Tacet is a relaxation and breathing tool. It is not a medical device and is not a treatment for any medical or psychiatric condition.
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