The best app for people who can't visualize

We make Solulu, one of the apps on this page. We say plainly where another app is the better choice.

Why visualizing is so hard for so many people

You close your eyes and see only darkness, or a faint blur that slips away. If that is you, you are not doing it wrong. Minds really do differ.

Some people have no pictures in their mind at all. In 2015 the neurologist Adam Zeman and his colleagues gave this a name: aphantasia. A 2022 study of more than a thousand people looked at how common it is. Nearly 4 in 100 had very weak mental pictures, or none. Many more people see something, but only dimly. They lose it the moment they try to add a face or a detail.

The good news is that you can still manifest, and it still shows up in your real life. Manifesting does not need pictures in your head. It needs three things. You get clear on the wish, believe it is coming, and focus on it every day. Methods differ in how. Affirmations and the 369 method use only words. Law of Assumption methods, like SATS, have you feel the wish as already done. Manifesting with aphantasia covers this fully. In those feeling methods, the picture is just the easiest way into the feeling. So if you cannot make the picture, get it from outside.

The right app can do exactly that. The wrong app cannot.

What to look for in an app if you can’t visualize

The best app for you gives you a real picture to look at, ideally of yourself. Then your imagination never holds you back.

A real image, not a description. A voice describing your dream kitchen still asks you to build the kitchen. A picture of the kitchen does not.
You in the picture. A photo of a stranger in that kitchen asks you to imagine yourself in her place. That is visualizing again. Your own face skips that step.
Feeling cues around the picture. Music and short affirmations help the feeling arrive. Feeling is the part you can do without any mental images.
Short and fixed. A few minutes at set times, so you do not spend twenty minutes straining.

The same scene, three ways

Here is one scene from someone manifesting their SP, their specific person. Look at what each kind of app asks of a person who cannot picture it.

We are cooking pasta in our first apartment. They are stirring the sauce in my old college hoodie, and I am sitting on the counter stealing bites while the window fogs up.

In an affirmation app, you get a line like “I live with the love of my life.” It is true and lovely. But you have to supply the whole kitchen yourself, and with aphantasia you cannot.
In a future-self audio app, a calm voice describes the steam, the hoodie and the laughter. It is beautiful to hear. But every detail it adds is one more thing you must picture. The harder you try, the more it slips.
In a mind movie with you in it, you watch yourself on that counter, in that kitchen, next to your person. There is nothing to build. Your only job is to feel it: the warmth, the smell of garlic, the ease of being home.

The third way is the one that does not depend on your imagination. That is why it is our pick.

Our pick: Solulu

Solulu is the best manifestation app for people who can’t visualize. You watch the scene instead of building it, and the scene shows you.

Solulu is an iPhone app. You describe the life you want and add your photos. If you like, you also add photos of your SP. You can add the places, outfits, pets and things you want, too. Solulu then makes personalized mind movies with you in the scenes. A mind movie is a short video of the life you want. Each one has a calm kaleidoscope opening, scenes of you living that life, affirmations and music. You get up to three new mind movies each week.

Platforms: iPhone.
Who it suits: people with aphantasia and people who see only faintly. It also suits anyone who tried SATS or guided visualization and felt nothing.
Where it falls short: it is iPhone only. If you use Android, or prefer to work with words only, see I am below.

How to use it if you can’t picture anything

Describe your scenes in plain, concrete words. Places, clothes, objects, people. You do not need to see them to name them.
Add clear photos of your face. Add photos of the real places and things you want, too, if you have them.
Watch at the same two moments each day. Watch when you wake up and before you sleep. Let your eyes do the seeing.
Feel instead of see. While you watch, notice one feeling in your body. It could be warmth in your chest, the weight of a hand in yours, or the taste of the coffee. Feeling needs no picture in your head.
At bedtime, replay it in words. SATS means the “state akin to sleep”, the drowsy moment just before you fall asleep. If you like SATS, skip the inner picture. Say one line of your scene to yourself as you drift off, with the movie still fresh.

This is the Solulu method with the app making the scenes: one specific scene, you inside it, every morning and night.

Why Solulu is the best app if you can’t visualize: four reasons

Every app here helps you bring the life you want into your real life. For someone who cannot picture things, Solulu does it better in three ways.

