Pillow is a Watch-first sleep tracker with a long feature list. Snore Timeline is an audio-first snore recorder with nothing to buy. We compared both on 27 September 2026.
Pick Pillow if you wear an Apple Watch every night and want a polished tracker with heart rate, blood oxygen, sleep aids and an App Store Editors' Choice badge; its snore recordings and CSV export sit behind Pillow Premium ($19.99 to $59.99 in-app purchases). Pick Snore Timeline if you care most about the snoring audio itself: it records the whole night on a timeline, groups snores into episodes, flags breathing pauses, runs on iPhone and Android, and has no subscription or in-app purchases. Its App Store privacy label reads "Data Not Collected", while Pillow's lists Identifiers, Usage Data and Diagnostics as linked to you, as declared on 27 September 2026.
| Feature | Snore Timeline | Pillow |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free. No subscription, no in-app purchases | Free download. Premium in-app purchases $19.99 to $59.99 |
| Privacy label | Data Not Collected | Linked: Identifiers, Usage Data, Diagnostics. Not linked: Purchases, Location, User Content, Identifiers |
| Account | None | None required (per pillow.app) |
| Works without Apple Watch | Yes, all audio features | Yes, in manual iPhone sessions. Heart rate and blood oxygen need the Watch |
| Audio recording and playback | Full night, every episode, enhanced playback | Yes, clips in an Audio tab. Listed as Premium |
| Full-night timeline | Zoomable timeline of every sound | Sleep stage diagram, audio in a separate tab |
| Episode grouping | Yes, 30 s gap closes an episode, dB and rhythm per episode | Snoring episodes by duration, intensity, timing |
| Breathing pause flag | Yes, rule-based, audio only | Listing says it records "sleep apnea" audio events; no rule published |
| Sleep talking | Yes | Yes |
| Sleep stages | From breathing audio, plus Apple Watch data | From Apple Watch, or iPhone near the pillow |
| Heart rate | Via Apple Watch or Apple Health | Via Apple Watch. Listed as Premium |
| Android | Yes, Google Play | Not listed on pillow.app |
| Export | CSV, episode clips, full-night audio | CSV (Premium), recordings from the Audio tab |
| App Store rating | 4.9 (214 ratings) | 4.4 (96K ratings), Editors' Choice |
Pillow is free to download. Its App Store listing shows five in-app purchases: Premium Sleep Tracking at $49.99, and Pillow Premium at $19.99 monthly, $59.99 quarterly and $49.99 annual. The listing's subscription notes mention a free trial "if offered", which renews into a paid plan unless you cancel 24 hours before it ends.
The Premium list on the listing is long. It covers sound recordings, heart rate analysis, advanced sleep analysis, sleep trends and Apple Health comparison, sleep notes, nap modes, the sleep aid library, wake-up melodies, CSV export, Smart Wake-up and unlimited history. If you came to Pillow to hear your snoring, plan on a Premium plan.
Snore Timeline costs nothing and sells nothing. There is no subscription, no in-app purchase and no locked tier. Snore Nudge, Smart Alarm, sleep stages, the sleep score, weekly trends and full export all ship in the same download. Snoring apps with no subscription lists the other options in this group.
Every App Store listing carries a privacy label. Apple asks developers to declare what data the app and its partners collect, and whether that data links to your identity. The label is a self-declaration. It tells you what a developer says it collects, and it does not prove where the data goes.
As declared on the App Store on 27 September 2026, the two labels read as follows.
Pillow's detail view names the items. Linked to you: Device ID, Product Interaction and Crash Data, for analytics and app functionality. Not linked to you: Purchase History, Coarse Location and User ID for the same two purposes, plus Customer Support for app functionality. The label declares no Health & Fitness data and no Audio Data.
Pillow's site makes strong on-device claims of its own. It says your sleep data stays on your devices, that iCloud backup uses your personal iCloud storage, and that you can use the app with no account. Its snore article says audio recordings stay on your device and that Pillow never has access to them. Read the label and the site together: the label covers identifiers, app usage, crash data, purchases, coarse location and support requests.
Snore Timeline's label reads "Data Not Collected". The app has no account, no server and no analytics SDK. Audio analysis runs on the phone, and recordings stay in the app's storage until you export them. Four of the 14 snoring apps we checked declare "Data Not Collected"; Snore Timeline is the one of those four with no purchases of any kind. The full 14-app label comparison shows every label side by side.
Pillow is built around the Watch. Its help article on tracking methods describes four modes. In automatic mode you wear the Watch to bed and Pillow detects the session with no input. That mode reports sleep stages, heart rate, heart rate dip, blood oxygen, respiratory rate, sleep temperature and Environmental Audio Levels. It cannot ring an alarm, and it cannot detect snoring or other sleep sounds.
For snoring you start a manual session on the iPhone and place it near your pillow. Pillow's article says that iPhone-only mode gives sleep stage analysis, Smart Wake-up and audio recordings, and leaves out heart rate, blood oxygen and respiratory rate. A combined mode, started from the Watch with both apps open, unlocks "most features". The listing adds a report on the Watch face, complications and a Watch-only mode that needs no iPhone.
