TRIPP review: The VR meditation app that may cure your insomnia — and take you on drug-free acid trips

Our Verdict

Tripp is a mind-bending VR meditation app that aims to reduce users' feet, cultivate calm feelings, target insomnia — all while sending users on virtual acid trips.

For

Trippy experiences sans mind-altering substances
Based on scientific research
Aims to reduce anxiety and increase focus
Reasonably priced
New content added daily

Confronting

Low-fidelity hardware hinders it from greatness

Laptop Mag Verdict

Tripp is a mind-angle VR meditation app that aims to reduce users' anxiety, cultivate calm feelings, target insomnia — all while sending users on virtual acid trips.

Pros

+
Trippy experiences sans mind-altering substances
+
Based on scientific research
+
Aims to reduce feet and increment focus
+
Reasonably priced
+
New content added daily

Cons

-
Low-fidelity hardware hinders it from greatness

There you are floating around in a dazzling, colorful kaleidoscopic completeness with shifting geometric shapes. Magical trails of fairy dust whiz by you like shooting stars, and a hypnotic, godlike voice fills the void, evoking inner calm and relaxation. No, you're not dreaming — and you didn't take any hallucinogenic drugs, either.

You're hovering inside Tripp, a VR app touted as one of the all-time meditation apps of the metaverse.

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The all-time laptops of 2022

While I joke that Tripp makes yous feel similar yous've taken ane as well many 'shrooms, the app has a bonafide healthful purpose in that it'southward designed to reduce feet, cultivate a sense of inner relaxation, and most importantly (at least to me), manage depression.

Although I didn't know Miss USA 2022 and "Actress" host Cheslie Kryst personally, her contempo death (ruled a suicide afterwards she jumped off her Manhanttan loftier-rising edifice) hit me like a ton of bricks. I've suffered from depression before, and while we're encouraged to talk to someone or seek mental-health therapy, the hindering "Why carp? No 1 volition understand me anyway!" thoughts often cake usa from taking those steps.

Afterwards completing the gratis demo inside Tripp, I watched a testimonial from a fellow who claimed the app helped him overcome depression — and I can see why he used it as an outlet. Tripp isn't a homo that may struggle to relate to you, nor will it dismissively moving ridge you abroad and say, "Just think positively for chrissakes!" Instead, it'southward a fantastical world where you tin safely escape the ache of harsh realities sans running to heed-altering substances.

Of form, the folks behind Tripp make information technology clear the app isn't meant to substitute professional person mental wellness care, just information technology works well equally a supplemental part of your heed, trunk and soul wellness routine. Without further ado, let me give you the rundown of my experience with Tripp.

Tripp VR toll and value

Tripp offers ii subscription tiers: a $4.99 monthly choice and a $19.99 yearly membership. If y'all're prepare to go all in, you can pay $34.99 for lifetime access to the app.

Each Tripp offering comes with the post-obit:

Access to more 40 immersive meditative experiences with new additions dropped into the app regularly
Tripp Composer, a characteristic that lets y'all design and customize your ain sessions
A tracking feature that lets you chronicle your moods and mental well-being
Tripp's mobile companion app
Unlock worldscapes that change daily
Daily Focus and Calm sessions

If you're not fix to commit to Tripp simply even so, you can explore the demo to get a taste of what the meditative VR app offers. As of this writing, Tripp is compatible with the Oculus Quest and Rift series, HTC Vive Flow and PlayStation VR. I used the Oculus Quest 2 to experiment with Tripp.

How Tripp VR uses 'worldscapes' to calm your mind

Tripp whisks y'all away into psychedelic virtual realms chosen "worldscapes'' that are reminiscent of Disney's "Fantasia." Although you're not moving in real life (Tripp encourages users to sit for these experiences), you can feel a sense of buoyancy equally you bladder inside 360-degree dimensions filled with hitting, fractal animations, nebula-esque environments, or fantastical, peaceful landscapes.

These worldscapes are hypnotic — as if someone was dangling a yo-yo in front of my face up whispering, "You are very sleepy!" The visuals are spell-binding and mentally soothing for the most part, but sometimes they can lean more toward the weird side (like most acid trips).

The VR app is aptly named because these worldscapes are, indeed, "trippy." These hallucinatory, fanciful, kaleidoscopic realms are paired with something called "binaural audio," a engineering that increases the spatial realism of soundwaves. In other words, binaural sound tricks your senses into assertive that the ambient sound is "surrounding" you. Co-ordinate to Healthline, binaural audio reduces anxiety, increases focus and diminishes stress, which is probable why the Tripp squad added this auditory tech to the wellness platform.

