Tinnitus Sync

No. The app can work with just your headphones and an iPhone. However, with an Apple Watch, bimodal stimulation might be more effective.

I built Tinnitus Sync specifically for this! You can create multiple saved tinnitus match profiles—for example, a 4000Hz tone panned to your left ear, and a wider 8000Hz hiss panned to your right ear—and play them at the exact same time during a training session.

I personally aim for a minimum of ten minutes a day. When my tinnitus spikes or is particularly bothering me, I’ll increase that to two or three 10-minute sessions throughout the day. There is no single perfect answer—it will vary depending on your specific goals and lifestyle. The most important thing is consistency, so find a daily rhythm that works best for you.

No. Because tinnitus is a symptom with many different underlying causes, there is no cure. Instead, this app is designed to help you achieve habituation—the ability to naturally tune the sound out. Just like you effortlessly ignore the hum of a refrigerator or the chatter in a busy coffee shop. By pairing an audio tone with a physical haptic pulse on your wrist, the app provides a multisensory anchor that helps guide your attention and makes it easier for your brain to relegate tinnitus to the background.

Yes! Oto: Tinnitus Program & Skills I used this app a while back. I purchased a month of the subscription and did the seven-day plan for learning how to relate differently to your tinnitus. It was a form of Cognitive Behaviorial Therapy (CBT), which is analyzing your thoughts and the impacts they have on you. In my case, I considered my tinnitus an interruption in my life. An annoyance. I learned to reframe it for myself. I started developing the app, at which point my tinnitus became a tool for app development and testing. I learned to give myself compassion for the constant experience of tinnitus. Oto did a good job of guiding me through the program. I will admit, I'd had a lot of previous experience with CBT, which helped me get the most from the Oto app.

Tinnitus is a miserable condition. I've been dealing with it myself since 2005, and over the years, I've found precious few tools that were actually helpful for me. I decided to build my own tool. I've found it useful for myself so I wanted to make it available for others with tinnitus.

Absolutely. It is my hope that this app can eventually support me. Because I insist on keeping the core training tools free for anyone who needs them, I am relying entirely on a support model. If this app brings you some peace and quiet, and you have the means to do so, you can become a Pro Supporter or you can leave a tip in the Support tab of the app. Either form of help ensures I can dedicate regular time to the app.

When I first started with the app, I wanted a more sophisticated form of audio calming using spatial audio. I have a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, so I have a deep knowledge of electrical physics and signal processing. I got into the weeds working on that and realized it would take more engineering than I expected.

I realized that pairing audio with haptic feedback on the Apple Watch was incredibly effective for my own habituation. Once I got this working for myself, I realized others could probably benefit from it. That meant getting it polished, app-store ready, and published.

I want to use tinnitus matches for calming. I have no idea what that means, but my intuition tells me there might be something there. Outside of that it would be improving the match interface to support more kinds of tinnitus and considering alternative training program styles.