Burnish

Quiet things to touch.

ASMR you make rather than watch. Touch glass, foil, sand and bubbles — they answer under your finger, in real time.

Coming to the App Store

What makes it different

Nothing here is a recording.

Three things set this apart from every other app in the category, and all three are structural rather than cosmetic.

Synthesised live

There are no audio files — not in the app, not anywhere. Every tap, crackle and pop is generated sample by sample as it happens, with per-hit variation, so nothing ever develops the looped-sample fatigue that kills ASMR apps in their second minute.

What you do stays done

Sand keeps the groove you dragged. Glass cracks as you tap it and eventually gives way. Foil holds a burnish where you worked it. Everything settles back on its own over a few seconds — nothing is permanent, and there is no clear button anywhere.

Different every day

A key, a scale and a handful of texture offsets are derived from the calendar date, so it does not sound the same two days running. Nothing is asked of you and nothing is stored — today's tuning is worked out, not remembered.

Eight things to touch

Tap it, drag it, hold it, cut it.

Each one is a different synthesis model, not a different sample folder. The way you move your finger is the instrument.

Glass

tap, or trail

Foil

drag

Bubbles

tap or hold

Planets

cut open

Brush

drag, gently

Sand

push through

Zipper

pull it down

Wrap

pop them

A look

Dark, unhurried, and always moving.

Built for one in the morning with headphones on. Nothing is pastel, nothing is clinical, and nothing asks you how you are feeling before it will make a sound.

The glass trigger with the picker open — Glass — tap, or trail a finger

A planet cut open to reveal a kiwi interior — Planets — cut it however you like

Sand with a groove dragged through it — Sand — it keeps the groove

The activities list — Things that run on their own

The breathe activity — Breathe — in four, hold seven, out eight

The welcome screen — You learn it by doing it

And five things that run

For when you would rather not decide.

A trigger is a thing you touch. An activity is a thing that runs.

Guided session

Small prompts over the real triggers. Each step ends because you finished it, not because time ran out.

Ear to ear

Lie still while a sound moves slowly from one side of your head to the other. Headphones required.

Trace the light

Keep your finger near a drifting light. Slowness keeps the sound close.

Breathe

Follow one orb through a 4–7–8 breathing rhythm.

Soundscape

Choose a density, then let glass, foil and bubbles play themselves.

Privacy

It collects nothing.

No accounts, no analytics, no tracking, and no network requests of any kind — Burnish works identically in aeroplane mode, because it has nothing to send and nothing to fetch. The only thing it remembers is a handful of settings on your own device.

Read the privacy policy →