Outside: I built a meditation app whose only goal is to make you stop looking at it

Description and use

Outside enables outdoor meditation with eyes open, adapts to spoken feedback, and removes screen‑based stickiness for a truly screen‑free experience.

Problem

Guided meditation apps assume a dark bedroom and require users to close their eyes, making them unsuitable for outdoor use where eyes must remain open.

Outcome

The Outside app enables outdoor meditation without requiring users to close their eyes, adapts in real time to spoken feedback, and removes screen‑based stickiness, resulting in a truly screen‑free experience.

Workflow

• Tap "Begin a meditation · 3 minutes" on the home screen.
• Listen to a gentle voice that instructs to stay outdoors and breathe naturally.
• If breathing is uncomfortable, speak "this is making me dizzy, can we skip the breathing."
• The app listens via microphone, sends audio to backend, and receives a structured reply from Gemma via Mastra.
• The reply sets practice to "body" and mode to "listen", disabling the breathing circle for the rest of the session.
• The session ends with a brief reflection screen that is not saved.
• Tap "Finish" to delete conversation memory and audio clips.

Evidence

Every meditation app opens by telling you to close your eyes. Try that on a trail.

Source

The app listens via microphone, sends audio to backend, and receives a structured reply from Gemma via Mastra.

Source

The reply sets practice to "body" and mode to "listen", disabling the breathing circle for the rest of the session.

Source

Conversation memory expires from the backend after ten minutes, and tapping Finish deletes it immediately along with every audio clip.

Source