Completely felt the same about these kinds of apps previously and likely still do, I've a had a few people recommend them to me and I've dismissed them immediately because to meditate or clear my head I want less electronics, I want to be away from anything remotely related to pixels on a screen.

Since I haven't had much luck on my own, I recently started to use headspace, basically it's just audio of a guy talking for a few minutes. It's helped me quite a bit, I imagine this would work just as well if it were a teacher or friend but I feel few people have to have access to someone who will do that with them every day.

Each lesson gives some tips on how to help not remove thoughts but accept them which I always tried to manually delete thoughts but it always failed and there was too much resistance. I'm adverse to taking any type of anxiety medications so this is a much cheaper and risk-free alternative.

I don't pay for it as that does distract from the point but it's been beneficial (I think). It's likely not science, but it helped create a routine of letting yourself breathe for a bit which in itself is useful.