The Long View Download

Quit smoking app for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac and Windows

Get years of your life back from quitting smoking

Smoking costs you time. Quitting gives you some of it back. The Long View shows you how much.

Download Try It Now
A forest path climbing between tall trees, the photo chosen as the reason for quitting, with the figure written over it.

53days

20 hours

of 3 years and 11 months

Be able to hike 10 miles without stopping

Today: 8 at most

2 fewer than last week

Try The Long View
on your own numbers

A photo of why

Available for free on Apple and Windows, and coming to Android.

A forest path climbing between tall trees, standing in for the photo you would choose.

Smoking has likely cost you 4 years

You could win back

3years

and 7 months

Be able to hike 10 miles without stopping

Get started

Why I Created The Long View

Lee, who builds The Long View

Hi- I'm Lee. I had a question: what does smoking actually cost a person in years, and how much of it, if any, comes back after quitting?

Most smokers want to quit. Patches and gum help some, but really it comes down to will power and powering through the withdrawal period.

That's why I built The Long View. Upload a photo of who, what or why you're quitting, and at a glance you can always see that motivation and how much time you're winning back.

The journey is not easy, and yet a small visual reminder can be that push to help you get through today.

And if you subscribe to Premium, then reach a year of smoke-free days, the app shows you how to cancel and keep everything. Quitting is the goal, after all.

The Long View is a free download on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Windows. There's also a common questions section for a full breakdown of how the app works.

You can use the Message Me button with any questions and I'll get back to you within 24 hours. I look forward to hearing about your journey.

Cheers -Lee

You can also check out my other apps Reveal the Dream, MyLinedChart, Still Dock, Keep the Diff, and Copy Shelter.

Message Me

Work With Me

The Long View in action

Works everywhere you are

For iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac and Windows, with Android and Wear OS coming. Each ecosystem syncs with itself, and Premium keeps your data in step across all of them, Mac to PC included.

The money screen: $644.51 saved from 1,011 cigarettes avoided at $12.75 a pack, which the screen also states is 23 days of life back.

Money. What you did not spend, and the time it bought back.

Settings: sync between your devices, encrypted first; the price per pack used to work out money saved; and export as a CSV day log or a full JSON backup.

Settings. Sync, the price you pay a pack, and your data on the way out.

Missing a day

Nothing resets, and there is no streak to break

Smoke one and you log it. The number moves down, then it starts moving back up. No reset to day one, no lost badge, no starting over.

Go two weeks without opening the app and nothing is lost either. Days stay editable afterwards, and a day you never touched is counted at your usual rate rather than as a perfect zero, so the number never flatters you for forgetting.

Most goals are not lost to one bad day. They are lost to deciding you have already failed.

The history screen: 19 smoke-free days and 23 days of time recovered, above a list of every day with the cigarettes recorded against it.

Not ready to stop dead

Walk down to zero at a pace you pick

Choose how long you want to take. The app holds the schedule and gives you one number a day, and that number is a ceiling rather than a quota: it is what you are staying under, and it keeps coming down whether or not you think about it.

It says how far it has come rather than what it allows, because "today's target: eight" reads like an instruction to smoke eight.

A day you never log still counts as your usual, not as the number the plan hoped for. The schedule cannot flatter you for looking away.

Quit plan

Today, at most

8 cigarettes

2 fewer than last week. 7 fewer than when you started

Nothing logged yet today.

28 days to go. Zero from 22 September.

The Long View widget sitting at the top of an iPhone home screen above the apps: 23 days won back, the reason it was written for, and today's count of zero cigarettes, logged.

Always visible

Your number on your home screen

Add the widget so you can always see where you stand at a glance: what you have won back and today's count, and it updates when you check in. Add it to your home screen and Lock Screen.

Even closer

And on your wrist

Raise your wrist and the time you have won back is there, next to how much is left to win. You can log updates from your Apple Watch and Wear OS, too.

The Apple Watch app: 23 days won back, of 5 years and 3 months that can be won back in total.
Apple Watch
The Wear OS app on a round face: 23 days won back, today's count of zero cigarettes, and plus and minus controls for logging from the wrist.
Wear OS

Everywhere you already are

The same app on every screen you own

Keep track on all your devices.

The same Today screen on Android: 23 days won back, and the same quit plan as the iPhone app.

