Craving timer
If you're here because you want one right now: start the timer. The NHS says cravings usually only last a few minutes. You don't have to beat this one forever. You have to outlast five minutes.
Press start. Then just follow the circle.
Why five minutes
A craving feels like it will keep building until you give in. It won't. It rises, peaks and drops on its own — the NHS puts a single craving at usually only a few minutes, and advises having a distraction ready for exactly that window. Five minutes is a comfortable margin over "a few".
The breathing is the one technique worth doing even if you do nothing else. Smokefree.gov's version is to breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth, slowly, ten times. The circle paces it: four seconds in, six out. The long exhale is the part that does the work — and it gives your mouth something to do that looks a lot like the thing it wants.
If it's still there at the end
Some do outlast five minutes, especially in the first few days. That's not the method failing. Press “two more minutes”, or change rooms, drink something cold, walk to the end of the street and back. Changing your surroundings breaks the cue faster than willpower does.
And if they're coming one after another, all day, that's withdrawal at its peak rather than one long craving — the quit timeline shows where you are in it, and how long until cravings stop is the honest answer to the bigger question.
Not medical advice. If cravings are relentless, or your mood has been sliding since you quit, a pharmacist can talk you through nicotine replacement in about fifteen minutes — usually free, and it genuinely improves the odds. Who builds this.
The app does this too — and keeps the score
In Stub Out, every craving you ride out goes on the board, and Nik — a smug cartoon villain — takes a little more damage each time. Free, no account, nothing leaves your phone.
