Loopa counts your repeats.
Loopa is an interval timer that lets you build any repeating routine. Use it for workouts and running, or for meditation and Pomodoro-style study and focus sessions — anywhere you repeat timed steps.
Build your plan, your way
Arrange blocks like "Warm-up → Main set → Cool-down" to create a plan. Set a repeat count for each block, and loop the entire plan as many times as you like (e.g. run the whole menu 3 times).
For your first one, you can start from a template instead. Five come built in — HIIT, a distance run, a run/walk interval, meditation, and Pomodoro — so you can see how a plan is put together and edit it into your own.
By time or by distance
Each step can be set by duration or by distance. Distance steps are measured automatically with GPS — build running menus like "run 400m, walk 200m" and see your distance and pace in real time. Plans that don't use GPS never access your location.
Follow along without looking at the screen
Voice announcements call out each step change and the time remaining, with a heads-up before the next step and a countdown. Loopa keeps running in the background, so your iPhone can stay in your pocket. Progress also appears on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island, and you can pause and resume from there.
Sound the way you want it
Each plan decides how it talks to you. Announce out loud and Mark with tones are separate switches, so a plan can use one, both, or neither. With tones alone you get three short pips as the step runs out and one longer tone when it changes — nothing talking over the music or podcast you're already listening to.
Five tones are available for the cues (Beep, Music box, Marimba, Chime, Wood block), and the sound for reaching the end of a plan is picked separately. Both sit on the same screen under Settings → Sound, so you can compare them side by side. Any step can also carry a steady tempo (BPM) click.
Any block can be given one of your own playlists. Keep the warm-up quiet and save the music for the main set — blocks with music switched off stay silent. Voice and tone cues are layered over the music, so nothing needs to be turned down.
Your sessions add up
Every plan you run is recorded automatically on the Stats tab: sessions and total time for the month, your all-time totals, and which days you showed up. You can export the history as a CSV file and take it into a spreadsheet.
Meditation plans can log the time you spend in them to Apple Health as mindful minutes, plan by plan.
Ready when you are
Put a widget on your Home Screen and the plans you reach for most are one tap away — the medium and large sizes hold several at once, and the small one flips between them with arrows. Or ask Siri something like "Start my run in Loopa" and the workout begins without opening the app at all — it works as an action in the Shortcuts app too.
Make it your color
Combine a base and an accent to recolor the whole app. Every combination is tuned for both light and dark, and you can pick the appearance (light, dark, or follow the system) in the app.
Privacy first
No account required. Your plans are stored only on your device and in your own iCloud — no one else, including us, can access them. Your location is never sent anywhere. The only thing Loopa writes to Apple Health is mindful minutes, and it never reads anything back.
Free and Premium
The free tier lets you keep up to 2 active plans. Everything that makes it a timer — blocks, loops, distance steps, voice announcements, tone-only mode, per-block music, the widget, Siri, stats, CSV export — is available.
With Premium (subscription):
- Create and save unlimited plans
- Restore archived plans without limits
- Sort plans into categories
- Combine any base and accent to build your own colors
- Extra tones for the cues (Chime, Wood block) and the Gong finish sound
- A tempo (BPM) click per step
Choose a monthly plan or a yearly plan with a 1-week free trial.
Getting started
The three tabs
The app is organized into three tabs:
- Plan — create and edit plans, and run your workouts
- Stats — review the sessions you've completed
- Settings — theme, subscription, how to use, privacy, and more
Building a plan
A Loopa timer is built from three levels:
- Plan — the whole workout. You can loop the entire plan up to 20 times
- Block — a phase such as warm-up, main set, or cool-down. Each block can repeat its steps
- Step — a single interval, defined by time or distance
There are two kinds of repetition:
- Block repeats = sets: repeats the steps inside one block (e.g. all out 30 sec + rest 1 min 30 sec × 8)
- Plan loop = rounds: repeats the entire plan from the first block (e.g. run the whole menu 3 times)
In the plan editor, steps sit indented under their block, and every row can be tapped to edit it.
The run-time options — how it announces, the countdown, GPS, and mindful minutes — are gathered under Plan Settings, the row just above the start button.
Creating a plan
Tap "+" on the plan list to choose between "From a template" and "Build my own". Five templates are available, and anything you add can be edited freely afterwards.
Starting from the Home Screen or Siri
- Widget — put a widget on your Home Screen to open a plan in one tap. Touch and hold the widget and choose Edit Widget to change which plan it shows
- Siri and Shortcuts — say something like "Start my run in Loopa" and the plan begins. It also works as an action in the Shortcuts app
During a workout
- Pause and resume — you can pause at any time from the run screen, or from the Lock Screen. Neither time nor distance is counted while paused
- Lock Screen — progress appears on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island while a workout is running
- How it announces — step changes can be spoken, marked with tones, both, or neither. It all keeps working in the background
Sound
- How it announces — two switches in Plan Settings: Announce out loud and Mark with tones. Set per plan
- Tones — Settings → Sound holds the five cue tones and the finish sound on one screen, with a play button on each row so you can compare them
- BPM — turn on BPM while editing a step to hear a steady click for the length of that step
- The speaking voice — Loopa uses the voice set on your device. Add an enhanced voice under Settings → Accessibility → Spoken Content → Voices to make announcements smoother
Managing plans
- Duplicate — swipe a plan right in the plan list to copy it, including all of its blocks and steps
- Archive and delete — swipe left to archive or delete a plan. Swipe an archived plan right to restore it
- Categories — file a plan under a category from the Category row in the plan editor, and the plan list groups itself by category. Rename or delete a category from Edit on the list's section heading
- Reorder — drag plans in the plan list's edit mode to change their order
- iCloud sync — plans sync via iCloud and carry over automatically to your other devices signed in to the same Apple Account
Changing the look
Under Settings → Theme, combine a base and an accent to recolor the app. The appearance (light, dark, or follow the system) is set on the same screen.
