Exhale
Exhale is a sanctuary designed just for Black women—a space to release daily stress, reconnect with breath, and reclaim peace. With every visit, users are reminded they deserve rest, healing, and emotional well-being, in a space made intentionally for them.
About the project
What we’ve done
Web & Mobile Development
Project Management
Quality Assurance
From Vision to Reality
Great products don’t happen by chance. Through research, strategy, and design, we shape raw ideas into seamless experiences that make an impact.
Challenge
The Exhale app is by and for Black and Indigenous women of color and was meant to deliver content that speaks to and meets their particular needs for self-care, meditation and mindfulness.
Solution
A simple and beautiful experience with a “breathing orb” on entry and the ability to easily find what users need – guided meditation, breathwork, or ambient sound – given the time they have.
Results
With its gorgeous design and high-quality content, this five-star app was flagged by the App Store for a feature within days of publishing.
Design
experience value without friction, and simplified login with a phone number and text code. Inside the app, we designed an intuitive flow that starts by asking users what they need—Guided Journey, Breath, or Sound—then tailors a suggestion based on how much time they have. The experience is soft, elegant, and supportive, from the glowing user avatar on the home screen to offline meditation saving and mindful nudges throughout the day. Within days of launch, Exhale was featured by the App Store—proof that peace, when thoughtfully designed, resonates deeply.
Our main challenge was to redesign Exhale into a deeply intentional space made by and for Black and Indigenous women of color, replacing a templated no-code version that lacked soul and polish. We partnered with Katara McCarty to create a seamless, welcoming experience that removes every possible barrier between the user and a moment of mindfulness. The app launches with a personalized greeting and a breathing orb—no taps needed—to help users begin with calm, even before exploring further. We eliminated the need for accounts or passwords up front, allowing people to
Project Roadmap
Design
Development
Ongoing Maintenance
Exhale is the first meditation and mindfulness app specifically for Black and Indigenous women.
Katara McCarty is an activist and serial social entrepreneur who wanted to create the first meditation and mindfulness app specifically for Black and Indigenous women, with design, imagery and content created by BIWOC and for their particular needs. Katara had built the app initially with a white label, no-code solution that helped her get to market quickly and validate her idea. But the user experience just wasn’t at the level of quality Katara wanted to deliver, so we partnered to make that upgrade happen. We wanted to get rid of any barrier between the user and mindfulness, so we made it happen immediately and every time. There’s no need for users to commit to listening to a meditation or to tap even once, anywhere, to enter a mindful state. On every open, they are welcomed by name, and a glowing orb expands and contracts with the words “inhale” and “exhale.” Users can stay and breathe (a timer appears in this case) or enter the app after one mindful breath. Exhale's home page shows the user's face, glowing with light, and a count of days they’ve taken at least that one breath with Exhale.
BIWOC
Health & Wellbeing
Femtech
Lifestyle
iOS
Android
What we delivered
From Vision to Reality: We Bring Ideas to Life with Precision, Innovation, and Excellence.
Design
Designed easy-to-use, beautiful and calming user experience for meditation search and tracking in partnership with the client
Interface design utilizing provided brand strategy
Animation design to create a unique experience throughout the product
Development
Agile development process with a focus on optimizing interface design and animation implementation
Team of two developers focusing on React Native for iOS and Android app development, and backend app development
Dedicated project manager and quality assurance (QA) specialists
Ongoing maintenance
Tech Stack
Backend
Nest.js // framework
MongoDB (+ Mongoose) // mongoose - ODM
In App Purchase (Apple/Android) // payments
AWS s3 // storage
Swagger // API documentation
JWT, passport, argon2 // Auth
Twilio // 2FA
Mailchimp // marketing
CRON // scheduler
Mailgun // mailing
Sharp // media file compression
Eslint, Prettier // linter, code formatter
Mobile
React Native
Typescript
React Query
React Native Skia // 2D Graphics Library (ORB animation)
React Native Reanimated
Appcenter
React-native-firebase
React Navigation V6
React Native IAP // in app purchases
React-native-track-player // play audio tracks
Frontend
Angular 13 // framework
NgRx // store
RxJs // stream processing
Angular Material, CDK, Ngx // UI components
Lodash // utility library
Moment & Moment timezone // date processing & manipulation
Cropper JS // picture processing
Quill // What you see is what you get editor
Core Features
Breathing orb and timer
Simple questions that lead to suggested meditations
Dynamic “Thought of the Day” with notifications
User profile
Web-based CMS to manage Thoughts of the Day, The Latest content, and Meditations
Save and download meditations for offline listening
Meditation listening with unique full-circle progress tracking bar
Manage notifications for Thought of the Day, meditation reminders, and The Latest
Menu of meditations categorized by type. Search bar and filter options for time and type.
We had a great experience.
CEO, Exhale App
Thanks to WLCM App Studio's efforts, the app had a better UX and a paywall. The team delivered tasks on time and responded promptly to the client's concerns. The app's detailed design resulted in an exceptional final product. Overall, the team's enthusiasm and diligence impressed the client.