I don't know what Tripp puts in its binaural music, but it just does something to me — it puts me in a trance that paralyzes me (in a proficient way) from head to toe. Ane of my greatest flaws is that I tend to lose interest quickly and focus is typically a struggle, but this binaural audio stuff stupefies yous into a hypnotic state and encourages you to pay attending and remain present.

The Washington Mail described Tripp as a "meditation-meets-a-video-game-meets-a-Happy-Pill" app, and that couldn't be more than authentic. Tripp is, past and large, a meditation app, only it also involves some unique gameplay, as well, with a booming, godlike voice that guides you through the exhilarant, heed-bending experience.

Tripp VR has some gameplay, also

I know what you're wondering, "What kind of games could a meditation app possibly have?" Well, remember those worldscapes I told you near? They aren't just "trippy" realms with mandala and fractal art animations. Some worldscapes hand you an aerial artifact that you can steer with your caput movements. For example, if yous tilt your head to the right, the object volition bladder to the right. Tilt your caput to the left, and of course, the object will follow suit.

You tin subtly move your head in different directions to avoid incoming obstacles, which adds to Tripp's fun. At first, it wasn't immediately clear how these games helped calm ane's nerves. Floating inside a strange, fantasy world while dodging flight impediments isn't my idea of relaxation, but oddly enough, it did accept a allaying effect. As it turns out, the method behind this madness is to teach users how to overcome hardships in real life without stressing yourself out.

How to use Tripp VR

Subsequently firing up the Tripp app, you'll state on a home screen with an heart-communicable, interstellar background and soothing, ambience music. There are three prominent options to choose from: Focus, Composer and Calm.

Focus

Selecting the Focus pick lets you enjoy an eight-minute session that, as the title suggests, improves your concentration and attentiveness. The Focus feel changes daily. When y'all hover your pointer over the Focus option, a lord's day icon appears, indicating that this is an feel all-time suited for early mornings. Focus requires active participation from its users while they drift through a consciousness-expanding void.

A booming, celestial phonation guides you through the mindful experience, which kicks off with a unique, fascinating animate exercise. During my Focus session, a snakey trail of fairy-like dust, reminiscent of Tinkerbell'southward flight remnants, prompted me to breathe in as it slithered toward me over a murky, reflective lake, but impelled me to breathe out as it wiggled away.

I can't say that my experience with Focus chipped away at my inattentiveness only yet, but consistency is key, so information technology may accept a couple more sessions with Tripp before I become a master of vigilance and conscientiousness.

At-home

Now Calm, on the other hand, did exactly what it was designed to do almost instantaneously. As indicated by its crescent moon icon, Calm is beneficial for users seeking inner quietude as nighttime falls. From the dreamy, sparkly orbs floating before me to the distant clouds changing colors like the globs inside a lava lamp, I was already globe-trotting off to sleep just seconds into the session. As a chronic insomniac, the drowsy, lethargic phonation helped me succumb to a peaceful, restful slumber.

Composer

Composer is my favorite feature. It lets you customize your own hypnotic, psychedelic journeying in the metaverse.

Sometimes, daily Focus and Calm sessions just don't cut it because we have other mental ailments beyond unmindfulness and anxiety. In this case, you tin can use Composer to cull from a wide variety of meditations that address several issues, including impatience, anger, trauma, feeling overwhelmed, low confidence, self doubt, and more than.

Next, you can choose from several categories of worldscape designs: architectural, cosmic, ethereal, geometric, nature, psychedelic and seascapes. The nature one is my favorite — yous can never get wrong with magical meadows and quartz caves. Once you've selected a whimsical worldscape and a guided meditation that addresses a targeted issue, your custom, guided meditation will kick off.

Some other eye-catching aspect of Tripp is its Ascend portal. Ascend'south content is — erm — interesting to say the least. According to Tripp's clarification, it'southward designed to "provide a deeper connexion to your own life experience, drive personal growth and amend your outlook of the world." Inside Ascend'southward portfolio, I found at 360-caste video titled "Ancient Fire" that follows a barefoot wanderer meandering through a southern Utah landscape with odd rock formations.

At one signal, you lot'll sentinel him beginning a fire using nada but friction and a stick — and he ends up staring at it for far likewise long (he's likely contemplating something "philosophical," like the meaning of life). Erm, I get why this video is in the Ascend folder. I suppose watching someone be "one with nature" makes yous reflect on how you could practise the same, simply this type of meditative practise is too abstract for my tastes. It isn't for me, but I'm sure there are other people who may be into this transcendental stuff.

