How it works
How WellPal works. One habit at a time.
Everything, in the order you’ll meet it.
01One at a time
Why changes don’t stick and what helps.
A change can break in five places. So WellPal works on one habit at a time.
Caring enough
The problem doesn’t feel real enough to act on.
“I know I sleep badly. It’s fine.”
Knowing what to do
Wanting to change doesn’t tell you what to do tonight.
“I should sleep earlier. But how?”
Doing it
A plan that’s easy at noon is hard at eleven at night.
“I’ll start tomorrow.”
Knowing it worked
Doing it doesn’t tell you whether it’s helping.
“I don’t know if any of this is working.”
Coming back
On a quiet day, there’s no reason to open the app.
The six habits
You work on one habit at a time. While one is running, the app won’t start another.
Sessions
Move more often42 sessions5 minWhy 66? In Lally’s 2010 study, that was the typical time a new habit took to feel automatic. The shorter programs cover a smaller change.
Between habits
No program right now. I’ll be ready when you start one from the wind-down card on Home.
When you stop a habit, nothing is deleted.
02What it measures
It won’t guess. It tells you.
If WellPal can’t measure something, it says so. You’ll see it in eight places.
The weeks widget
“7 weeks · one not measured”
The energy widget
“Yesterday’s number isn’t today’s, so I’m not showing one.”
The rhythm line
“Your typical rhythm · a template, not a measurement”
The energy widget, early on
“Not enough measured yet for a number.”
A night with no score
“Too little came in. I’d rather leave a gap than guess.”
The graph
“A dash is a night I couldn’t read.”
Health data, in You
“Nothing is arriving. Either it isn’t shared with WellPal, or there’s nothing recorded. Apple doesn’t let apps tell which.”
The Home card
“Read from Apple Health.”
The details
What each one means
- The weeks widget
- A week it couldn’t read shows as a gap, never as an empty bar.
- The energy widget
- The widget stays blank rather than show yesterday’s number as today’s.
- The rhythm line
- A general pattern is labeled as one, so you never mistake it for your own data.
- The energy widget, early on
- It doesn’t say how many more nights it needs, because it can’t know.
- A night with no score
- A night without enough data gets this line, not a zero.
- The graph
- This note appears only when the graph actually shows a gap.
- Health data, in You
- It doesn’t pretend to know which one it is.
- The Home card
- It names where the data came from, not the device. It never checks which watch you wear.
A zero means nothing happened. A gap means it couldn’t see.
Four kinds of empty
A day that has finished
Nothing from Apple Health for this day.
Today, still going
Nothing from Apple Health so far today.
A day it hasn’t checked yet
Nothing read for this day yet.
Access it hasn’t asked for yet
Not connected yet. Ask in You, under Health data.
What counts as sleep
Counted as sleep4
- Asleep, kind not recorded
- Core sleep
- Deep sleep
- REM sleep
Never counted as sleep2
- In bedTime in bed isn’t time asleep. It covers the whole night, awake or not.
- AwakeA watch records the times you wake in the night. Counting them would add time spent lying awake to your sleep.
Before it writes about your day
- “you walked 8400 steps”It isn’t a number the app worked out from your data.
- “you slept 7.2 hours”No decimals. Ever.
- “78% adherence”No percent signs.
- “you slept seven hours”A number spelled out is still a number.
This check runs in two places: the Insight line on Home, and the “Your day” card at the end of a night.
03Your data
It reads your data. It never changes it.
It asks Apple Health for permission to read, and never to change a thing.
Allow to read 29
- Sleep
- Steps
- Heart rate
- Resting heart rate
- Heart rate variability
- Walking heart rate average
- Blood pressure, systolic
- Blood pressure, diastolic
- Blood oxygen
- Respiratory rate
- Blood glucose
- Body mass
- Body fat percentage
- Height
- Active energy
- Dietary energy
- Exercise minutes
- Stand hours
- Flights climbed
- Walking and running distance
- Walking speed
- Walking step length
- Double support percentage
- Walking asymmetry
- VO₂ max
- Workouts
- Activity summary
- Date of birth
- Biological sex
Allow to write 0
Where your data goes
Where your Apple Health data is stored
- This iPhoneall 6
- iCloud syncnone
- Our servernever
You can turn off any of it, at any time, in Apple Health.
When you talk to Pal
What’s sent
What you type to Pal, a short summary of your day, and what Pal remembers about you. Any numbers in it are ones you already see in the chat.
What’s never sent
Your name, your email, your contacts, your promise, your drawings, your full Apple Health history.
