Cigarette & Vape Counter Ride out a cigarette craving with a 3-minute timer and breathing
Many people find a craving eases within a few minutes if they do not act on it, but it varies from person to person. Cigarette & Vape Counter gives you something to do during those minutes: a 3-minute countdown and a paced breathing exercise, both free, from the Home screen.
How long does a cigarette craving last?
A single craving tends to build and then fade, rather than grow forever. How long it lasts is different for everyone and changes over time, so no app can promise a number.
What helps is having a plan for the next few minutes. The craving timer is exactly that: a short, fixed task that keeps your hands and attention busy. The first few times, three minutes can feel long; it tends to feel shorter with repeated use.
How do you start the craving timer?
- On Home, find Having a craving? and tap Start 3-min craving timer.
- Tap Start — I Can Do This. A 3-minute countdown starts, with short encouraging lines.
- If you set a My Why Photo, it appears on this screen as a reminder.
- Want something more active? Tap Try Breathing Exercise.
A breathing technique for nicotine cravings
The Breathing Exercise guides you through 5 cycles of slow breathing, with a longer out-breath than in-breath.
| Phase | Seconds |
|---|---|
| Breathe in | 4 |
| Hold | 4 |
| Breathe out | 6 |
| Rest | 2 |
| One cycle | 16 |
| 5 cycles | 80 |
The whole exercise takes 80 seconds. You can run it more than once, or go back to the 3-minute countdown.
What counts after you finish
- A finished session counts as a craving survived and earns XP toward your level.
- If you connected Apple Health (Settings, Connect to Apple Health), each finished breathing session is saved as Mindful Minutes.
- Both tools are free. The paywall mentions craving games, but nothing about the craving tools is locked.
Why a fixed task helps
A craving is easier to sit through when you know exactly when it ends. The countdown gives you a finish line, and the breathing pattern gives you something to count instead of thinking about the cigarette. If the urge is still there at zero, you can run the breathing exercise again or simply start another round.
Every finished session is also a small record that you got through one without smoking, which you can see build up over time.
Tips
- Start the timer the moment you notice the urge, before you reach for the pack or the vape.
- Move somewhere else for the 3 minutes if you can, away from the place you usually smoke.
- If you smoke anyway, log it with Details and tick Craving or the real trigger. Next time you will know the situation to plan for.
- The same timer works for vape cravings.
Questions and answers
Does the craving timer work for vaping too?
Do I need Apple Health for the breathing exercise?
Is the craving timer free?
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