A field guide to the Lissa app: Sound that knows what you’re doing.
Lissa is an app of soundscapes — generative music, synthesized beats, colored noise and recorded sound — that take the shape of what you’re doing: a stretch of work with breaks, a walk, a slow breath, a night. This guide covers how it works, what it costs, and where to get it.
Facts checked October 2026.
At a glance
Lissa in seven lines
- What it is
- Adaptive soundscapes with timers, alarms and visuals for eight intentions, from Focus to Sleep.
- Made by
- LISSA LLC, a US company.
- Runs on
- iPhone and iPad (iOS 27 or later), and a web player at lissa.app. Apple Watch and Android are planned.
- Price
- $14.99 a month, or $69.99 a year with 7 days free. Premium Family: $19.99 a month or $99.99 a year. Students, educators and healthcare workers: 50% off for a year. Teams: $55.99 a seat a year, from 10 seats.
- Free to try
- One free soundscape on the web; 7 days free.
- Account
- Optional in the app; needed for the web player.
- Headphones
- Needed for binaural beats; isochronic beats, music and noise play on speakers.
01 · How it works
Pick what you’re doing. The sound takes its shape.
Most sound apps hand you a recording and a sleep timer. Lissa starts from the thing you are about to do and builds the sound, and the time, around it.
- 1
Choose an intention
Focus, Breathe, Move, Sleep, Relax, Nap, Awaken or Heal. Each has music of its own and a set of session patterns: a Pomodoro, a box breath, an interval walk, a night that ends on an alarm.
- 2
A soundscape plays in layers
Generative music assembled from recorded parts as it plays, binaural, monaural or isochronic beats synthesized on the phone, colored noise, and recorded sounds such as rain or a stream. A mixer opens every layer, and a mix you like can be saved.
- 3
A session gives it a shape
A Focus session draws in, holds for deep work, and eases out. The beat moves through its band, the music's tempo and energy change on the beat, and alarms mark the breaks and the end.
What “adaptive” means here
Lissa keeps a daily rhythm worked out from your sleep and a few details you give it, so a soundscape at 7 a.m. starts somewhere different from one at 11 p.m. You can add signals one by one — heart rate, last night’s sleep, how you’re moving, the weather outside — and each shapes the sound. A card called the Sound Engine shows, live, what is shaping the sound.
02 · The eight intentions
A guide for each thing it’s for
The four you will probably reach for most have a full guide here. The other four link to their pages on lissa.app.
Focus
GuideInstrumental music for deep work, a Pomodoro-style timer that rings for breaks, and the apps you choose kept shut.
- Pomodoro · 25 min
- Double Pomodoro · 55 min
- Deep Session · 50 min
- Ultradian Cycle · 1 h 25 min
Sleep
GuideSound from bedtime to morning, or just until you drift off, and a Wake Alarm that rings in silent mode.
- All Night
- Fall Asleep & Ease Awake
- Fall Asleep · 30 min
Breathe
GuidePaced breathing you follow by haptics with your eyes closed, the sound rising and settling with each breath.
- Even · 5 min
- Falling · 10 min
- Rising · 7 min
- Box · 10 min
Move
GuideMusic that keeps time with your steps or heart rate on a walk, a run or a ride, with a bell at every change of pace.
- Stroll · 20 min
- Long Walk · 40 min
- Interval Walk · 40 min
- Steady Pace · 1 h
Relax
lissa.appWarm, slow music for doing nothing at all, timed by a candle on screen that burns down the session.
- Decompress · 13 min
- Unwind · 25 min
- Deep Unwind · 44 min
Nap
lissa.appA short nap at a set length: sound that settles you, holds almost still, and rises before a gentle alarm.
- Catnap · 10 min
- Power Nap · 18 min
- Siesta · 26 min
Awaken
lissa.appDismiss your alarm and a sunrise in sound begins, from a warm hum to a bright morning.
- Quick Morning · 8 min
- Sunrise · 15 min
- Slow Morning · 30 min
Heal
lissa.appAn hour-long sound bath of crystal bowls over a low drone, shaped to land you in silence.
- Basin · 1 h
- Tide · 1 h
- Summit · 1 h
- Squall · 30 min
03 · What’s inside
Six parts, one player
Lissa folds into one app what usually takes several: a sound app, a timer, a breathing app and a focus blocker.
Generative music
Instrumental music made for each intention, from minimal dub techno for deep work to slow, quiet ambient at bedtime. It is assembled from recorded stems while it plays, so it doesn't loop the way a track does. A Performance Rig lets you sweep the filter, add delay, or play a synth that stays in key.
Binaural beats and colored noise
Binaural, monaural and isochronic beats, synthesized on the phone as you listen, with a Range beat for each brainwave band, Delta to Gamma, that moves through its band as a session unfolds. Beside them, colored noise (white, pink, brown, blue, violet, grey and velvet) and sculpted noise textures, made on the device too, with a note on each one's sound. A Session Checklist checks that a binaural beat reaches both ears intact, and the Scope draws it live on an oscilloscope.