Under both lists, the app says: “WellPal keeps none of it after the reply. Never used to train.”
If you turn it off
Turn this off and I still work. Shorter, and only from what’s on this phone.
Off, the setting reads “off · nothing leaves”. On, it reads “on · what leaves, itemised” and shows the two lists above.
04Talking to Pal
Pal checks the facts before it talks.
The app works out every number. An AI model only puts it into words.
What Pal looked at
- Slept about 6 hours last night.
- Has taken about 4200 steps so far today.
- Resting heart rate is around 58 today.
Compared with your own usual, never with anyone else’s.
What Pal said
“Evening. Tonight’s step is ready when you are.”
What never leaves your phone
- Your name
- Your medication list
- What your calendar events are called
- Your full Apple Health history
What Pal can and can’t see
Pal can look up five things about your day, and nothing else. It never works out a health number on its own.
Each one, and where it comes from
- today’s energy readApple Health
- your recent nightsApple Health
- your program and streakyour program
- today’s checklistyour day list
- today’s busy times and remindersCalendar
What Pal thinks is worth mentioning
And the change has to be at least
- Sleep45 min
- Wake time45 min
- Resting heart rate3 bpm
- Steps1,500
- Active energya quarter of your own average
What Pal can never send
- Your nameThere’s no place for it in what Pal sends.
- Your medication listPal has no way to read it.
- What your events are calledPal only sees when an event starts and ends, and whether it’s all day.
- Your Apple Health historyAt most five short notes about today are sent.
Three things Pal can offer to do
- 01Add a reminder or a calendar event
- 02Save a reading you mentioned
- 03Note that you took or skipped one of your medications
You confirm each oneUp to 3 a day
05The steps
A few short steps, right when it matters.
Pal walks you through them, with a short version for hard days.
- Dim your screens and lights
- Shower or wash up15 min
- Wind-down breathing4 min
- Phone on the charger
- Lights outthe key step
- Lights out, whenever you’re ready.
The details
The short version
Full19 min
Short3 min
- Dim your screens and lightsDim one light
- Shower or wash up15 minFace and teeth, two minutes2 min
- Wind-down breathing4 minFour slow breaths1 min
- Phone on the chargerPhone face down across the room
- Lights outLights outthe key step
All six habits
| Habit | When | Steps | Key step | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Late-night scrolling | Evening | 4 | Park the phone | 28 nights |
| Sleep earlier | Evening | 5 | Lights out | 66 nights |
| Move more often | Your session time | 4 | The workout | 42 sessions |
| Steady energy | Across the day | 4 | Daylight after waking | 28 days |
| Wake on time | Evening, then morning | 4 | Up at the first alarm | 42 days |
| Late caffeine | Afternoon into evening | 3 | Afternoon swap | 21 days |
Given the choice, people skip the hard step, and that’s the one doing the work. So Pal never offers to skip the key step.
What Pal says at each step
Let’s tuck the phone in on its charger. It’s done for today.
Each step has a short name for the list, and a gentle line Pal says to you. A name that looks fine in a plan can sound bossy at eleven at night.
Beyond the evening
The midday reset
Five, eight or twelve minutes, timed for your usual afternoon dip. If it can’t find a dip in your data, it doesn’t suggest a time at all.
What a focus session earns
Nothing.
No score, no streak, no running count.
06Your goal
Your goal moves only when you do.
For three habits, it’s a time on the clock. It moves 15 minutes, at most once a week.
- Eight good weeks
- Some weeks stayed put
- A hard month, then back
Move
Your goal moves 15 minutes, if you say yes.
Hold
Your goal stays where it is. That’s fine.
Ease back
Your goal goes back a step. It’s easier, so it doesn’t ask first.
Pause
Your goal stops moving until you’ve had two steady weeks.
How your goal moves
Your own nights decide when your goal moves. Only a step forward asks you first.
Which habits have a clock time
- Moves a time15 minutes a stepSleep earlierLate-night scrollingWake on time
- Moves a countone session a stepMove more often
- Doesn’t moveno time it can measureSteady energyLate caffeine
Where your goal starts
14 nights, and when you fell asleep on eachexample
It looks at your last 14 nights and needs at least 7 with data. With fewer, it doesn’t set a goal or claim anything.
What each week decides
- 3 or fewerEase back
- 4Hold
- 5 or moreMove
Earlier always counts
It moves, never shrinks
- Now
- A step earlier
- Never shorter
Your nights have to move too
You did the steps all 7 nights this week.
your nights moved
Your goal moves forward
You did the steps all 7 nights this week.
your nights did not
Your goal stays for now
half a step: seven and a half minutes since your goal last moved
When it asks you first
A step forward asks
Nothing changes until you choose. Tonight’s goal stays the same until then.
