How Okolee Works
Where Okolee comes from, what’s free, what happens to your data and what Okolee isn’t
FounderIn Short
Okolee is a mindfulness app with short exercises you do with your eyes open, using whatever is around you - most take two to five minutes. It’s free on iPhone and Android, in English and Czech, with an optional Premium. It isn’t meditation, therapy or a medical device, and missing a day won’t dry out your garden.
The Idea Behind Okolee
Most mindfulness apps ask you to close your eyes and focus on your breath. Okolee invites you to open them and notice the world around you.
The name comes from the Czech word okolí, meaning surroundings. Every exercise is built around the real world - outside, in the city, on public transport, in a waiting room, or at home. There’s always something around you that can become part of the exercise.
That’s also why the results tend to feel tangible instead of abstract. Maybe your head slows down a little. Maybe you feel lighter for a moment. Maybe you just start noticing more of the small things you used to miss. Okolee doesn’t ask for perfection. Just that you come back from time to time and notice the world around you.
Okolee isn’t a magic fix and it’s not a replacement for professional support. It’s a simple tool that helps you step out of your head and back into what’s happening around you right now. Sometimes that helps in a difficult moment. Sometimes it interrupts the constant stream of thoughts. And sometimes you just notice something small that makes your day a little better.
The Roots of Okolee
Mindfulness that grows from the world around you, keeps things playful, stays close to everyday life, and goes beyond the screen
Real-World Mindfulness
Okolee comes from the Czech word “okolí,” meaning surroundings - a reminder that mindfulness goes beyond the mind, into the world around us
Playful & Engaging
Okolee turns everyday situations into playful exercises that help shift attention away from challenging thoughts and back to the present moment
Down-to-Earth
Okolee brings mindfulness into everyday situations, making it practical, realistic, and more accessible for day-to-day life
Tangible Results
Okolee focuses on real, tangible changes in everyday life - helping you experience mindfulness beyond the screen
What an Exercise Looks Like
Every exercise follows the same five steps, and only the middle one is the exercise itself
Select & Prepare
Pick an exercise, then choose how long to practise and which guide voice to hear, or go without guidance.
Guidance
A short recording explains what to look for before you start. It can be skipped, and a written transcript is available.
Beyond the Screen
Put the phone down and do the exercise in the real world. A countdown and a few short Focus Guide steps (such as finding one thing that feels slightly out of place) keep you on track, and both also show on the lock screen.
Reflection
Answer a few quick questions about how it went, such as how much the exercise drew you in and how steady your attention was.
Collect Your Growth
Collect the Growth Points you earned and watch your garden grow.
Most exercises take 2 to 5 minutes, and none run longer than 10 minutes. The guidance recording plays before you start and doesn’t count toward the exercise time.
The Rest Happens Off the Screen
Reading about noticing only gets you so far. The exercises, the guidance and the garden live in the app - free on iPhone and Android.
The Garden and Missed Days
Growth Points show the growth of your plant - with every exercise or Noticbook entry, your plant grows a little, just like you do. The more days in a row you come back, the faster your garden grows - and so do you.
- One missed day
- Nothing happens to your garden. Missed days happen sometimes - an umbrella automatically keeps your streak going. Every 7 days, you get 1 use, and 2 with Premium.
- Two weeks away
- After two weeks without any activity, the garden slowly dries out and stops growing.
- Coming back
- One finished activity is all it takes to get the garden growing again - an exercise or a Noticbook entry both count.
What’s Free and What Isn’t
Okolee has a free version you can use without a trial period.
Free
- Up to 5 exercises and 5 Noticbook entries a day
- Your garden, streaks and reminders
- Finding an exercise for where you are
- Guided recordings in English and Czech
- Your activity for the last 30 days
- One umbrella use a week
- Deleting your account and everything in it
Premium
- Every exercise, the Premium ones included
- Up to 10 exercises and 10 Noticbook entries a day
- Every plant for your garden
- Guidance that may sound a little different each time
- Photos in your Noticbook Highlights
- Your activity for the last 90 days
- Two umbrella uses a week
- Extra app icons
Premium costs US$5.99 a month or US$49.99 a year, shown in your own currency by the App Store or Google Play.
Premium renews automatically. You can cancel it any time in your Apple ID or Google Play subscriptions - cancelling at least 24 hours before the renewal date stops the next payment. And nothing ever interrupts an exercise to sell you Premium.
Your Data, Plainly
- What’s stored
- Your account from Apple or Google sign-in, your exercises and reflections, your Noticbook entries with any photos you add, and a profile photo or username if you set one
- Where
- Mainly on Google Cloud servers in Frankfurt, Germany
- Who sees it
- Only you. Your Noticbook and reflections are never shown to anyone else
- Ads
- None. Your data is never sold or used for advertising
- Usage stats
- Pseudonymous app analytics show what to improve. They’re tied to a random account ID, never your name or email, and you can switch them off any time in Preferences
- Apple Health
- Optional, and Health Connect on Android too. Okolee writes your exercise time there and never reads your other health data
- Deleting it
- Preferences › Delete Account. Your sign-in goes at once, and everything in your account is permanently deleted after a 30-day grace period, within 45 days at the latest
- A copy of it
- Ask at [email protected] and you’ll get one
- Inactive accounts
- Deleted after two years without use, with a notification 30 days before
- Offline
- Not yet - starting an exercise needs a connection
The full, formal version is in Terms & Privacy.
What People Often Assume
“It’s another meditation app”
Actually, no. There’s no sitting still, closing your eyes, or learning breathing techniques. Meditation suits plenty of people - Okolee is for the moments when closing your eyes isn’t an option, or just isn’t your thing.
“Miss a day and the garden dies”
One missed day changes nothing. The garden only dries out after two weeks without any activity, and one finished activity brings it back.
“It’ll push Premium mid-exercise”
Nothing interrupts an exercise. The free version has no trial period and no time limit.
“An AI decides what I do”
There’s no chatbot. Finding an exercise for your situation follows fixed rules, the same for everyone.
“You have to be good at it”
There’s nothing to get right. No posture to hold and no technique to master.
“It’s meant to replace therapy”
No. Okolee is a wellbeing app, not a medical device. It can be a simple way to exercise your attention alongside professional support, but it isn’t a substitute for a therapist or doctor.