Couple-sync

<p><strong>Why this helps:</strong> This is a novel companion feature; the technical pieces (two devices sharing a synchronized audio stream and a paced visual breathing cue) are well within current capability, but the relational claim, that breathing on the same pacer helps two people settle together, is not established by sleep research and is presented as a gentle invitation rather than a proven effect. Slow-paced breathing is broadly associated with a shift toward calm via parasympathetic activation; we keep that framing modest and avoid overclaiming any couple-specific benefit.</p><h4>Explainer (intro card)</h4><p><strong>Header:</strong> One night, shared from two phones.</p><p><strong>Body:</strong><br>When two people share a bed, they rarely share a wind-down. One reaches for a sound, the other reaches for a screen, and the room ends up holding two different evenings. Couple-sync offers one evening instead. Pair your two phones, and they play the same soundscape in time with each other, no echo, no drift, so the room sounds like a single quiet place rather than two. On each screen, the same slow breathing pacer rises and falls together, if you want to breathe in step for a few minutes before sleep.</p><p>You do not have to talk. You do not even have to be winding down at the same pace. It is simply a way to be in the same night together, quietly, from where each of you already is.</p><p><strong>Button:</strong> Pair with someone<br><strong>Secondary link:</strong> What gets shared?</p><h4>Pairing setup copy</h4><p><strong>Step 1 — Start the pair</strong></p><p><strong>Header:</strong> Who is hosting tonight?</p><p><strong>Body:</strong><br>One phone hosts the soundscape and the other joins it. It does not matter which. The host simply picks the sound, and the other phone falls into step.</p><p><strong>Buttons:</strong> I will host / I am joining</p><p><strong>Step 2 — On the host phone</strong></p><p><strong>Header:</strong> Show this to your partner.</p><p><strong>Body:</strong><br>A short code and a pairing pattern appear here. Have the other phone scan the pattern, or type the code. The connection is direct between your two phones on the same home network, so the night stays in the room.</p><p><strong>Pairing code display:</strong> {6-character code}<br><strong>Helper line:</strong> Same Wi-Fi, close together, just the two of you.</p><p><strong>Step 3 — On the joining phone</strong></p><p><strong>Header:</strong> Scan or enter the code.</p><p><strong>Body:</strong><br>Point the camera at your partner's screen, or type the six characters they read to you. We will line up the sound so both phones play as one.</p><p><strong>Field placeholder:</strong> Enter code<br><strong>Button:</strong> Join the night</p><p><strong>Step 4 — Paired</strong></p><p><strong>Header:</strong> You are in sync.</p><p><strong>Body:</strong><br>Both phones are playing the same soundscape now, and the breathing pacer is moving together. Set your phones down wherever they rest for the night. If one of you drifts off first, the other can keep the sound as long as they like, and either of you can leave the pair without disturbing the other.</p><p><strong>Buttons:</strong> Start the breathing pacer / Just the soundscape</p><h4>Privacy and build notes</h4><ul><li>Pairing is a direct device-to-device link on the local network; no microphone is used and no audio is uploaded. Only the soundscape selection, a timing signal to keep playback aligned, and the pacer rhythm are shared between the two phones.</li><li>Either phone can unpair at any time; unpairing one phone leaves the other playing normally.</li></ul><h2>Sources</h2><ul><li>Novel feature, limited direct evidence — slow-paced breathing is broadly associated with parasympathetic calming (general physiology), but a couple-specific co-breathing sleep benefit is not established; claims here are kept to invitation rather than outcome.</li></ul>