A step back doesn’t
It just happens
It only ever makes things easier, and never goes past where you started. Nothing gets harder than your first night.
A pause doesn’t either
3 short nights
Each one also below your usual, or a week averaging 45 minutes less sleep than usual. Your goal stops moving until it sees 2 steady weeks.
Protecting your sleep
Two limits, an hour apartfor an adult
- It won’t set a goal that cuts your time for sleep below this7 hours
- Sleep less than this and the night counts as a short one6 hours
What’s yours, and what’s fixed
Yours alone
- Where your goal starts
- Where it’s heading
- Which way it moves
- What each week decides
- The mark your next step is measured from
The same for everyone
- 15 minutes a step
- At most one step every 7 days
- Never more than 2 hours from where you started
- Move forward at 5 in 7 of the nights it read, ease back at 3 in 7 or fewer
- At least 5 nights read before a week counts
07Missed nights
Missed a night? That’s okay.
Miss a night. Your streak holds. Miss two in a row, and a freeze covers it.
- done
- missed
- covered by a freeze
- rest day
- tonight
What happened
What WellPal does
- Miss onethe run holds. The next night I offer you the 2 minute version.
- Miss againone of your 2 freezes covers it.
- Your first 7 clean nightsearn you one repair. If a run breaks while you’re holding it, you have 3 days to bring it back.
- What you have already donestays done, either way.
Freezes and repairs
If you miss two in a row
On a quiet night, a freeze covers it. Once they’re spent, the streak starts over. What you’ve kept stays yours.
A repair isn’t a freeze. You get 2 freezes when a streak starts. A repair is earned once per habit, and it doesn’t refill your freezes. At the bottom of the streak screen, the app says: “Nothing here counts against you.”
08Experiments
Try a change. See what moves.
Try one change for 7 or 14 nights.
Fell asleep earlier minutes
1 — it tells you it changed5 — it says your change did it
Slept longer minutes
5 — it tells you it changed10 — it says your change did it
How it compares
WellPal compares the nights you try it with your 14 nights before. Only the nights you actually kept the change count.
It also needs at least 4 nights where you kept the change, and 4 nights from before, each with data. It checks this separately for each thing it measures, so it might tell you how long you slept but not when you fell asleep.
Noticing a change is easy. Saying you caused it takes more proof.
When nothing changed
Nothing moved that I can see. Some changes need longer than two weeks, and some aren’t yours.
A real result gets a card you can share. When nothing changed, you get a plain screen and no card, so it can’t be dressed up as a win.
When it went the wrong way
It went the other way this time. Worth another try, or a different change.
A change that made things worse still gets a card. Only “nothing changed” doesn’t.
Where the ideas come from
Each change you can try comes with the study behind it, and a link. For example: “Caffeine six hours before bed cut measured sleep by an hour in one study, and nobody noticed.”
09Finishing a habit
Done means it sticks.
Reaching your goal isn’t the end. Pal asks if it’s become a habit.
One last check
Before we call it changed: did the wind-down mostly run on its own this week, without you pushing it?
Then it isn’t quite automatic, and that’s the last stretch. Keep the sequence going and I’ll ask again in a week.
Before and after
After 14 nights
12:3012:15usually asleep
Your target moved fifteen minutes, one small step at a time.
“You kept it six of seven nights before I moved it. That’s yours.”
Before that
Nothing to compare yet
After 14 nights
Then, the next habit
This one holds on its own now. Where should we look next?
Each suggestion for your next habit says where it came from, like “From your own logged days.”
How it compares before and after
It compares “Measured days from the four weeks before your program, against its last two.” If either side has too little data, it shows the days you completed instead.
10By design
Built right from the start.
It never asks to change your Health data. And a pause lifts only after weeks it can see.
After a pauseTwo good weeks
- A week it could see, and it went badly
- A week it could see, and it went fine
- A week with no data
- A week it could see, and it went fine
Why these matter
It can’t change your Health data
WellPal never asks your iPhone for permission to change your Health data, and your iPhone can’t grant what was never asked for. Asking even once would add that switch to your Health settings for good. The full list of what it reads is in chapter 03.
A pause that waits for real data
If your sleep really drops, your goal stops moving until WellPal has seen two steady weeks. It has to actually see them. A watch left in a drawer doesn’t count.
You’ll probably never see this happen. It’s there so the app can’t decide you’re fine just because it stopped getting data.