The Evolution of Sauna Assistant

What's New in 26.10

• 🌸 Two New Sessions:

  Discover Spring and Lotus, two new ambient themes to elevate your sauna experience and bring the app to 16 total themes.

• 📱 Home Screen Widgets:

  Add Sauna Assistant to your home screen. Three new widgets let you quickly start a session, see your last session summary, or check your streak and stats at a glance.

• 🏆 Achievement Icons:

  Achievements now display richer, more distinct icons that better reflect each milestone category: streaks, sessions, time, variety, and rounds.

iCloud Sync & Achievements

Version 26.9 is here, bringing our biggest update yet to your daily wellness ritual with seamless backup and a brand new progress system.

• ☁️ Seamless iCloud Sync:

  Your sessions, maintenance logs, and settings now automatically backup to your private iCloud. Your data is always up to date across all your devices.

• 🏆 Achievements & Streaks:

  Track your consecutive sauna days right from the Home tab and unlock special milestone badges as you deepen your practice.

• 🏠 Refined Home Experience:

  We have redesigned the Home tab to put your wellness journey front and center, from sensor reporting to your tip of the day.

• 🛠️ Fixes & Improvements:

  Resolved a sensor toggle issue and implemented under-the-hood performance optimizations for a smoother experience.

The "Share Your Story" Update

A complete overhaul of how you share your sauna sessions, plus live environmental charts to keep you informed in the heat.

• 📸 New Share & Story Experience:

  Create stylish sauna story cards with multiple templates. Add your own focused photo background from Camera or Photos for personalized post-session shares.

• 📈 Live Environmental Chart:

  Now available during sessions! See real-time sensor values and round tracking with a clean, live chart overlay.

• 🤘 Better Reliability:

  Improved session recovery after backgrounding, smarter silent-session media controls, and overall stability fixes.

• 🍎 Health Export:

  Improved accuracy for export timing, ensuring your rounds match up perfectly in Apple Health.

Sauna Everywhere & Maintenance Journal

Extend your sauna control to all your Apple devices and keep your saunas in top shape with detailed maintenance logs.

• 🖥️ Multi-Platform Control:

  Control your sauna’s activity from anywhere! Manage your session via Live Activities on your Apple Watch, Mac, or iPad.

• 📓 Maintenance Journal:

  Keep a detailed journal of your sauna’s maintenance, with support for tracking multiple Saunas.

The "Welcome Aboard" Update

A new 4-page onboarding flow introduces you to everything Sauna Assistant can do — get started faster and discover features you'll love.

• 🌡️ Your Preferred Units:

  Choose between Celsius and Fahrenheit in settings, and the entire app will respect your preference.

• ⏱️ Improved Round Tracking:

  Each round now tracks exactly when it started and ended, giving you more accurate session data.

• 📲 Better Social Sharing:

  Session summary cards are now more polished and optimized for sharing on social media.

• ✨ Smoother Experience:

  Fixed Live Activity staleness issues, improved audio handling, and squashed various bugs for a more reliable experience.

The "Connected Sauna" Update

We focused on making your sauna session seamless with your health data and smart home sensors.

• 🌡️ Real-Time Climate:

  Connect your HomeKit temperature and humidity sensors (like Eve or Netatmo) to see live heat conditions directly inside the timer.

• 🧘 Mindful Minutes:

  Your relaxation now counts. Sessions automatically sync to Apple Health as "Mindful Minutes."

• ❄️ Holiday Themes:

  Added Winter and Santa themes to keep the vibe festive.

• 🔊 Custom Sounds:

  You can finally choose your own custom sound for the countdown start.

Interactive Lock Screen

• Interactive Live Activities:

  You no longer need to unlock your phone. Start, stop, and pause rounds directly from the Lock Screen or Dynamic Island.

• Fixes:

  Resolved display sleep issues so your timer is always visible.

The "Visual & Siri" Overhaul

A massive redesign of the app's core engine and visuals.

• 🗣️ "Siri, Start My Sauna":

  Full Shortcuts support. Use voice commands to start sessions and control scenes.

• 📊 Beautiful Charts:

  We completely rebuilt the Session History. Visualize your heat tolerance progress with smooth, scrolling charts.

• 👻 Spooky Season:

  Added limited-time Halloween icons and "Ghost" sessions.

• 🌘 True Dark Mode:

  Optimized visuals for OLED screens to reduce battery usage and eye strain in dark sauna rooms.

The Audio Experience

• 🌊 Binaural Beats:

  Added "Theta" waves and "Waterfall" ambience for deep mental recovery.

• 🎛️ Quick Toggles:

  Mute audio or toggle HomeKit scenes instantly from the active session screen.

• 🎨 Dynamic Themes:

  Switch visual themes mid-session without stopping the timer.

Universal Audio & Guidance

• 🎧 Universal Audio Control:

  Listen to your own Podcasts, Spotify, or Audiobooks. The app now lowers the volume for alerts and respects your external audio.

• ♾️ Open-Ended Rounds:

  For those who want to go with the flow—stop the session whenever you feel ready, rather than on a fixed timer.

• 🧘 Yoga Nidra:

  Added a "Non-Sleep Deep Rest" (NSDR) theme for recovery days.

The Automation Integration

• 🏠 HomeKit Begins:

  The first version of our smart home engine. Control lights and fans automatically when a session starts.

• 🌲 Nature Sounds:

  Added "Forest Walk" and "Healing Forest" for nature-inspired relaxation.

The Launch

• 🚀 Liftoff:

  Sauna Assistant hits the App Store.

• 📝 Logging:

  Added the ability to log temperature, humidity, and subjective notes after every session.

• 📲 Social Sharing:

  Create beautiful share-cards for Instagram to track your streak.