Find Your White Noise Zen in Wildfulness 2

Wildfulness 2 - Relaxing Nature Scenes & Sounds (Free) by Wild Ventures is a gorgeous white noise app for those who love the sounds of nature. If you need a simple app for helping you unwind and relax after stressful times, then this is a great way to do so. It joins the ranks of other fantastic white noise apps on the App Store, including Away and Sunny.

As someone who gets stressed out relatively easily, when I’m not taking my stress out in video games, I like to relax with white noise, especially before bed, where my mind always seems to be going full speed still. White noise is great because it is ambient and calming, and if you have a preferred set of noise, such as rainfall or the sound of the ocean’s waves, then you just think about relaxing there and it’s easy to fall asleep. I’ve gone through my fair share of white noise apps over the years, and while I have stuck with my all-time favorite, Thunderspace, that doesn’t mean I am not going to try out new options on the App Store. When I got a message in my inbox regarding Wildfulness 2, I was intrigued, despite never using the original Wildfulness. Needless to say, as a fan of white noise and minimalism, I am not disappointed with what Wildfulness 2 offers.

Visually, Wildfulness 2 is gorgeous and will definitely appeal to fans of minimal design. The app features several different nature scenes that are all hand-illustrated, featuring rich and vibrant colors in the background and dark silhouettes of trees and animals in the foreground. While most of them appear static at first, if you look closely enough, there will be some smooth and subtle animations for some of them, such as pounding rainfall or fluffy snow falling to the ground. The sans serif typography used throughout the app is also simple and clean, giving the app a completely refined look. Regardless, the scenes in Wildfulness 2 are stunningly beautiful and you’re sure to find a new favorite. Plus, Wildfulness 2 uses psychoacoustic 3-D sounds recorded from real life for a truly realistic experience.

Wildfulness 2 initially comes with one scene, the forest, there is an in-app purchase of $2.99 that will unlock all of the naturescapes, which means a total of 10 for every mood that you may be in. If you don’t mind the limitation of just having a forest scene, then the initial free download should be enough to suffice for those times you need white noise. But honestly, I checked out some of the other scenes that are available and they are both pretty and fairly realistic, and having the variety in a single app is fantastic.

To change scenes, just tap anywhere on the screen and then tap on the “Scenes” button. Optionally, you can just swipe from the left edge of the screen, which is much easier. The scenes list gives you a nice thumbnail of each scenario, along with the name, which reveals the kind of noise that you’ll be hearing. When you find one that piques your interest, just give it a tap and the app will take you away to zen.

Since white noise apps are best used before bedtime, it’s always good to have a sleep timer enabled. To access the sleep timer, just tap anywhere on the screen of the scene that you’ve selected. From here, you can tap on the stopwatch icon in the middle of the screen to bring up the sleep timer, and then choose how long until the app stops playing from the dial. It’s simple and intuitive, so you can make sure that the app doesn’t continue to run when you don’t need it to.

Another nice option that is included in Wildfulness 2 is the addition of guided breathing exercises. To get to this section of the app, just navigate to the scene list and then tap on the empty circle in the top right corner. Once you tap on the large, hard-to-miss “breathe” button, the app will tell you to breathe in and out for 60 seconds, but you can also quit at any time. It’s a nice extra that the developers have included in case you need more stress relief in your life and don’t have an Apple Watch to tell you to breathe a few times during the day.

I’ve only been using Wildfulness 2 for the past day, but so far I’m loving it so far. As a big fan of the trendy minimalist aesthetic, I appreciate the simplicity of the nature scenes in the app, and the animations are subtle and never too over-the-top. The 3-D sounds of each scene are lovely and immersive, making you feel as if you are truly there. I also enjoy the fact that a guided breathing exercise is included in the app, as it’s a perfect fit as you listen to white noise. If you enjoy a variety of natural scenes and sounds, then the $2.99 in-app purchase is also well worth getting.

I recommend giving Wildfulness 2 a try if you are in need of a minimal white noise app that gives you a lot of variety in a single app. You can find Wildfulness 2 on the App Store as a universal download for the iPhone and iPad for free with an in-app purchase for more scenes. Headphones are recommended for the best experience.