Portal - Immersive Escapes 4+
Change Your Surroundings
Portal Labs Ltd
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- Free
- Offers In-App Purchases
Screenshots
Description
A Stunning New Productivity App For Today’s Distraction-Filled World.
What is Portal?
Portal is a productivity app that uses immersive technologies to transform your surroundings into a haven for focus and creativity.
So, it’s just another productivity app, right?
Well, not exactly. It’s a totally new approach to productivity that’s shaped by the latest research in the field of environmental psychology which focuses on the impact our surroundings have on our state of mind, wellbeing and cognitive performance.
Why are our surroundings so important to our productivity?
It’s no secret that our surroundings have a huge impact on how we think and feel - it’s something architects and urban planners have understood for centuries. The surroundings in which we work are no different. Whether we’re working in an office, from home or in a coffee shop our surroundings can either support or hinder our productivity. When they work against us they make focus and productivity an uphill struggle, leading to longer hours, stress and low morale. However, when we are in surroundings that are attuned to helping us think and focus clearly the effect is profound.
How does Portal work?
Portal uses the latest immersive technologies, including dynamic (head tracked) spatial audio, smart lighting & retina-quality visuals, to transform your surroundings and provide instant escapes to some of the world’s most peaceful and awe-inspiring locations.
Imagine finding your focus in the midst of a thunderstorm deep in the Amazon Rainforest; making your next big breakthrough high in the Himalayas; or getting lost in flow in the remote Highlands of Scotland.
It’s a beautiful and effortless approach to productivity, but also one that’s incredibly effective and backed by a growing mountain of scientific evidence and research.
Who is Portal for?
Ideal for entrepreneurs, digital & creative professionals, students, but really anyone who finds being productive and creative a struggle in today’s distraction-filled world.
Join us on a journey to better surroundings, and experience a productivity app like no other.
KEY FEATURES
Window To The World
Window-like visuals seamlessly integrate into your desktop instantly take your mind away.
Lifelike Sound
World-class spatial audio captured in the world’s greatest locations. It’s sound that makes you feel as though you’re there, creates a sense of space and separation whilst removing distraction and improving focus.
Immersive Lighting
Philips Hue & Nanoleaf smart lighting adds an extra depth of immersion, tuning in to your circadian rhythm and allowing you to control the mood and energy of your space.
MORE THINGS TO LOVE
- Over 100 portals to some of the most beautiful and peaceful corners of the world, captured to help improve focus, concentration & relaxation
- Award-winning design for beautiful aesthetics and simple intuitive use
- Support for Shortcuts, allowing automations for power users
- Built to be CPU, GPU & battery efficient
- Privacy conscious approach: no data harvesting, no targeted advertising
To experience Dynamic (head tracked) Spatial Audio you will need macOS Sonoma or up, and headphones that support head tracking via Apple Core Motion, currently AirPods (3rd gen), AirPods Pro, AirPods Max & Beats Fit Pro.
SUBSCRIPTION PRICING & TERMS
Portal Premium offers access to our entire Library. Our free version provides access to a limited selection of portals with no ads or usage restrictions.
Premium options include: a monthly membership, an annual membership (with a 7 day free trial) and a Lifetime membership, which is paid for by a one-off upfront payment.
Please note that monthly and annual subscriptions will automatically renew unless turned off in your iTunes Account Settings at least 24 hours before the end of the current subscription period. To manage your subscription go to your iTunes Account settings.
Terms of Use: https://portal.app/terms
Privacy Policy: https://portal.app/privacy
What’s New
Version 1.2.3
Over the past month we’ve taken the opportunity to reflect and excitingly plot and plan the year ahead. If you’re interested you can find our thoughts for 2024 here: https://portal.app/campfire/thoughts-for-2024
Although, it hasn’t all been planning - we’ve packed this release with improvements and fixes for a number of issues you’ve helped flag.
Improvements
- Better resolution selection for screens in portrait orientation.
- You no longer need to relaunch the app after you ‘Clear Cache’.
- ‘Support Info’ now includes better diagnostic data.
- ‘Support Info’ exports now have improved customer feedback and error handling.
Fixes
- Philips Hue lights which use IP address connections are now more reliable.
- Fixes lighting discovery and connection issues on new macOS versions.
- Network connection errors which prevent motion visuals playing are better identified and retried.
- The specific loading error preventing motion visuals playing is now shown in Portal’s UI.
- Audio streaming now waits for a network connection and can better recover from network errors.
- Collection subtitles in the ‘All Portal’ section of the library are no longer cut off.
- Portals with longer names now are better spaced when displayed on smaller screens.
- The ‘Now Playing’ bar height is now correct across different screen sizes.
- Portal’s menu bar window now positions itself correctly when opened on secondary displays.
- Fixes a rare crash when retrying audio downloads
- Audio downloads that are being retried are now cancelled correctly when stopping playback
A special shout out to Don from the US and Harbin from Australia who have been amazing in helping us debug some of the thornier issues above - thanks guys!
As always, if there's anything we can do to improve your experience, whether that's a bug fix or a new feature, please drop us a line at hello@portal.app - we’d love to hear from you.
In the meantime, we hope you’re excited for what the year might bring :)
Many thanks,
Andy, Nick, Tim & Stu - Team Portal.
