Top Problems With Meditation Timer Apps in 2026

We analyzed 26 negative reviews from the top 5 Meditation Timer apps on the App Store. Here's what users hate most.

26
Reviews Analyzed
10
Issues Found
78/100
Opportunity Score

Top User Complaints

Ranked by frequency — how often each complaint appears in negative reviews.

#1: Timer stops when screen sleeps/phone locks

High Severity

42% of negative reviews mention this issue.

"Every time that the screen is turned off or goes to sleep, the timer stops, so the alarm never goes off and the session is not logged"
"When your phone goes to sleep, the timer just stops and fails to notify you when your session is done"

#2: End bell/notification doesn't sound or is unreliable

High Severity

35% of negative reviews mention this issue.

"the end bell is unreliable and often never sounds"
"there's no alert at the end of the session"

#3: Doesn't work in silent/muted mode

High Severity

27% of negative reviews mention this issue.

"The only major gripe I have is the app doesn't work on silent mode. The starting gong sound doesn't play in silen"
"I keep my phone on Silent all the time. This app doesn't play its sounds if the phone is in silent mode"

#4: Interval bells/sounds no longer work after updates

High Severity

12% of negative reviews mention this issue.

"Since the most recent update, the interval function no longer works"
"I've been happily using this app for several years, but after the new update my interval sounds are no longer playing. I get the start bell and the end bell but not the bells at the 3 intervals I have set"

#5: Screen sleep settings broken (can't enable or stuck disabled)

Medium Severity

8% of negative reviews mention this issue.

"Really nice app but screen sleep is stuck in disabled! Wastes battery :("
"Screen sleep doesn't work"

#6: Excessive battery drain after updates

Medium Severity

4% of negative reviews mention this issue.

"However, the app started consuming a lot of battery. Considering that it's just a simple stopwatch and not a complex graphical application, this is unacceptable"

UX Pain Points

Design and usability issues driving negative reviews.

App closes/crashes when changing settings

Users cannot adjust basic settings like meditation duration without the app crashing entirely

"Great app - but recently does not let me change the duration of my meditation session. The app just closes"

Incorrect session logging and date tracking

Meditation sessions are logged to wrong dates, making tracking unreliable

"For some reason when I do a meditation at 9pm it saves it for the next day. When I add a session for a previous day it saves it on the bar graph as the current day, making my trac"

Apple Watch app unreliable

Watch app stops working when screen sleeps and doesn't record sessions

"the watch app is erratic on my v1 watch - sometimes the timer stops as soon as the watch face sleeps"

Unwanted feature bloat in updates

Recent updates added unnecessary features that clutter the previously simple interface

"Recently this app added a lot of features that I don't care for but are impossible to avoid. It's cluttered the app significantly"

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