Android

The Long View on iPad, with the sections in a sidebar beside the same screen: 23 days won back over the reason photo, the next health milestone and the quit plan.

iPad

The Wear OS app on a round watch face: 23 days won back, with plus and minus controls for logging today.

Wear OS

The Long View on Mac: a sidebar of sections beside the day's number, the reason photo, the quit plan and today's check-in.

Mac

The Long View on Windows: the same sections in a sidebar, with the quit plan and today's check-in in a column beside the day's number.

Windows

Get The Long View

Free on every platform. Sign up here for the best pricing on Premium.

Feature iPhone iPad Mac Windows Android soon Apple Watch Wear OS soon
Free The time you have won back
Daily check-in
A photo of your reason
Your smoke-free day count
Your full history, every day of it
Your next health milestone
A shareable milestone card
An always-on-top mini window
Premium everything in Free, plus The Watch apps Each needs the phone app from the same ecosystem
Watch complication
Money saved
Home screen widget
The quit plan, a taper with a finish line
The full recovery timeline, every milestone with dates
Export your history A day-by-day CSV, or a full backup file
Sync across every device you own Including between Apple, Android and Windows
The finished screen: 401 smoke-free days, 1 year and 2 months of life back, $5,112.75 not spent, and a note that everything earned stays yours, free, for as long as you want it.

Premium was designed to be cancelled

Most quit smoking apps are designed to stay subscribed forever. After a year of smoke-free days The Long View shows you how to cancel Premium, and you keep everything you achieved.

How it works

The small things

Made to help you keep going

The little things to keep you on track.

A reminder at a time you choose

One daily nudge to check in, set to whenever actually suits you, on the phone, the watch and the desktop apps.

Your day does not end at midnight

Set when a new day starts. A cigarette at one in the morning counts to the night you were having, not the morning you had not started yet.

Log several days at once

Back after two weeks away? Set the whole stretch in one go instead of correcting fourteen days one at a time.

Fix a number you got wrong

Entered the wrong usual when you started? Correct it. The app treats it as a correction rather than quietly rewriting it as progress.

A small window on your desk

The Mac and Windows apps can sit as a small always-on-top window, the desktop version of the widget, without a whole app in the way.

Dark mode, without asking

It follows your system setting. Turn the phone dark at night and the app is dark too, with nothing to set.

Notes on the days that mattered

Add a note to a check-in when something happened. The record is yours to read back, not just a row of counts.

Choose your pace

Free vs Premium

Start free. Premium adds money saved, the Watch apps, syncing across every device, and after a year of smoke-free days you cancel and keep everything. Every feature, platform by platform.

Get Premium
The Money screen without a subscription: a locked card explaining that Premium adds up what quitting is saving you, and that the estimate, check-ins, the photo and the recovery curve stay free forever.
Free. The Money screen is locked, and says so.
The Money screen with Premium: $644.51 saved from 1,011 cigarettes avoided at $12.75 a pack, which the screen also states is 23 days of life back, with a year at this rate and the cost per cigarette below.
Premium. What you did not spend, and the time it bought back.

Free

  • The time you have won back, and what is left to win
  • Daily check-ins, however many you smoked
  • One photo of your reason
  • The recovery curve
  • Your smoke-free day count
  • Your full history, every day of it
  • A shareable milestone card
  • Your next health milestone
  • The Mac and Windows apps

Premium Purchase here for the lowest price.

  • Everything in Free, plus
  • Money saved
  • Widgets
  • Watch apps, Apple and Wear
  • Export
  • The quit plan, a taper with a finish line
  • The full recovery timeline, every milestone with dates
  • Sync across every device you own, phone to Mac to PC

Check the math

The calculators behind The Long View

Quit smoking calculator

The years smoking has likely cost you, and the years quitting returns. Start here.

Life expectancy calculator

How the forecast moves at one, five and ten years after quitting, and where it stops.

Cost of smoking calculator

Money and time side by side, per cigarette, per pack, per year, from one count.

Open the calculator

Reading

Guides for further reading

How many years do you get back?

The four published bands, and why recovery is a curve rather than a step.

Is it too late at 50?

Less comes back than at 30. What comes back is still real years.

What does one cigarette cost?

About 20 minutes, and why that figure cannot simply be multiplied forever.

