How Maalin decides
Plain rules, with the reason shown.
Maalin turns your day into one next step. The decisions come from fixed rules that run on your phone, work offline and are tested on every change. Here is how they work.
Your day
Data in
Rules on your phone
Decide
Safety firstOne step, with its reason
Out
Three layers
| Layer | What it does | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Read | Gets your data from Apple Health, your calendars, your logs and the weather, with the least access needed | Your iPhone |
| 2. Decide | Fixed rules and plain statistics work out your plan, your targets, your readiness and your next step. Every number comes from here | Your iPhone |
| 3. Put into words | AI reads a photo or a sentence you log, and turns Maalin's numbers into short sentences. It never decides anything | Your iPhone |
What Maalin looks at
Every input is optional. Maalin works with what you have and says when something is missing ("No sleep data yet").
- The time and today's day type
- Your protected times and prayer times
- Calendar busy time (start and end only)
- Last night's sleep, your steps and movement in the last 2 hours
- Resting heart rate and HRV against your own averages
- What you've eaten and drunk so far, habits due, planned activities
- Today's fasting window and your safety profile
- How you said you feel
- What Maalin has learned about your routine
- The weather, if available
How your day plan is built
Maalin places your day in this order, and drops anything that doesn't fit, so the plan stays short.
- Fixed times: your sleep window, work or study hours, busy time, planned activities and any fast.
- Protected times: your own, plus prayer times if Prayer is on.
- Meals at your usual times, moved around busy time by up to 2 hours.
- Small blocks in free gaps: water through the day, a movement break after 2 hours still, habits at their usual times.
- Suggested blocks: "Get ready" before a long busy stretch, a nap on a go-easy day, wind-down before bed. Each says why it's there.
How the next step is chosen
Every time you open Today, or something changes, Maalin:
- Gathers ideas from every part of your day that's switched on.
- Removes anything already done, skipped, snoozed or not possible right now, such as during a meeting or a protected time.
- Puts first anything a safety rule asks for, such as eating before a match.
- Scores the rest: how soon it matters × how much it helps your goals × how likely you are to do it now. Rain or heat lowers the score of outdoor plans.
- Shows the top one, with its reason. Anything else that's off pace becomes a line in words under its tile.
Every suggestion has a reason that names what it came from, across areas: "You slept 5.8 h and football is at 20:00." A meeting is named by its time only. Reasons state your data, never a body state Maalin can't measure.
Why this?
“You slept 5.8 h and football is at 20:00.”
Safety rules come first
These rules win over every suggestion, plan block and AI sentence.
- Before a moderate or hard activity, if you haven't eaten for 5 hours or more, the next step is to eat.
- During a fast with no food, Maalin never suggests eating, or drinking if water isn't allowed. A hard activity planned during a fast gets a suggestion to move it after the fast, or keep it light.
- On a rest day, the most Maalin suggests is light movement or rest.
- Calorie targets never go below 1,200 kcal a day (1,500 kcal for men, or if you don't give your sex), unless a professional set them with you.
- If you're pregnant or breastfeeding: no calorie cuts, no fasting nudges and no hard-activity nudges.
- If your readings show warning signs, or you report feeling unwell, Maalin calmly suggests seeing a doctor in place of coaching.
- Faith is encouragement only. A prayer or religious habit is never shown as a failure.
- No weight or body shaming, anywhere.
Readiness, in plain words
Maalin uses the measures you have: no heart data is fine. If your device shares its own readiness, Maalin uses it, but when it and your own check-in disagree, the more careful one wins. The thresholds are starting estimates, compared with your own averages.
- Go
No sign to go easy among the measures you have
- Go easy
One sign, such as a short night or a resting heart rate a little above your average
- Rest
A very short night, a clearly raised resting heart rate, two go-easy signs, or you said you feel drained
- Unknown
No data yet. Maalin asks how you feel
When Maalin sends a notification
All of these must be true.
- It matters enough, or it's a reminder you set.
- You're not in a meeting, a protected time, your sleep window or a Focus that silences Maalin. Prayer reminders you turned on are the exception.
- Today's limit isn't used up: 6 by default, aiming for 1 to 3.
- The same kind wasn't sent in the last 90 minutes, and you didn't open Maalin in the last 15.
- None of your other devices has already sent it.
If you ignore a notification twice at a similar time, that time is used less from then on.
What Maalin learns, and how you stay in charge
- Learned on your phone, from your own logs.
- Each value moves from "Starting estimate" to "Still learning" to "Learned from 12 days".
- What you set always wins. A change is offered ("You've been waking at 6:30 on workdays. Update?"), never made silently.
- "Why this?", "Don't suggest this" and "Less at this time" on every suggestion.
- See, edit or delete everything learned, under Privacy and data.
Where AI helps, and where it doesn't
It reads: a meal photo, a spoken sentence (English) or typed words (English and Somali) become a log with items, a place and a price. You check it before it's saved.
It phrases: Maalin's numbers become short sentences, like the reason under a suggestion.
- It never decides what Maalin suggests, and never makes up a number. Every number it writes is checked against Maalin's own, and a pre-written sentence is used if they differ.
- Food numbers come from the library, never from AI.
- On your iPhone only. Nothing is sent anywhere for AI.
- Works without AI. On iPhones without Apple Intelligence, or with AI turned off, Maalin uses its own word matching and pre-written sentences.
Where the numbers come from
Every value the rules use sits in one reference table, with its source and the date it was checked. Values no guideline sets are labelled starting estimates, and adjust to your own data.
| Starting target | From |
|---|---|
| Sleep 7 h 30 min | Sleep medicine guidance (AASM/SRS 2015, NSF 2015) |
| Water from drinks 1.6–2.0 L | EFSA 2010 |
| 7,000 steps | Paluch 2022, Ding 2025 |
| 150 active minutes a week | WHO 2020 |
| Protein from 0.83 g per kg | EFSA 2012, higher on activity days (ACSM 2016) |
| Energy | Mifflin–St Jeor and FAO/WHO/UNU activity levels |
| Activity energy | The 2024 Compendium of Physical Activities |
| Heat | ACSM 2023 heat-stress bands |
Sources are named here and in the policies, never on Today or in notifications.
How it's tested
- Every rule has written test scenarios, such as "night shift 19:00–07:00, last meal 12:30, time 17:45: eat before the shift".
- Persona test days are replayed on every change: rotating shifts, a student timetable, a day with no device, Ramadan at high latitude, travel across time zones, a wheelchair user, a pregnant user, and more.
- Every suggestion, in English and Somali, is checked against the list of words Maalin never uses about health.
What Maalin never says
Maalin is a wellbeing app. It never names a condition, never says "you must" about health, never calls you "at risk" or "dehydrated", never gives calories as an exact number, and never tells you whether a fast counts.
Start tomorrow with Maalin.
Coming soon to iPhoneAndroid after the first iPhone release.