Research & Roadmap
Behavioral audio awareness, privacy-first design, and clinically informed research.
Purpose of this Page
This page is written for research partners, clinical collaborators, and grant reviewers. SnapHabit LLC is a U.S.–based small business (parent of AwareFlow™) pursuing NIH/NSF-aligned digital health research around subtle behavioral habits, nervous-system regulation, and everyday functioning.
Our flagship product, AwareFlow™, is a privacy-first iOS app that uses on-device audio and contextual signals to help people notice habitual sounds (such as sniffing, throat-clearing, pen-clicking, or idle breathing) and respond with awareness rather than shame.
Problem & Opportunity
Subtle audible habits are widespread and often distressing — sniffing, throat-clearing, pen-clicking, desk tapping, filler words, or even repeated swearing in emotionally charged contexts. These behaviors can:
- Signal underlying stress, anxiety, or dysregulation,
- Trigger misophonia-like reactions in others, and
- Impact relationships, work performance, and self-esteem.
There is currently no widely adopted, privacy-preserving tool that helps people notice these patterns in real time, reflect on context, and gently change behavior without recording or exporting raw audio.
Scientific Foundations
AwareFlow’s behavioral-audio approach aligns with established research in autonomic regulation, patterned nervous-system responses, habit learning, and digital phenotyping. Our early-stage framework integrates three evidence-informed domains:
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Short-latency patterned responses
Brief, repetitive signals such as sniffing, throat-clearing, tapping, and idle breathing — often shaped by stress, arousal, or emotional load. -
Contextual modulation cues
How fatigue, cognitive load, time of day, and environmental factors influence the frequency and intensity of habitual behaviors. -
Digital phenotyping principles
NIH-aligned methods emphasizing derived, low-risk sensing (counts, timing, patterns) rather than raw audio or identifiable recordings.
These foundations support AwareFlow’s central premise: habitual sounds can serve as gentle, privacy-preserving indicators of nervous-system state — not flaws to be corrected, but signals to be understood.
Scientific & Technical Aims
Our roadmap aligns with NIH/NSF digital health, behavioral science, and human–computer interaction priorities:
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Aim 1 — Detect and characterize audible habit signals.
Develop and validate on-device models capable of identifying short, non-verbal sound patterns linked to everyday habits (sniffing, throat-clearing, pen-clicking, “nervous” breathing) while never storing raw audio. -
Aim 2 — Link habits to context and nervous-system state.
Combine sound events with coarse context (time, environment, emotion) to examine how stress, fatigue, and surroundings modulate habitual behaviors. -
Aim 3 — Design and evaluate gentle interventions.
Test subtle, user-controlled feedback (haptics, notifications, summaries) that support awareness and self-regulation without shaming or surveillance. -
Aim 4 — Extend beyond “noises” to speech-adjacent patterns.
Explore filler words, swearing frequency, and other linguistic markers as signals of strain, using explicit consent and fully on-device processing.
Current Status (2025)
- Product: AwareFlow™ iOS app under active development for iOS 26 with on-device habit detection, contextual awareness, journaling, and privacy-first design.
- Signals: Initial models focus on discrete short sounds (sniffing, pen-clicking); architecture supports broader expansion.
- IP: AwareFlow™ and SnapHabit™ trademarks in progress; U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/924,802 filed for behavioral-audio methods.
- Compliance posture: No ad SDKs, no cross-app tracking, no server-side audio. Apple Privacy Manifest reflects an “on-device by default” stance.
Roadmap
proof-of-concept → structured data collection → pilot trials → expansion.
| Phase | Focus | Expected Outputs |
|---|---|---|
| Phase 1 — Consumer Launch (near-term) | Sniff-focused detection, calibration, contextual awareness UI, and reflection tools. | Thresholding methods, ambient baselines, engagement data, acceptability metrics. |
| Phase 2 — Structured Data Collection (pre-clinical) | Opt-in observational studies using standardized iPhones or locked configurations to ensure protocol fidelity. | De-identified derived features (event counts, timing, context) suitable for early-stage analysis. |
| Phase 3 — Clinical & Community Trials | Pilot trials for misophonia, anxiety-linked habits, ADHD-related fidgeting, or occupational impacts. | Outcomes: distress reduction, increased awareness, functional improvement, and usability data. |
| Phase 4 — Expanded Signals & Speech Patterns | Filler-word detection, swearing frequency, and linguistic markers with explicit consent. | Higher-level behavioral features and tools for researchers running targeted protocols. |
Ethics, Privacy & Data Handling
AwareFlow is intentionally not a surveillance product. Core principles:
- On-device first: Raw audio is never stored or uploaded.
- Minimal data: Only essential derived features are kept for insights.
- Explicit consent: Any research mode is opt-in with plain-language explanations.
- De-identification: Exports include counts, timing, and trends — not recordings.
- User control: Participants may pause detection or clear all data at any time.
These practices align with human-subjects protections and digital phenotyping guidance.
Organization & Funding Readiness
SnapHabit LLC is a privately held U.S. company based in Phoenix, Arizona, and serves as the operational home for AwareFlow™.
- Registered U.S. small business; SAM.gov entity registration complete.
- UEI (SAM):D4XFB6HMCJB5
- Positioned for SBIR/STTR mechanisms with academic or clinical partners.
- Open to collaboration with universities, health systems, and groups studying misophonia, anxiety, ADHD, speech patterns, and habit change.
Project Lead
Jason Babcock, MBA, ACRP-CP
Founder & Principal Investigator, SnapHabit LLC
- 10+ years in clinical study operations and coordination.
- 25+ years in healthcare operations and digital tools.
- Expertise spanning clinical research, care-delivery workflows, and digital implementation.
Collaboration & Contact
We welcome conversations with investigators, clinicians, and program officers exploring privacy-preserving audio-informed behavioral tools.
- Email (general): [email protected]
- Email (research/partnerships): [email protected]