Free iPhone apps to quit smoking

If you're after an uncomplicated interface that lets you know very clearly what you have gained, Since iQuit will serve nicely. You enter the date and time you quit smoking, how many cigarettes you smoked daily and how much it cost you. The front page tells you exactly how long it has been since you kicked the habit, in years, weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds. The Money Saved page tells you how many cigarettes you have not smoked and how much money you have saved.

Different quitting methods work for different people; for some, the gradual approach is the best one. iQuit offers you a timer that tells you when you can go have a smoke, gradually increasing the time between cigarettes and a goal. When you load the app up for the first time, you can input your habit stats, how many cigarettes you smoke and how much it costs you. An in-app Facebook connection lets your friends follow your progress and guilt you into staying quit.

Another really simple app. An interface tells you how many days it has been since your last cigarette and how much money you have saved, based on the information you feed the app when you first boot it up. If you fall off the wagon, you can restart by tapping the "information" icon and re-entering your new details. It does, however, assume that there is only one generic 20-cigarette pack size, which can give you wrong information if you buy packs of 25 or 40.

This rather morbid little app is also rather featureless: all it does, after you've input your quit date and how many cigarettes you smoked, is tell you how much of your lifespan you've lost to smoking. It seems to be based on some arbitrary pop figure, so all it's really good for is reminding you that smoking is probably going to cut your life short. Writing "smoking cuts your life short" on the back of your hand every day would be just as effective, and not include the advertising.

We were hoping this would be a video of the "No, Gary, No" dancers, but alas. You also have to worry about something that calls itself "highly ingenious", but Coach Quit isn't a bad little app. It allows you a certain number of cigarettes a day, gradually decreasing, and each time you want a smoke, it starts a timer that delays your smoke for five minutes. You can then input how much of the cigarette you smoked and whether you found it satisfying. Again, though, no variable pack size.

This is exactly what it sounds like: it tracks how many cigarettes you have per day, and when. Each time you have a smoke, you hit the button. It will log the time of your smoke. You can also take notes each day, sort of like a quitting diary. Except, well, it doesn't actually seem to do anything to discourage you from smoking. The only indication that this is a quitting app is the disapproving double question mark on the "Having another smoke??" button.

There is no timer element to NoSmokingLife, but it does allow you to enter an accurate pack size, how many cigarettes a day you smoke, and how much a pack will cost you. It will then calculate how much money you save and how long you have extended your lifespan. You can also set yourself a target — by quitting smoking, you are allowing yourself to save up for a reward of your choice. It could be anything: a new watch, a gym membership, or even saving for its own sake.

This is another timer, like iQuit. It gradually increases the time between cigarettes until eventually you're smoke-free. Unlike iQuit, though, the timer resets itself automatically; you don't have to reset it each time you have a smoke. There is also a bell alarm that will let you know, which can be turned off if you find that without a reminder, you clean forget all about smoking.