Reviewing your sessions
Every plan you run is recorded automatically on the Stats tab.
- Move between months at the top of the screen, pick a year and month, or jump back to This month
- One square per day of the month; days you worked out are filled in more strongly
- Summary shows the month's session count, how many different plans you ran, and total time — alongside your all-time session count and total time
- History lists the plans you ran that month. Anything you stopped partway through is marked Stopped
- Export the history as a CSV file from Settings → Data → Export history
The same guide is available in the app under Settings → How to Use.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between the free and premium tiers?
The free tier lets you keep up to 2 active plans and restore one archived plan per day. Every timer feature — blocks, loops, distance steps, voice announcements, stats, CSV export — is available for free.
With Premium (subscription), plans and archive restores become unlimited, and you can sort plans into categories. You can also combine any base and accent to recolor the app (the Air, Ink, and Wood themes are available to everyone).
On the sound side, Chime and Wood block join the cue tones, Gong becomes available as the finish sound, and any step can carry a tempo (BPM) click (the Beep, Music box, and Marimba tones and the tone-only mode are available to everyone).
Does Loopa record heart rate or calories?
No. Loopa is a timer: it runs your intervals and announces each change. It does not record heart rate, calories, or a GPS track.
If you want those recorded, start a workout in the Workout app on your Apple Watch (or the Fitness app on iPhone) first, then run your plan in Loopa. Apple keeps the workout data while Loopa handles the intervals.
Loopa does keep its own history — which plan you ran, when, and for how long — on the Stats tab. Apple records the effort; Loopa records the sessions.
There is one exception: plans with Plan Settings → Log mindful minutes turned on write the time you spend in them to Apple Health as mindful minutes (runs shorter than a minute are not recorded). That is the only thing written, and Loopa never reads anything back from Health.
The music won't play, or no playlists appear
Check that Music is switched on for the block and that a playlist is chosen — blocks with it off stay silent.
If the list is empty, there are two likely reasons. Access to your music may not be allowed: check Settings → Permissions → Music. Or the device may have no playlists at all — Loopa can only show playlists that exist in that device's music library.
A playlist made only of Apple Music catalog tracks needs an active Apple Music subscription to play. Playlists of downloaded or purchased tracks play without one.
Distance steps aren't measuring correctly
- Distance steps are measured with GPS, so they work best outdoors. Accuracy drops indoors or in tunnels
- Location permission ("While Using the App") is required. Check Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services on your iPhone
- Plans that don't use GPS never access your location
I can't hear voice announcements in the background
Loopa keeps running in the background and announces step changes by voice. If you can't hear them, please check:
- The device volume is up and the silent switch is off
- If you're playing music in another app, announcements play over the music without lowering its volume. If the music is loud, announcements may be hard to hear
Can I turn the voice announcements off?
Yes. Turn off Announce out loud in Plan Settings. Leave Mark with tones on and step changes are marked with sound instead of speech: three short pips as the step runs out, and one longer tone when it changes. Pick which sound under Settings → Sound. Turn both off and nothing is played at all — you follow the run on screen or on the Lock Screen.
Turning off Plan Settings → Countdown goes a step further and silences the warning that a step is ending (the spoken 5-second count, or the three pips in tone mode), leaving only the cue at the change itself.
If I delete a category, do the plans inside go with it?
No. Only the category is deleted; the plans inside move back to Uncategorized.
How do I cancel my subscription?
Payments are handled by Apple through the App Store. You can cancel anytime from Settings → your name → Subscriptions on your iPhone, or from Loopa's Settings → Manage Subscription. After canceling, Premium remains active until the end of the current billing period.
Will my purchase carry over to a new device?
As long as you're signed in with the same Apple Account, your Premium status is applied automatically. If it doesn't appear, quit and relaunch the app.
Your plans are synced via iCloud. As long as you're signed in with the same Apple Account and iCloud is enabled, they'll carry over automatically to a new device. If syncing doesn't seem to work, check that Loopa is enabled under Settings → your name → iCloud on your iPhone.
What is "Share usage data"?
It's anonymous information about which features get used, so we can decide what to improve. It contains no advertising identifier and nothing that identifies you, and it is never used to track you across other companies' apps or websites. Nothing you type in — plan names and the like — is ever sent.
To stop it, turn off Settings → Privacy → Share usage data in Loopa. Every feature of the app keeps working when it's off. See thePrivacy Policy.
Contact Form
If none of the above solves your problem, please reach us through theContact Form.
Including the following will help us respond quickly:
- App name (Loopa) and app version (shown at the bottom of the app's Settings screen)
- Your device model and iOS version
- A description of the issue and the steps to reproduce it
Links
Available for iPhone (iOS)
Made by: Cabana Inc.