Ratings and Reviews
Editors' Notes
How can an app about sound look this gorgeous? Portal is part immersive audio experience and part travel companion, a way to lose yourself in lush audio environments from all corners of the globe, all through a cool minimalist UI and stunning HD visuals. Focus, study, or snooze to downpours in the Amazon, lapping waves from the lochs of Scotland, whale song from the deep blue waters of Tahiti, or thunder on the Great Plains. Tap a sound and the app transforms into an aesthetically pleasing clock; set a timer to drift off to sleep to winds on the Isle of Skye or wake to a springtime chorus in London. Bonus: Pair compatible AirPods to experience it all in spatial audio.
The BEST Portal platform is Mac!
I've been a recent convert to Portal either on my iPhone or iPad, but Portal for Mac (which uses the same subscription) is superb.
The full-desktop videos are stunning, and the sound immersive. Team with Rogue Amoeba's AirFoil app to stream to HomePods for an even better experience.
Now when I am working from home, Portal is my environment all day. (OK, I turn it off during those pesky phone calls.)
Developer Response ,
👋 Wowsers zkarj!!! Thank you so much for your incredibly kind words - we're absolutely delighted to hear that you're a Portal fan and that you're thoroughly enjoying our new Mac app! We hope it's making a positive difference to your working day, and providing you with the environment and space to think and focus you need 🙂
The exciting news is we've got lots more planned, and can't wait to share it with you!
Many thanks for your support and enthusiasm for what we do - it means a lot,
Andy, Nick, Tim & Stu - Team Portal
Pretty, but nothing special
I’ve been using other apps such as MyNoise and BetterSleep for a while. Apart from pretty visuals, other apps offer more practical features like mixing different sounds together and equalisers.
Also I found it very annoying to only support landscape mode, that’s a deal breaker right there,
Also, although the free included sounds seem decent, that isn’t anywhere near enough to get me to signup (no I don’t want a free trial lol, please don’t try tricky things like that in an app about relaxation).
Developer Response ,
Hi AaronLawrence, thank you for taking the time to share your feedback - we're so sorry Portal hasn't met your expectations.
For us, Portal's all about capturing the sounds, visuals and lighting of some of the world's most beautiful and peaceful locations and using the latest in immersive tech to deliver a level of realism that makes you feel as though you're truly there. We pride ourselves on the quality of the audio and visual experiences we deliver and in doing so do very little editing where at all possible, so that we allow the beauty and power of nature to do all the talking.
It's why we've steered away from the type of features you mention. However, that's not to say that those features aren't great, it's just not what we're all about. Indeed, Portal's most definitely not for everyone in these regards but for what you're looking for I'd say you've found a gem with MyNoise for what you're after (I'd also recommend DarkNoise).
We hear you with respects ti the landscape orientation on iPad - appreciate the feedback and the good news is it's something we're currently looking at improving. We're just in the middle of a 12 month build that will see Portal arrive on Mac and shortly after Apple TV too. But once these major builds have been released that's one of the next things we're looking to tackle - so please watch this space.
On our 7-day free trial, we're sorry you're not a fan but I'd like to reassure you that it's most definitely not intended as a trick. However, that's not to say we don't understand where you're coming from though, as App Store trials do require cancellation at least 24 hours before the end of the trial period to avoid continuing into a subscription (I'm afraid it's defaulted in the App Store and isn't optional). Unfortunately, there's currently no better means for third party developers on the App Store that allows people to try paid premium features and content for free before deciding whether that's for them or not. However, what we've tried to do different from most apps here is we not only offer a pared down free version of the app for people to try that has no time or usage limitation (so that our trials are entirely optional) but for those that do give our trial a whirl we also signpost reminders to cancel both before and during the trial period. The hope is that people get an opportunity to fully test out what Portal's all about before deciding whether it's for them without any tricks or deception - honesty and integrity is so important to us, and in truth underpins why we're decided to start Portal in the first place and operate it in the way we do.
I hope that helps explain things a little. If you have any question you'd like to explore further or there's anything at all that we might be able to help with, please don't hesitate to drop us a line at hello@portal.app - always happy to help where we can.
Thanks again for the feedback and for giving Portal a try,
Andy, Nick, Tim & Stu - Team Portal
App Privacy
The developer, Portal Labs Ltd, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer's privacy policy.
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- Portal Labs Ltd
- Size
- 18.4 MB
- Category
- Health & Fitness
- Compatibility
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- iPhone
- Requires iOS 13.0 or later.
- iPad
- Requires iPadOS 13.0 or later.
- iPod touch
- Requires iOS 13.0 or later.
- Mac
- Requires macOS 13.3 or later.
- Apple Vision
- Requires visionOS 1.0 or later.
- Languages
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English
- Age Rating
- 4+
- Copyright
- © Portal Labs Ltd
- Price
- Free
- In-App Purchases
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- Annual Membership $54.99
- Monthly Membership $11.99
- V2 (No Longer Available) $9.99
- Upgrade (No Longer Available) $19.99
- Portal Membership (Lifetime) $499.99
Supports
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Family Sharing
Some in‑app purchases, including subscriptions, may be shareable with your family group when Family Sharing is enabled.