Solulu vs Aya: listen to your dream self, or watch yourself living it
Aya suits people who love audio. A calm voice of your future self speaks your future life to you, in short morning and night routines. It runs on iPhone, iPad and Android. For most people Solulu is the better pick. It shows your own face living the scene in a personal mind movie. You do not have to imagine what the voice describes. And it is easy to keep doing, with one movie to come back to morning and night.
Hearing your future or seeing it
Aya and Solulu both give you a daily visit with your future self. Aya lets you hear her. Solulu lets you see her.
We make Solulu, one of the two apps on this page.
Both apps use a very old idea from the Law of Assumption, one family of manifesting methods. “Feel the wish fulfilled,” Neville Goddard taught his students. He meant that you act and feel as if your wish has already come true, until it feels like your normal life. He called this living in the end. What you assume and feel to be true hardens into fact, and it shows up in your life. A few minutes with your future self, every morning and night, is a gentle way to live there.
On TikTok, this way of practicing is called the Aya method, after the app. The only question is which sense you use.
- Aya. A calm voice, your “dream self”, describes your life as if it is already done.
- Solulu. A short movie shows you, with your own face, already living it.
What each app does, in three lines
Aya is a future-self audio app. Solulu is a mind movie app.
Aya: Manifest Your Dream Self (by Lit Apps LLC)
- You answer a long set of questions about your life, your love life, your people and your ideal day. Aya calls it 28 steps.
- It writes short recordings in your future self’s voice. They include affirmations, short positive lines spoken by your dream self. It also has audio routines for waking up and winding down. You can listen and read along.
- It makes a vision board for you and has a daily gratitude page. It also has a library of playlists, subliminals and sleep stories. It has 4.8 stars from 3,216 ratings on the App Store.
Solulu (by us)
- You describe the life you want and add your photos. You can also add photos of your SP, places, outfits, pets and things you want. Your SP is your specific person, the one you want to be with.
- It makes personal mind movies with you in the scenes. A mind movie is a short video of your goals, with affirmations and music. Each one opens with a calm kaleidoscope, then shows scenes of you living that life.
- You get new mind movies every week as your goals grow. You watch them in the morning and at night.
Side by side
The real difference is what you get, and whether you are in it.
| Aya | Solulu | |
|---|---|---|
| What you get | Daily future-self audio, affirmations, morning and night routines, a vision board, gratitude | Up to three new personal mind movies each week |
| Your own photos | The vision board is made for you | Yes. You, and if you like, your SP, places, pets and things |
| Video or audio | Audio, with text | Video, with affirmations and music |
| Platforms | iPhone, iPad, Android, plus a web library | iPhone |
One wish, both ways
Here is the same wish done in each style, starting with love.
A dream-self recording, like the ones in Aya, might sound like this. “I am so loved. They tell me every day how lucky they feel. Being with them is the easiest thing in my life.”
In Solulu, the same wish becomes one moment you can see, with you in it.
They are waiting outside my office with two iced coffees. They kiss my forehead and take my bag. Now I can drink my coffee on the walk home.
The recording tells you it is true. The scene shows you the proof, and it is your face you see.
Other goals work the same way. A career recording might say, “I am respected at work and my ideas are heard.” In Solulu, the scene looks like this.
I stand at the front of the meeting room, with my slide on the screen. My manager nods at me before anyone else speaks.
A home recording might say, “I live somewhere that feels like me.” In Solulu, it becomes this scene.
I water the plants on my balcony in the morning light. It is my own apartment, and my coffee sits on the railing.
Where Aya is better
Aya does several things well. For some people, it is the better app.
- It is hands-free. You can listen with your eyes closed, on a walk or in the dark. Solulu needs your eyes for a few minutes.
- It is on more devices. Aya runs on iPhone, iPad and Android, and it has a web library too. Solulu is iPhone only.
- It has a bigger library. It has community playlists, subliminals and sleep stories, as well as your own recordings.
- It is gentle. The questions feel thoughtful and safe.
- It speaks many languages. It works in English and many more.
