Kite, one year on: what slow design measured

Kite went into beta in August 2025 and launched publicly in January. We designed it around a bet: that a breathing app with no streaks, no badges and no reminders would keep people longer than one that nagged them. A year later, Kite's team shared the numbers with us.

What we measured

• The average session is four minutes. In the prototype it was forty seconds.
• 61% of people who breathe on their first day are still breathing daily a month later.
• Fewer than 2% of people turned on the optional reminder.

That last number surprised us most. We had argued for weeks about whether to include a reminder at all. In the end we hid it in settings, and almost nobody went looking for it.

What we would change

Not everything worked. The evening session, which slows the shape further, is used by only one person in ten. People told us it felt too slow to follow, which is a lesson we will take into the next version: slow is a choice, not a virtue on its own.

We are working with Kite again this winter, on a version for children. It will breathe at the same pace.