💧 What the app does today
Hydration tracking is free for everyone. It sits alongside caffeine tracking, around the same cup.
- A dedicated water counter. Each glass is added in one tap via the “+ Water” button. The default unit is a 250 ml glass.
- A personal goal. Adjustable from 4 to 12 glasses a day. The default is 8 glasses, or 2 litres — the widely used benchmark, aligned with the EFSA adequate intake for an adult woman.
- A blue ring. Around the cup, a blue ring fills as you progress and turns green once you reach your goal — much like activity rings.
- Dedicated stats. In the 💧 Water tab of My Progress: your average, your consistency, your records and how your intake is spread across the day.
- Caution mode. During pregnancy or breastfeeding, your goal automatically moves to 9 glasses (2.3 L) — the WHO recommendation.
The hydration reminders — nudges to drink during the day (around 10am, 1pm, 4pm), taking into account what you've already drunk so you're not prompted needlessly — are part of PauseCafé Premium.
💧 “If it can be counted, it should be”
An option lets you include water in your overall stats, or not. The principle: anything that can be counted is counted by default, for a complete picture of your habits — and you can always turn it off.
🌡️ Weather-aware hydration Available
In hot weather or a heatwave, your water needs increase — PauseCafé alerts you and adapts its reminders accordingly.
- Based on Météo-France alert levels. In France, the app reads the heat alert level for your département to adapt its messages.
- Département chosen manually in the app — no geolocation, and a neutral fallback if the information isn't available.
- Free alert for everyone : an alert banner appears on the home screen and the widget. The stepped-up hydration reminders during hot weather are part of Premium.
- Wellness framing. Encouraging nudges, never medical instructions.
🔬 What this is based on
PauseCafé's hydration benchmarks rest on official European references, not on made-up figures.
The reference water intake
L'EFSA (2010 opinion) defines an adequate intake of total water de 2.0 L/day for a woman et 2.5 L/day for a man, under moderate temperature and activity conditions. The key point: this is total water — roughly 80% comes from drinks (of all kinds) and 20% from food. During pregnancy, EFSA adds around +300 ml/day; while breastfeeding, around +700 ml/day.
💡 Why “8 glasses / 2 L” is a benchmark, not a rule
The famous “8 glasses a day” is a practical benchmark, not a universal truth. Your actual needs depend on your size, your activity, the climate and what you eat. PauseCafé therefore suggests 2 L by default (aligned with the EFSA adult-woman value) but lets you adjust from 4 to 12 glasses : the goal is a motivating guide, not a prescription.
The “coffee dehydrates you” myth
Many people believe every coffee must be “offset” with water, because caffeine is supposedly dehydrating. The science says otherwise: caffeine is a mild diuretic, but at moderate doses (up to around 400 mg/day) this effect is offset by the liquid in the drink itself. A controlled study (Killer et al., 2014) compared coffee and water in 50 regular drinkers: no difference across a wide range of hydration markers. The conclusion: drunk in moderation, coffee hydrates about as well as water in habitual drinkers.
What this means for the app. PauseCafé counts water separately not to “cancel out” coffee, but to encourage you to keep a good plain-water habit alongside your caffeinated drinks. We're not demonising coffee — we're just helping you find a balance.
🔍 What we analyse
Beyond the counter, PauseCafé puts your water data in perspective:
Consistency & records
Your average over time, your day-to-day consistency, and your best days — to turn hydration into a habit.
Time slots
When do you drink? Seeing how your intake spreads across the day helps you spot the moments you forget.
Water ↔ caffeine correlation Premium
How your hydration shifts with your caffeine: over-compensation, trade-off, or steady.
📐 A worked example (water ↔ caffeine correlation, over 14 days)
Reading: you drink less water on heavily caffeinated days. That's a pattern in your habits, not proof of cause and effect.
This correlation uses the same rigorous method as the app's other analyses (comparing your extreme days, Spearman rank correlation, thresholds at 7 and 14 days). See the full insights method →
🚫 What the app does not do
Impose a universal number
There's no “you must drink X litres” that holds for everyone. Your needs vary; the goal is adjustable and indicative.
Give medical advice
PauseCafé is a wellness app. If you have a condition (kidney, heart) or any doubt, your doctor decides.
Push you to drink too much
Drinking to excess isn't harmless (hyponatraemia at the extreme). The goal aims at a healthy benchmark, not a record.
Exploit your health data
Your weight (used for some benchmarks) stays on your device. No health data is ever sold.
⚠️ Wellness information
PauseCafé's hydration benchmarks and analyses are provided for guidance and have no medical value: neither a medical device nor medical advice. For any question about your water needs or your health, consult a healthcare professional.
Sources.
EFSA, Scientific Opinion on Dietary Reference Values for water, 2010 (EFSA Journal 2010;8(3):1459) — adequate intake of 2.0 L/day (women) and 2.5 L/day (men) of total water; +300 ml in pregnancy, +700 ml while breastfeeding. Link →
Killer SC, Blannin AK, Jeukendrup AE. No Evidence of Dehydration with Moderate Daily Coffee Intake. PLoS ONE 2014;9(1):e84154 — moderate coffee ≈ the same hydration as water in regular drinkers. Link →
Maughan RJ, Griffin J. Caffeine ingestion and fluid balance: a review. J Hum Nutr Diet 2003 — caffeine's diuretic effect is moderate and transient at usual doses.
WHO & Institute of Medicine (2005) — water intake benchmarks by age, sex and climate. Individual needs vary.
Stay hydrated without thinking about it
Water counter, adjustable goal, statistics — free in PauseCafé. Smart hydration reminders are included with Premium, along with weather-aware hydration, available in France.