1. You see yourself living it

I am gives you words. ThinkUp gives you your own voice, with an optional still photo. Stella and Aya give you a voice describing your life, and the pictures in Stella show other women, not you. Mind Movies gives you a library of stock images to build with. Solulu shows you your own face, already living the scene.

In one well known study, people pictured themselves from the outside, as if they watched themselves. Afterwards they saw themselves more as the kind of person who does that thing. Solulu gives you that outside view without asking you to make it.

2. It does not depend on your imagination

This is the reason that matters most on this page. Audio apps give you a description to turn into pictures. A mind movie made of stock images gives you a stranger to turn into you. Both still depend on the one skill aphantasia takes away. With Solulu there is nothing left to imagine. The scene, and you in it, are on the screen.

3. It never goes stale

Most practices repeat the same words, audio or pictures every day. After a few weeks, your mind gets used to them and the feeling fades. The Solulu method makes refreshing part of the practice, and Solulu keeps making new mind movies of you as your story moves on. So what you watch never goes stale.

4. It is easy to keep doing

When visualizing is hard, practice turns into effort. Effort is what makes people quit. A Mind Movies movie is a slideshow you put together by hand, slide by slide. It stays the same until you build another. Audio stories ask you to strain after every detail, every time you listen. Solulu takes a few minutes at two set times, with nothing to build or strain for. New movies arrive each week, so it does not get old.

The other apps, and who each one suits

Every app below suits someone.

I am - Daily Affirmations: words only, no picture needed

I am shows short affirmation lines on your Lock Screen, widgets and Apple Watch. It asks for no mental images at all. That makes it a fair choice for people with aphantasia who think in words. It has 4.8 stars from 735,000 ratings on the App Store.

Free version: yes, with ads.
Better than Solulu for: Android, and reminders all day.
The limit: words tell you who you are, but they do not show you. Many people pair them with something to look at.

ThinkUp: your voice, plus a still photo

ThinkUp lets you record affirmations in your own voice and add an image to a line. It has 4.7 stars from 7,500 ratings on the App Store, on iPhone, Mac, Apple Watch and Android.

Free version: yes, with three recordings.
Better than Solulu for: your own voice, and Android.
The limit: the image is a still photo you find yourself. You are only in it if you already have that photo.

Mind Movies: a mind movie you build by hand

Mind Movies has a web app called the Platinum Creation Kit. You use it to build a three-minute movie from 4,562 images, 464 music clips and 600 affirmations. You watch the movie instead of imagining, which helps. The Creation Kit iPhone app is only a viewer. It has 2.9 stars from 28 ratings on the App Store.

Better than Solulu for: choosing every slide yourself.
The limit: the library is stock images, so the people in them are not you. You still have to see yourself in a stranger’s place. More in Solulu vs Mind Movies.

Stella - Manifest Anything: stories you hear

Stella writes audio stories of your future. First you answer a long set of questions about you. It has 4.7 stars from 5,300 ratings on the App Store, on iPhone and Android.

Better than Solulu for: listening while driving or falling asleep.
The limit: if you cannot visualize, a rich description is a long list of things you cannot see. More in Solulu vs Stella.

Aya: your dream self’s voice

Aya plays a short recording of your future self describing your life. You can read the text along with it. It has 4.8 stars from 3,200 ratings on the App Store, on iPhone, iPad, Android and the web.

Better than Solulu for: a soothing voice, and Android and web access.
The limit: like Stella, it describes the scene and leaves the picture to you. More in Solulu vs Aya.

The apps side by side

If you can’t visualize, read the first two columns. Does the app give you a real picture, and is it of you?

App	Gives you a real picture	Is it you	What you still have to imagine	Platforms
Solulu	Yes, a mind movie	Yes, your own face	Nothing, only feel it	iPhone
I am	No, words	No	The whole scene, or skip pictures	iPhone, iPad, Watch, Android
ThinkUp	A still photo you add	Only if you have that photo	Most of the scene	iPhone, Mac, Watch, Android
Mind Movies	Yes, a slideshow movie	No, stock library images	Yourself in a stranger’s place	Web, any device
Stella	No, audio and other people’s pictures	No	Everything the voice describes	iPhone, Android
Aya	No, audio and text	No	Everything the voice describes	iPhone, iPad, Android, web

Where to go next

For apps for every goal, see the best manifestation apps. For the practice itself, with or without any app, read what is visualization? and manifesting with aphantasia.