Your own music
Bring an Apple Music playlist, a station or one of Apple's own playlists into any soundscape and it becomes the music layer. Play, pause and skip move both together. Set a beat to Adaptive and its tone retunes to each song's key (stations aren't analyzed).
Arrange
Type or say what you want — "a 20-minute power nap", "two Pomodoros with a 10-minute break" — and Arrange builds the session and starts it. It runs on the device, so the request stays there, and it needs a device with Apple's on-device model. It is labelled beta in the app.
Visuals that keep time
A sand Hourglass that runs the session, a Candle you snuff to pause, a Metronome on the beat, and a Sky with the real sun, moon and planets for where you are. Ambient Light fills the screen with a color, and Night Light holds it before fading to black.
The toolkit
Interval timers and alarms; Wind Down and breathing reminders; Block Distracting Apps, which keeps the apps you choose shut until the session ends; live heart rate and haptics; a summary after every session and writes to Apple Health; and a weekly read of your headphone listening against the WHO's safe-listening level.
04 · Is it for you
Who it suits, and who should look elsewhere
A good fit if you…
- work to sound and want the timer and the breaks in the same place as the music
- want binaural beats synthesized live, in every band, rather than a fixed recording
- already listen through Apple Music and want your playlists inside a session
- walk, run or ride and want music that keeps your pace, with a bell for each change
- sleep better with sound all night, and want the alarm in the same app
- care where your data goes: signals are opt-in and stay on the device or in your iCloud
Look elsewhere if you…
- want narrated sleep stories or guided meditation — Calm and Headspace are built around them
- need Android, Windows or a smart speaker today — Endel runs on all of them
- want a sleep tracker that records the night — BetterSleep has one
05 · Price
What it costs
One subscription, Lissa Premium, unlocks everything. Prices below are US dollars; the App Store and the web subscription both charge in your local currency.
| Plan | Monthly | Yearly | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lissa Premium | $14.99 | $69.99 | 7 days free on the yearly plan |
| Premium Family | $19.99 | $99.99 | Shared with up to 5 family members through Family Sharing |
| Students, educators, healthcare workers | $7.49 | $34.99 | 50% off for a year, with verified status, on lissa.app |
| Without a plan | Free | 60-second previews of any soundscape, as often as you like | |
Read from lissa.app’s price list when this page was built. Current prices on lissa.app
06 · Privacy
What it knows about you, and where that lives
The readings for adaptive signals — heart rate, sleep, motion, location and weather — stay on your device or in your private iCloud. Arrange runs on the device, and speech is transcribed there too.
An account is optional, and Delete My Data in the app erases what Lissa holds about you, on the device and on its server.
07 · The research
Read what the studies found
Lissa publishes illustrated articles on the science behind each intention, in the app and on lissa.app.
- The Kitchen Timer and the Radar ScreenWhere the 25-minute work block came from and what the attention research measures.
- Two Tones, One BeatA 6 Hz beat under bedtime music, the trial that measured it, and what it showed.
- The Quietest HoursWhat the research says about sound at bedtime and sound through the night.
- The Rate, the Ratio, and the HoldWhat the research establishes about breathing rate, breath ratio, and the counted patterns built on holds.
- Every Frequency at OnceWhat white, pink, and brown noise are and what happens when people listen to them.
- Walking in Step with a BeatWhat the research shows about rhythm, cadence, and how a walk is dosed.
08 · Questions
Before you try it
Is Lissa free?
On lissa.app you can choose one soundscape and keep it free in the web player. In the app, Lissa Premium starts with 7 days free on the yearly plan.
What do I need to run it?
An iPhone or iPad on iOS 27 or later. The web player at lissa.app runs in a browser with a free Lissa account. Arrange, the feature that builds a session from a sentence, needs a device with Apple's on-device model.
Is it on Android, Apple Watch or the Mac?
Not yet. Lissa is an iPhone and iPad app with a web player. An Apple Watch app and an Android app are planned; if you need either today, Endel is the soundscape app that already runs on both.
Do I need headphones?
For a binaural beat, yes: it works by sending a slightly different tone to each ear. Switch the beat to isochronic and it plays on a speaker too. Music, noise and recorded sounds play on anything.
Is Lissa an AI music app?
One feature is AI: Arrange, which turns a request such as "rain sounds while I read" into a session, and runs on the device. The music is generative, assembled while it plays from recorded parts, and the adaptive playback follows rules and the signals you turn on.
Can I use my own music?
Yes, through Apple Music. A playlist from your library, a station or one of Apple's playlists can take the place of Lissa's music inside any soundscape, under one set of controls. Apple's catalog needs your own Apple Music subscription.
Does it work offline?
Once a soundscape's audio is downloaded, yes. Beats and noise are synthesized on the device and need no download at all.
Do I need an account?
No. An account is optional in the app. It is needed for the web player, a subscription bought on the web, a trial reminder by email and sharing a soundscape.
Will the alarms ring if my phone is on silent?
Yes. Lissa's alarms ring on a locked phone, in silent mode and through a Focus.