Tech

This Website Is Literally Just a Cat Purring Forever

It’s said that the internet is made for porn and cats. A website called Purrli takes the latter idea even further: it puts a feline friend in your browser, so that cat-lovers can keep the soothing sound of purring in their ears at all times. (Thanks to Karen Clark for bringing it to our attention.)

Created by the maker of MyNoise, research engineer and sound designer Stéphane Pigeon, Purrli is a new, updated version of his purr generator from 2015.

Videos by VICE

Screenshot of the Purrli website’s control panel. Image: Purrli

Adjust the sliders to make the sound more sleepy or lively, how many nagging meows you can tolerate, and even the loudness of the inhales and exhales. It’s an obsessive level of detail only the most devoted cat lover would need. A nice, even purring is probably plenty soothing for most of us.

“I thought a cat purr would be no more than a gimmick. Something fun, but probably useless,” Pigeon writes on the Purrli site. “Many user testimonials later, I realize how wrong I was.” Testimonials range from the reasonable (“This is so nice to listen to at work when I miss my cat”) to the obsessed (“I will never listen to music again!”).

Owning a pet is therapeutic for many, and purring, especially, is the topic of many questionably-researched discussions around cats and their healing powers. But if listening to a virtual kitty calms your soul, by all means, purr away.

Get six of our favorite Motherboard stories every day by signing up for our newsletter.