about

Lubb is made by one person. This page says who, and how, and what the app will never do.

who

Lubb is designed, built and supported by Oğuzhan Taşımaz, a software engineer in Istanbul. There is no company behind it and no team: the code, the sound, the words on this site and the replies to support mail all come from the same person. If something is wrong, the person who can fix it is the one reading your message. You can also find that person on GitHub.

how the beat is made

The beat is not a recording and not a buzz. It is a two-part heartbeat, the soft swell and its answer, described as data and played through the iPhone's Taptic Engine, the hardware that makes a keyboard tap feel like a tap. Because it is data rather than a fixed loop, the pace, the feel and the strength can all change without the rhythm falling apart.

The optional sound is synthesized rather than sampled, and it was tuned by measuring it against real heart recordings from a public clinical archive. A heart sound is low and quiet, and every attempt to make it louder or brighter stopped it sounding like one. So it stays low, and the Taptic Engine carries the body of the beat.

Every setting in the app exists because a pillow changed something. Feel and Strength are there because bedding absorbs a different amount on every bed. The single beat you can tap on the main screen is there so you can judge a change without starting a session. Drift, which begins a little quicker and eases down, is there because a heart that is already asleep is easier to follow than one that starts slow and stays there.

what it will never do

Lubb will not measure you. It does not read your heartbeat, track your sleep or score your night: there is nothing to sign up for, and nothing about your night leaves the phone. It will not promise you anything either. It is for comfort, not treatment, and it says so in the app, on the App Store and here.

two inconvenient facts, stated first

iPhone haptics only play while an app is in the foreground, so the screen stays on for the whole session. It turns true black, which costs an OLED iPhone almost nothing, but it is on. And a night of haptics uses real battery, so you start the night charged and never charge under a pillow. Both are in the App Store description and in the app itself before you buy anything. A sleep app that hid them would earn better first impressions and worse second nights.

paying for it

Ten minutes a night is free, with no account, for as long as you want it. Longer sessions are Lubb Plus: a yearly plan that starts with a free week, or a one-time purchase that never renews. There is no monthly plan, on purpose. A bedtime app should not be one more small recurring worry.

get in touch

The fastest route is Get in touch in the app's settings, which sends your setup along with the message so the reply can be useful straight away. Otherwise write to otasimaz@gmail.com. Replies usually take a day or two. The support page has the answers to the questions people ask most.

For comfort, not treatment. Lubb isn't a medical device.