What are focus sounds?
Focus sounds are background audio built to help you stay on a task rather than to be listened to. Quietra's version weaves a gentle amplitude pulse, a rhythmic rise and fall in volume, into noise, nature recordings or music generated live on your device. In the core Focus mode the pulse runs 16 times a second. It ramps in over the first 60 seconds of a session and lands softly at the end, so it never jolts you.
The eight modes
| Mode | What it does | Evidence | Headphones | Plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Focus | A gentle 16 Hz pulse woven into the sound | Moderate | Optional | Free |
| Deep Focus | A stronger pulse and level for busy minds | Strong | Optional | Premium |
| Study | A beta binaural pair for memorizing; start it before you read | Mixed | Needed | Premium |
| Creative | An alpha pulse for idea generation | Experimental | Optional | Premium |
| Calm | A theta binaural pair to settle down | Moderate | Needed | Premium |
| Recover | A pure nature reset for breaks and stress | Moderate | Optional | Premium |
| Gamma 40 Hz | 40 Hz pulses, the lab-stage vigilance mode | Experimental | Optional | Premium |
| Wind Down | Slow swells to drift off, with quiet masking underneath | Moderate | Optional | Premium |
Every mode card in the app shows the same label, so you always know how much weight the research behind a mode can carry before you press start.
What do the evidence labels mean?
- Strong
- The exact approach behind the mode was tested in a large peer-reviewed study, and the mode follows it closely.
- Moderate
- Supported by published studies, but with smaller samples, a close variant of the method, or effects that vary between people.
- Mixed
- Published studies disagree: some find an effect, others do not.
- Experimental
- Lab-stage. The idea comes from research, but a benefit in everyday use has not been confirmed.
The labels are Quietra's own reading of the published research. They are not a certification, and nothing in the app is medicine.
What the research says
The pulse behind Focus and Deep Focus follows a peer-reviewed study published in Communications Biology in 2024: music carrying a rapid 16 Hz amplitude modulation helped listeners stay on a sustained-attention task, with the largest effect among people who reported attention difficulties (Woods et al., 2024). Deep Focus uses a stronger pulse and a higher level, the variant that study found most helpful for those listeners, which is why it carries the Strong label and why the app recommends it after its short attention check-in. Binaural pairs (Study, Calm) and 40 Hz gamma pulses come from smaller or lab-stage studies with mixed results, and their labels say so.
How does the pomodoro timer work?
Press start and a round begins: 25 minutes of work by default, then a 5-minute break, with a 15-minute long break after 4 rounds. The work length is adjustable. During breaks the sound switches to Calm, and the round countdown shows on the lock screen, so the phone can stay face down.
Music generated live
6 genres are synthesized on the device while you listen: Deep Techno, Drum & Bass, Deep House, Lo-fi Beats, Ambient Flow, Drone. Each mode drives its own tempo and melody, and the track evolves as the session goes on: layers come and go, the harmony moves, sections breathe. No two sessions are the same, and nothing is streamed. The music engine is part of Premium.
How does the sound adapt to me?
- Your room. A two-second listen through the microphone sets the playback level for the noise around you. The audio is measured and discarded on the device.
- Your hearing. An AirPods hearing test or an audiogram in Apple Health balances the two ears: the app compares loss above 3 kHz with loss below 1 kHz and caps the correction at +6 dB per ear.
- Your pulse. Heart rate from Apple Health can pace the waves.
- The weather and the hour. With the weather feature on, rounded coordinates go to a weather service and the forecast can pick the sound; the time of day shapes the palette.
- Your ring. If you have tuned your tinnitus pitch, the masking notch stays in place under every focus mode.
What is free?
The ring finder and the core Focus mode, Three soundscapes: White noise, Rain, Ocean, A sleep timer are free with no time limit. Premium adds the other seven modes, the music engine, notched masking, the full soundscape library, per-ear tuning, every sleep timer and your progress history. Premium is $4.99 a week, $9.99 a month, $59.99 a year, or $129.99 once for Lifetime. Monthly and yearly start with a 3-day free trial. Details in the Subscription Terms.
Questions
Do the focus sounds actually work?
Honestly: the evidence varies by mode, and we label every mode with its level. The gentle amplitude pulse behind Focus and Deep Focus follows an approach validated in a large 2024 peer-reviewed study; binaural and 40 Hz modes carry moderate or lab-stage evidence and say so on their card. Nothing in the app pretends to be medicine, and the best test is a free session with your actual to-do list.
Do I need headphones for the focus modes?
Only for Study and Calm, the two binaural modes, because they send a slightly different tone to each ear. Every other mode works through a speaker.
Which mode should I start with?
Focus, the free one. It is the gentle version of the approach with the strongest evidence. If you know your mind is busy, try Deep Focus: it is the stronger variant and the one the app recommends after its short attention check-in.
Can I use Quietra for sleep as well?
Yes. Wind Down plays slow swells over quiet masking, and the sleep timers fade the sound out after 15, 30, 60 minutes or run until morning.
Quietra on the App Store · Read next: how the tinnitus masking works · Support