Most meditation apps are built for people who don't meditate.
They assume you need to be guided, motivated, reassured, and entertained. They offer voices, music, streaks, goals, lessons, and programs. Often at cost. Over time, the practice becomes something you consume rather than something you do.
Center exists for a different reason.
It was built for people who already know why they meditate, or who want to learn by sitting, not by being instructed.
Mindfulness meditation, at its core, does not require content. It requires time, consistency, and a quiet container in which awareness can develop. A bell can help. Silence often helps more. Everything else is optional.
Many experienced practitioners eventually outgrow guidance. Not because guidance is bad, but because it can become a substitute for attention. When a voice is always present, awareness is outsourced. When progress is constantly measured, practice becomes performance.
Center deliberately removes these layers.
It does not speak.
It does not coach.
It does not attempt to improve you.
It simply marks time.
This simplicity is not an aesthetic choice. It is a philosophical one.
A good meditation timer should feel more like a clock than a companion. It should be dependable, precise, and forgettable. You should trust it enough to stop thinking about it entirely.
Center was also designed to respect practice as something that unfolds over years, not weeks. That is why tracking is optional, why streaks are quiet, and why nothing breaks if you miss a day. Consistency matters, but guilt does not help create it.
The app supports rituals without defining them. Some people practice daily. Some practice in cycles. Some take long breaks and return. Center accommodates all of this without commentary.
It also avoids subscriptions, advertising, and data harvesting by design. A tool meant to support attention should not compete for it. Center is supported by optional donations, offered only after value is delivered, and never tied to access.
Center exists to get out of the way.
If you are looking for instruction, motivation, or reassurance, there are many excellent apps that offer those things. Center is not one of them.
If you are looking for a quiet, reliable instrument to support mindfulness as a practice, Center was built for you.
— Tanner Christensen