Where Solulu is better: four reasons
For most people, Solulu is the better choice, for four reasons.
1. You see yourself living it
Aya gives you a voice. Its vision board is made for you, not from your photos. However kind the words are, you are hearing about your life, not looking at it. Solulu makes scenes from your own photos. You see your own face, already living the life. It might be you and your person on the walk home, or you on your balcony.
There is good research behind seeing yourself. In a well-known study, people pictured themselves voting, seen from the outside like a photo. Those people were more likely to really vote. Seeing yourself do something helps you believe you are someone who does it. Hearing about yourself is one step further away.
2. It does not depend on your imagination
Say a voice tells you that you wake up next to them, with the sun on the sheets. The picture still has to come from you. Some people picture things easily. Many others do not. They hear the words, but no picture appears.
About 4 in 100 people have very dim mental pictures, or none at all. This is called aphantasia. For them, a recording can never turn into a scene.
With Solulu, the picture is not up to you. You look at the scene, with your face in it. All your energy can go into feeling it, and that feeling is what brings it to you.
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
Both apps take a few minutes in the morning and at night, so both are easy habits. The difference is what can get in the way. Aya stories come in short parts that stop and do not play again on their own.
With Solulu, one mind movie holds your scenes, affirmations and music from start to finish. The Solulu method keeps the practice simple. You pick one specific scene and see yourself inside it, every morning and night. You watch the same mind movie at both times. New ones arrive as your goals grow.
| You see yourself in it | Works without a strong imagination | Easy to keep up | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solulu | Yes, your own face, from your photos | Yes, you watch the scene | Yes, a few minutes morning and night, one movie |
| Aya | No, a voice and a board made for you | Partly. You picture what you hear | Yes, short routines. Stories do not loop |
What Aya users say
Aya users like how personal it feels.
- What they love. It helps them picture what they want, and the questions feel thoughtful.
- The most common complaint. You answer a long, emotional set of questions before you can listen.
- No loop. Stories play in short parts and do not repeat on their own.
The verdict, by reader
For most readers, the pick is Solulu. People who love audio, and people with Android phones, should look at Aya.
| If you… | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Want to see yourself living the life you want | Solulu | Your own face in every scene, from your photos |
| Are manifesting your SP | Solulu | Hearing that you are together is good. Seeing the two of you is better |
| Find it hard to picture things | Solulu | A voice still asks you to picture it. A mind movie does not |
| Want to listen with your eyes closed | Aya | It is audio, so it works on a walk or in the dark |
| Use Android or an iPad | Aya | Solulu is iPhone only |
You can also use both. Listen to your dream self in the morning, and watch your mind movie at night. Our page on the Solulu method vs the Aya method shows that routine step by step.
Switching from Aya
To move from Aya to Solulu, cancel Aya through Apple or Google first. Deleting your Aya account does not cancel the subscription.
- On iPhone, open Settings and tap your name.
- Tap Subscriptions, then Aya.
- Tap Cancel Subscription. You keep Premium until the end of the period you have paid for. Cancel at least 24 hours before it ends.
On Android, open the Play Store and tap your profile. Then tap Payments and subscriptions, Subscriptions, Aya, and Cancel. Our guide to cancelling a manifestation app has every step. For other options, see the best Aya alternatives or our full Aya review.
How to start
You can start seeing your future self today, by hand or with the app.
- By hand, for free. Write one scene from the life you want. Write it with “I”, in the present tense. Find the closest photo you can with you in it. Look at it when you wake up and before you sleep.
- With Solulu. Solulu is the iPhone app we make for exactly this. You describe the life you want and add your photos. It makes mind movies with you in the scenes. You get up to three new mind movies each week, not audio alone.
Of the two apps, Solulu is the better way to meet your future self. There are four reasons. You see your own face living the life, instead of hearing a voice describe it. You do not have to imagine anything. New mind movies keep it from going stale. And one mind movie covers a practice of a few minutes every morning and night. To find other apps for what you need, see the best manifestation apps.