FAQ & Support
What does Tinnitus Haven do?
It gives you four things for living more easily with tinnitus:
- Sound therapy — sounds you can shape and listen to, to make the ringing less prominent.
- A hearing and tinnitus self-test — a rough picture of your hearing, and a way to match the pitch and loudness of your own tinnitus.
- Guided mindfulness — short sessions for winding down and for the moments when the noise takes over.
- A CBT-style programme — structured exercises based on the ideas behind cognitive behavioural therapy, to change how you react to the sound.
What does it not do?
It does not diagnose anything, it does not treat or cure tinnitus, and it is not a medical device. It cannot tell you why you have tinnitus, and it is not a substitute for an audiologist or a doctor. Nobody, including us, ever sees what you do in it.
When should I see a doctor instead?
Please book an appointment promptly — and do not wait for the app — if:
- your hearing dropped suddenly, over hours or days;
- the sound is in one ear only, or is much louder in one ear;
- it pulses in time with your heartbeat;
- it comes with dizziness or balance problems, ear pain, discharge, or weakness on one side of the face;
- it started after a head injury, or after starting a new medicine.
These can point to something treatable that needs attention now.
Why do I need headphones for the test?
Three reasons. The test plays a separate tone to each ear, and speakers cannot keep them apart — you would hear both ears' tones with both ears. Room echo and background noise change what reaches your eardrum, and headphones shut most of that out. And the volume levels the app works with only mean anything close to your ear.
Use ordinary wired or wireless earphones or headphones, keep both ears covered, and stay in a quiet room. Do not swap or adjust them halfway through, and use the same ones each time if you want to compare results.
Why is the test called a screening tool and not a diagnosis?
A clinical audiogram is done in a sound-treated booth, with calibrated equipment, by a trained professional who also looks in your ears and interprets the result in the context of your history. The app has none of that. It runs on whatever earphones you own, in whatever room you are in, using iOS's volume scale — which is not calibrated in decibels of hearing level.
So the app can suggest that something is worth having checked, and it can track how you feel over time. It cannot tell you that you have hearing loss, how severe it is, or what is causing it. Only a clinician can.
How accurate is it, then?
As a rule of thumb, expect results to sit within about ±10 dB of a clinical measurement on uncalibrated consumer earphones — and further off if your earphones are unusual, if they do not seal well, or if the room is noisy. That is accurate enough to show a pattern, such as one ear behaving differently from the other or high frequencies being weaker, and not accurate enough to be a medical result.
To get the best out of it: quiet room, both earphones on properly, no multitasking, and take the test in the same conditions each time.
Is it safe for my ears?
It is, if you keep the volume sensible. Start low and raise it only as far as you actually need. Never push the volume to a level that is uncomfortable, painful or makes your tinnitus worse, and take breaks rather than listening loudly for hours. Stop and speak to a clinician if a sound causes pain, dizziness or a lasting increase in your symptoms. If you wear a hearing aid or a cochlear implant, ask your audiologist before using the tone-based features.
Why does the app ask for the microphone?
For one thing only: to measure how loud your room is before a hearing test, so it can tell you if it is too noisy for the result to mean anything. The level is measured live on the device. No audio is recorded, saved or transmitted — there is nowhere for it to go, because the app has no networking at all. You can refuse or revoke the permission in iOS Settings; everything else keeps working.
Does it work offline? Where is my data?
The app works completely offline, because it has no online part. It makes no network requests whatsoever: no accounts, no sign-in, no server, no analytics service. Your test results, journal entries, questionnaire answers and check-ins are stored on your iPhone, and the more sensitive ones sit in a store that iOS keeps encrypted while the device is locked.
The “Help improve the app” switch in Settings writes more detail to the device's system log. The app sends nothing anywhere. Details are in the Privacy Policy.
What does the subscription cost, and what do I get?
Tinnitus Haven Premium is USD 5.99 per month or USD 49.99 per year, auto-renewing. There is no free trial. In your country Apple charges the equivalent price for your App Store storefront; the price shown before you confirm is the one you pay. The full conditions are in the Terms of Use.
How do I cancel?
Subscriptions are managed by Apple, not by us, so cancel them in iOS:
- Open Settings on your iPhone.
- Tap your name at the top, then Subscriptions.
- Tap Tinnitus Haven, then Cancel Subscription.
Cancel at least 24 hours before the current period ends, or Apple will charge the next one. After cancelling you keep Premium until the end of the period you have already paid for. Deleting the app does not cancel the subscription.
How do I get a refund?
Apple handles all App Store refunds — we have no access to the transaction and cannot issue one. Request it at reportaproblem.apple.com, sign in with your Apple account, choose the purchase and say what went wrong. Your statutory consumer rights are unaffected.
I bought Premium but it is not showing / I have a new iPhone
Make sure you are signed in with the same Apple account you bought it with, then open the Premium screen in the app and tap Restore Purchases. Your subscription follows your Apple account, so it moves to a new device — but your on-device content does not travel by itself. Restore an iPhone backup, or export your data first from Settings → Privacy & Data, before you wipe the old device.
How do I export or delete my data?
Both live in the app under Settings → Privacy & Data.
- Export writes out everything you have created, so you can keep a copy.
- Delete all data erases it permanently. It cannot be undone, and we cannot recover it, so the app asks you to type DELETE to confirm.
Removing the app from your iPhone also removes everything it stored. Neither action cancels a subscription — do that separately, as described above.
What devices and languages does it support?
iPhone running iOS 18 or later. The app is available in English, Turkish and German and follows your iPhone's language setting.
How do I get support?
Email info@tinnitushaven.com. The app can also open a pre-filled support email from Settings → Help & Support, which includes a short technical line — your app version, iOS version and device model — and no personal information. Telling us what you did, what you expected and what happened instead gets you a useful answer fastest.
Please note we cannot give medical advice or interpret your results. For that, see an audiologist or your doctor.