Sonic Relax review

Sonic Relax is an app that vibrates your iPhone and sends out inaudible sound frequencies to aid in muscle relaxing, improve circulation, or help with aches and pains. It costs $0.99 and is released by AppTouch for the iPhone.

The concept is interesting, though it has been done before. The uniqueness of this app is the sound frequency that I can’t feel nor am I supposed to hear. The iPhone is not exactly the strongest vibration device ever created, so it seems to be ill suited for purely massage purposes.

The instructions are simple enough. Choose a massage style; apply to that part of the body. This app comes with different areas of treatment such as Hair (scalp area), cervical (neck), waist (back), and shoulders. Each setting has different rates in which the vibration pulses, and apparently each one has a different sound that comes out at below 20 Hz. Also, during the vibration process, the app will bring up instructions for use, such as how long you are supposed to you a vibration setting for or where specifically you place it.

Outside of spending my iPhone’s battery life, I can barely feel any effect at all. This isn’t the app’s fault necessarily, but I believe the iPhone’s vibration motor is just really weak. Most massagers send massive vibrations into the body, some of which can vibrate your bones, but this one can barely be felt. I can’t give any testimony for the sounds since it’s not supposed to be audible by humans, which is great for a reviewer eh? I don’t know about the science behind this app, but I don’t trust that it works on my iPhone.

As a general warning to all iPhone/iPod users, avoid ‘massager’ apps, especially if they cost money. If this app is any indicator, they do nothing, the effects are subject to lots of debate, and I can’t even begin to understand how they are supposed to prove the effects of an app on a mobile device as a genuine health care tool.

If it works, then they would explain how on the app itself, though I couldn’t find any information relating to how this stuff is supposed to work on the developer’s website. I really don’t want you guys and gals reading this to spend your hard earned money on something that just doesn’t work so I can’t recommend this app and hope you read this before you download.

AppSafari Rating: 1.5/5

AppSafari review of Sonic Relax was written by Joseph Ho on August 9th, 2010 and categorized under App Store, Health, Utilities. Page viewed 4322 times, 2 so far today. Need help on using these apps? Please read the Help Page.