Snore Timeline listens through the phone, so every audio feature works without a Watch. Sleep stages come from breathing regularity after a 15-minute baseline. An Apple Watch adds heart rate, HRV, respiratory rate, blood oxygen and wrist temperature beside the snoring, and the bundled Watch app starts and stops recordings from your wrist. Oura, Garmin, Whoop and Ultrahuman data can join through Apple Health. The Apple Watch and Health guide covers the setup, and Does Apple Watch track snoring? explains what the Watch measures alone.
Pillow's snore article says the app uses the iPhone microphone to "capture every sound throughout the night" in a manual session with Audio Recordings turned on. An on-device model sorts the sounds into snoring, sleep talking, coughing and other noises. In the morning an Audio tab lists the clips. You can play them, re-categorize them, mark favorites, delete them or export them. The Trends area adds a snoring section by week, month and year. Pillow recommends charging the phone overnight when audio is on.
Snore Timeline records the whole night through the phone microphone or AirPods and other Bluetooth mics. It detects snores, gasps, coughs, sleep talking and breathing as they happen, with no periodic sampling. Every sound lands on a zoomable timeline, colored by type, and you can tap any point to play it back. Snores group into episodes, and a 30-second gap closes an episode. Each episode shows duration, snore count, peak and average dB, a rhythm class and a plain-English summary. Recording uses about 5 to 7% battery per hour. Episodes and events explains each field.
Pillow's App Store description says it records audio events "such as snoring, sleep apnea, and sleep talking". Its snore article describes snoring, sleep talking and coughing categories and does not publish a detection rule for pauses in breathing.
Snore Timeline publishes its rule. It needs at least one minute of audible breathing, then 10 or more seconds of silence, then a recovery sound 15 dB louder than the silence. When all three occur, the timeline marks a breathing disruption. The flag comes from audio alone. It measures no oxygen level and makes no medical judgment. NHLBI describes sleep apnea as breathing that stops and restarts many times during sleep, and it points to a sleep study as the way a provider confirms it. A flagged pause gives you a clip to play for a doctor, nothing more. Breathing disruptions covers placement: 1 to 2 feet from your head for pauses, 3 to 4 feet for snoring.
Both apps catch sleep talking. Snore Timeline counts it inside each episode and in the CSV, and you can play each clip from the timeline.
Pillow's listing names "Data export in CSV format" among its Premium features, and its snore article says you can export recordings from the Audio tab. Its site says you can export and delete data from the device and from iCloud.
Snore Timeline exports two CSV files per night, a Nightly Summary and a per-episode file, plus episode clips and the full-night audio, to the Files app. From there you can AirDrop, email or message them. No export step needs a purchase. The export guide lists every column, and doctor-ready data shows how to put a week of nights together for an appointment.
You wear an Apple Watch to bed and want sleep tracking that starts on its own. Pillow reads heart rate, heart rate dip, blood oxygen, respiratory rate and sleep temperature, shows the report on your wrist, and ties into many Apple Health metrics. It adds meditations, bedtime stories, soundscapes, nap presets, mood tracking and a personal sleep program. It has 96K ratings and an App Store Editors' Choice badge. If you want one polished app for the whole night and a Premium plan fits your budget, Pillow covers more ground.
Your question is about the sound. You want every snore on a timeline, episodes with decibel levels, a published breathing pause rule, and full-night audio you can hand to a doctor. You do not own an Apple Watch, or you use Android. You want an app whose label reads "Data Not Collected" and that asks for no money at any point. Snore Timeline has 214 ratings, a smaller base than Pillow's, and no sleep aid library.
You can run both. Pillow's automatic Watch mode records no audio, so it does not compete with Snore Timeline for the microphone.
Snore Timeline analyzes audio. It is not a medical device and does not diagnose sleep apnea or any other condition. Bring recordings to a doctor if you suspect breathing pauses.
Yes. Pillow records sleep sounds through the iPhone microphone, and its help article says the audio feature runs in manual sleep sessions that you start on the phone. Automatic tracking with an Apple Watch cannot record audio, which Pillow attributes to Apple's technical limits.
Its App Store listing places sound recordings among the Premium features. Snore Timeline records and classifies snoring through the iPhone or Android microphone with no watch and no purchase.
Pillow's App Store privacy label, as declared on the App Store on 27 September 2026, lists "Data Linked to You: Identifiers, Usage Data, Diagnostics" and "Data Not Linked to You: Purchases, Location, User Content, Identifiers". The detail view names Device ID, Product Interaction, Crash Data, Purchase History, Coarse Location, User ID and Customer Support, used for analytics and app functionality.
Pillow's site says your sleep data stays on your devices, and its snore article says audio recordings stay on your device or in your own iCloud. Snore Timeline's label reads "Data Not Collected".
Pillow is free to download. Its App Store listing shows in-app purchases from $19.99 to $59.99, including Pillow Premium at $19.99 monthly, $59.99 quarterly and $49.99 annual. Premium unlocks sound recordings, heart rate analysis, CSV export, Smart Wake-up and unlimited history, among other features.
Snore Timeline has no subscription and no in-app purchases. Every feature ships in the free download.
Both. Pillow's help article says its on-device model sorts recordings into snoring, sleep talking, coughing and other noises. Snore Timeline detects sleep talking in real time, marks it on the night's timeline, and counts it inside each episode and in the CSV export.
Snore Timeline has an Android version on Google Play. Pillow's site and App Store listing name iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, and we found no Android version on Pillow's site.
Free. No subscription, no account, no in-app purchases.
