I built kakoon because the apps that were meant to calm me down kept doing the opposite.

When my anxiety was at its worst and I went looking for help, here is what I found. Apps with ads that interrupted the one quiet minute I had managed to find. Apps that made me answer a wall of questions before I could even begin. Apps behind a subscription, which is its own quiet weight: one more thing to commit to, one more thing to remember to cancel.

Then I noticed something. The features built to keep me coming back were the same ones winding me up. A streak I was afraid to break. A score in a small game I was suddenly trying to win. Somewhere along the way, resting had turned into one more thing to be good at.

I've lived with anxiety for years and not every day is difficult. But when it is, even small things can feel surprisingly hard. That's the version of me I built kakoon for.

So kakoon is built the other way around. There is nothing to keep up with and nothing to beat. It asks almost nothing of you, it never sells your quiet moments to anyone, and what you write stays yours. Every screen was made slowly, with one question in mind: could this make someone more anxious? When the answer was yes, it did not ship.