Did Tripp VR positively touch my mental wellness?

The truth is, before I launched the Tripp app for the first time, I was thinking, "What kind of new-age nonsense am I nigh to get myself into?" Although I've met a handful of people who swear by the benefits of meditation, I could never get into it — my listen is as well erratic. Plus, I get "ants in my pants'' when I sit in silence for likewise long. As such, I defeatedly accustomed that meditation may benefit others, simply it doesn't piece of work for me.

All the same, Tripp proved me wrong. First of all, the squad behind Tripp isn't some canaille squad of oddball eclectics who decided to make a bizarre, mind-bending VR app. Instead, Tripp is a advisedly curated meditation platform that tapped into the minds of psychiatric and neuroscience advisors to create mentally salubrious experiences with a scientific footing.

On top of consulting with clinicians and other mental-health professionals, the Tripp squad as well leverages data from scientific journals to inform its decisions on how to optimize its meditative, otherworldly experiences to boost users' mental well-being (you can discover Tripp'southward reference research hither).

Combined with the genius of trained mental-health professionals and scientific research, Tripp was born. Tripp claims that 93.seven% of users who added the VR app to their daily routine saw improvement in their concentration, mindfulness, stress, and most importantly, sleep! As mentioned, I'g an insomniac, so hearing this was similar music to my ears.

Tripp VR can add me to their statistics of positively afflicted users. In my experience, the app's Calm sessions are almost effective for me, causing my eyelids to feel heavy, thanks to a drowsy, lethargic vocalisation that lulls me to sleep. My hyperactive thoughts often proceed me up at night, so Tripp's secret sauce is getting my mind to focus on aught but what I'k seeing — a dreamy, foggy, delicate worldscape.

How Tripp VR could improve

1 aspect of Tripp VR I dislike is more of an Oculus Quest two limitation more than anything. In addition to Calm, Focus, Compose and Ascend, there are other content categories such equally Meditate, Learn and Escape. The content inside these portfolios oft feature 360-caste videos of existent-life landscapes and people, only the quality could exist better.

Nether Learn, I discovered a man discussing the misconceptions of meditation, but I wish the video had college fidelity; the picture was slightly pixelated and blurry. The same could be said for some videos in the other aforementioned categories (i.eastward. Meditate and Escape).

Again, this isn't Tripp's mistake. I arraign the Quest 2's under-powered Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 bit paired with its underwhelming Adreno 650 graphics. I also spotted some issues where the audio was not syncing with the videos (and I know my high-speed Verizon internet has nothing to practise with it). Perhaps Tripp's video content would perform better on a headset with zippier specs. On the plus side, some of the content in these folders are awe-inspiring, whisking you away to breathtaking landscapes in Norway, Tanzania, Portugal and more than.

One final grievance I take with Tripp is that non all experiences tin be fast-forwarded, rewound and paused, especially the Calm and Focus meditations. I know that speeding through content contradicts Tripp'due south mission of cultivating patience among its users, only sometimes I just want to get to the good part.

Lesser line

The At-home sessions make Tripp worth it. Gone are the days where I'll twist and plow in bed hoping for a repose escape from my overactive mind — Tripp's got my back.

It's worth noting that Tripp's mobile companion app is pretty awesome, too. It prompts you to regularly log your current state of listen, allowing users to choose from 10 moods: Distracted, Inspired, Content, Tense, Focused, Calm, Relieved, Bored, Worried and Upset. The app tracks your mood changes over time to aid you determine whether Tripp is having a positive effect on your emotional land. The app also lets you add a "personal touch" to some guided meditations where you can upload your own photos and run into them integrated into the Tripp experience.

Tripp may be impeded from achieving total greatness by the Oculus Quest 2's under-powered internals, merely overall, I believe the app is beneficial for users seeking an avante-garde, ultra-modern (supplemental) solution to their mental troubles. The $35 lifetime access to Tripp is totally worth information technology.

Kimberly Gedeon, holding a Master'south degree in International Journalism, launched her career as a journalist for MadameNoire'south business concern beat in 2022. She loved translating stuffy stories about the economic system, personal finance and investing into digestible, easy-to-empathise, entertaining stories for young women of color. During her time on the business beat out, she discovered her passion for tech every bit she pigeon into manufactures about tech entrepreneurship, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and the latest tablets. After viii years of freelancing, dabbling in a myriad of beats, she'southward finally found a home at Laptop Mag that accepts her as the crypto-addicted, virtual reality-loving, investing-focused, tech-fascinated nerd she is. Woot!