All the guides

Questions

Everything people ask before they start

What does The Long View actually do?

It turns your smoking history into one number: how much of the time smoking has taken you have won back, and how much more there is to win. A daily check-in keeps it current.

Where does the number come from?

Three published sources. A US Social Security Administration period life table for the baseline, Jackson et al. in Addiction 2025 for what a cigarette costs, and Jha et al. in the New England Journal of Medicine 2013 for what quitting returns. The methodology page shows the full math and a worked example.

Is this medical advice?

No. It will not tell you when you are going to die. It is a motivational estimate built from population averages, not a prediction about you, and two people with identical answers can have very different outcomes. It does not diagnose, treat or prevent anything. Talk to a doctor or a quitline about stopping smoking. In the US, that is 1-800-QUIT-NOW.

Can I use the calculators without the app?

Yes. The three calculators on this site are free, need no account, and give the same numbers the apps give.

Do I need an account?

Not to use it. The free app asks for no account, no email address and no payment details, and the calculators on this site ask for nothing either. Premium uses your email address only when you want it on more than one device: you enter it once, we send a six digit code, and that is what carries your subscription to your other devices.

Where is my data stored?

On your device. Without a subscription nothing you log ever leaves it. With one, your check-ins can follow you between your iPhone, your Mac and your PC: they are encrypted on your device first, with a key made on your device that is never sent to us, so we store only the encrypted result and cannot read your history.

What happens if I smoke one?

You log it and the number moves. It moves down as well as up on purpose: a counter that only ever improves is not believable, and being honest with it is the point.

What happens if I miss a day?

Nothing resets. Days are editable afterwards, and an untouched day is treated as your usual rate rather than as zero, so the estimate never flatters you for forgetting.

Which platforms does it run on?

iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac and Windows today, with Android and Wear OS coming to Google Play. The download page says where each version comes from.

What will it cost?

Free forever: the time you have won back, daily check-ins, one photo of your reason, the recovery curve, your smoke-free day count, your full history, a shareable milestone card, your next health milestone, and the Mac and Windows apps. Premium adds money saved, widgets, the Watch and Wear apps, export, the quit plan, the full recovery timeline and sync across every device you own.

What happens if I quit for good and stop needing the app?

You cancel and keep everything. After 365 smoke-free days, counted up rather than measured on the calendar, you cancel your subscription and keep every paid feature permanently at no charge. You do the cancelling, because no developer can do it for you on either store. Smoking again takes nothing away. Only starting a new attempt, which is yours to start, needs a new subscription.

Is it too late for me?

Quitting later returns less than quitting earlier, and it still returns real years. There is a whole guide on that question, worked through with numbers rather than encouragement.

How do I reach my country's quitline?

Here are the free national quitlines I have been able to find and check against the health authority that runs them. Most are free to call and staffed by trained counsellors, and none of them has anything to do with this app.

  • United States. 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669), which routes you to your state's quitline. cdc.gov
  • United Kingdom. The National Smokefree Helpline, 0300 123 1044, England only. nhs.uk
  • Ireland. The HSE QUIT line, 1800 201 203. hse.ie
  • Australia. Quitline, 13 7848 (13 QUIT). health.gov.au
  • New Zealand. Quitline, 0800 778 778. healthnz.govt.nz
  • Canada. The pan-Canadian quitline, 1-866-366-3667, which connects you to your province's service. canada.ca
  • Germany. The BZgA Rauchertelefon, 0800 8 31 31 31. rauchfrei-info.de
  • Italy. The Telefono Verde contro il Fumo, 800 554088. iss.it
  • Belgium. Tabakstop, 0800 111 00. tabakstop.be
  • Denmark. Stoplinien, 80 31 31 31. stoplinien.dk
  • India. The National Tobacco Quitline, 1800 11 2356. who.int
  • Philippines. The DOH Quitline, 1558. doh.gov.ph

If your country is not here, your national health service or health ministry will list its own. These numbers are taken from publicly available information published by those authorities, shown as a convenience and not as an offer or a referral, and no guarantee is made about their accuracy or availability. Last checked 12 August 2026.

Who builds this?

One person, Lee H., who also built Reveal the Dream, Still Dock, MyLinedChart and Keep the Diff. The about page has the rest, and messages come straight to me.