Introduction
Your phone is probably one of the things you use most during the day. That can sometimes add to stress, distraction or poor sleep, but it can also give you quick access to tools that help you pause, keep track of how you are feeling or practise something that supports your wellbeing.
There are thousands of apps that make claims about mental health, and the quality varies considerably. Some are essentially relaxation tools. Others offer mood tracking, structured exercises or information designed around particular mental health needs.
The important thing is not finding the app with the biggest promises. It is finding something useful for what you actually need.
What can a mental health app help with?
Mental health and wellbeing apps can be useful for relatively simple, everyday things: practising mindfulness, developing a relaxation routine, keeping track of your mood, improving sleep habits or learning techniques for managing stress and anxiety.
For some people, having something on their phone makes those tools easier to use consistently. A five-minute breathing exercise is more likely to happen if it is already in your pocket than if it requires finding a book, website or course every time.
But apps differ enormously. Mind points out that apps available through ordinary app stores are not automatically checked for quality, effectiveness or how responsibly they handle your data. It now works with ORCHA to provide a library of apps that have been assessed against quality standards.
So rather than downloading the first app promising to “transform your mental health”, it is worth thinking about what you actually want it to do.
Apps for mindfulness, relaxation and sleep
Mindfulness apps are probably the most familiar type of wellbeing app. They can be useful if you want some guidance with meditation, breathing, relaxation or winding down before sleep.
Headspace
Headspace is one of the better-known mindfulness and meditation apps. It includes guided meditations, relaxation exercises, sleep resources and programmes focused on areas such as stress, anxiety and mood. It is available through an app as well as a web browser.
Its main advantage is structure. If you are new to meditation and do not particularly know where to begin, having someone guide you through a short exercise can make it feel considerably more approachable.
You do not need to become someone who meditates for an hour every morning for it to be useful. A few minutes can simply provide a deliberate pause in a busy day.
Calm
Calm has a similar emphasis on meditation and relaxation but has particularly strong content around sleep. Its app includes guided meditations, breathing exercises, music, soundscapes and Sleep Stories, with some content available free and additional material through paid subscriptions.
It may suit someone who finds traditional meditation difficult but responds better to relaxing audio, stories or sounds.
As with any sleep app, it is worth remembering the slight contradiction involved in using your phone to help you switch off from your phone. If notifications or late-night scrolling are part of the problem, using the audio and then putting the device down may be more helpful than continuing to browse.
Insight Timer
Insight Timer offers a particularly large collection of guided meditations, sleep material, music, mindfulness exercises and breathing practices. A substantial amount of its content is available without paying for a subscription, although premium options are also available.
The amount of choice can be either a strength or a drawback. If you like exploring different teachers and approaches, it gives you plenty to choose from. If too much choice leaves you scrolling endlessly, finding two or three exercises you like and returning to them may work better.
Apps for understanding your mood
Sometimes the useful thing is not trying to change how you feel immediately, but beginning to notice patterns.
Sleep, work, relationships, exercise, alcohol, physical health and everyday pressures can all affect mood. When life is busy, those connections are not always obvious.
Daylio
Daylio is a simple mood and activity tracker. You can record how you are feeling and what you have been doing without needing to write a long journal entry each day. Over time, this can help you look back and notice patterns.
For example, you might notice that your mood tends to dip after several nights of poor sleep, or that particular activities regularly coincide with feeling better.
That does not mean an app can explain why you feel the way you do. Mood tracking is information rather than diagnosis. Its value is in giving you something concrete to reflect on.
It is also perfectly reasonable to stop tracking if it starts making you more preoccupied with how you feel. A wellbeing tool should be helping, not becoming another task you feel you are failing to complete.
Apps with practical mental health tools
Some apps go beyond relaxation and offer exercises based on established psychological approaches.
My Possible Self
My Possible Self includes tools for areas such as anxiety, low mood, stress and sleep. Its content includes exercises developed with Priory Healthcare and incorporates cognitive behavioural therapy, or CBT, approaches. Features include mood tracking, journals, exercises and tools for recognising things that may be influencing how you feel.
This may suit someone who wants a little more structure than a meditation app provides.
CBT-based tools often encourage you to notice links between thoughts, feelings and behaviour and to look at whether particular patterns are helping or making things harder. An app can provide prompts for that process, although it is not the same as receiving CBT from a trained professional.
An app for staying safer in a crisis
Most wellbeing apps are designed for everyday support. A small number have a much more specific purpose.
Stay Alive
Stay Alive is a free suicide-prevention resource developed by Grassroots Suicide Prevention. It can be used by someone experiencing thoughts of suicide or by somebody worried about another person. It includes tools such as a safety plan, wellness plan, reasons for living and quick access to information about further help.
This is very different from recommending a meditation or mood-tracking app. Stay Alive is designed as a practical safety resource, not as a replacement for professional or emergency help.
If you download something like this because you know you may need it, it is worth looking through it before you are in crisis. Setting up useful information while you are feeling relatively steady can make it much easier to find when thinking clearly becomes harder.
How to choose a mental health app
The best-known app is not necessarily the best one for you.
Before downloading something, think about the job you actually want it to do.
You might be looking for:
- help winding down before sleep
- short breathing or relaxation exercises
- guided meditation
- a way to track your mood
- structured exercises for stress or anxiety
- something you can use as part of an existing crisis or safety plan
Once you know that, choosing becomes much easier.
Check who is behind it
A polished website and thousands of downloads do not automatically make an app clinically reliable.
Look at who developed it, what evidence is offered for its claims and whether a recognised health or mental health organisation has assessed it.
Mind’s mental health app library is a useful starting point because the apps it lists are quality-checked in partnership with ORCHA rather than simply selected because they are popular.
Think about privacy
Mental health apps can involve very personal information.
If you are recording moods, thoughts, habits or details about your mental health, take a look at what information the app collects, why it collects it and whether it shares data with other organisations.
You do not have to understand every line of a privacy policy, but an app asking for far more information than seems necessary deserves a closer look.
Be realistic about cost
Many apps are free to download but charge for substantial parts of their content. Others offer trials that move into paid subscriptions.
That does not automatically make them poor choices, but check what you are signing up for. A wellbeing app you are worrying about paying for has rather defeated the point.
There are also good free resources available, so paying for a subscription is not a requirement for looking after your mental health.
Give yourself permission to stop
An app might be highly rated and still do absolutely nothing for you.
Meditation does not suit everyone. Some people love tracking their mood; others find it makes them focus on it too much. Sleep stories can be wonderfully relaxing for one person and irritating for another.
You are not doing wellbeing incorrectly because a popular app does not work for you.
Try it. Notice whether it is useful. Keep it if it helps and delete it if it doesn’t.
Remember that sometimes the best thing for your mental health is putting the phone down
There is an obvious irony in recommending more things to do on a device that already demands a great deal of our attention.
Your phone can provide useful tools, but it does not have to become the place where all of your wellbeing happens.
Sometimes what you need may be a walk, some sleep, food, time with another person, ten quiet minutes without notifications or simply a break from looking at a screen.
Mind similarly recommends thinking about the balance between online and offline time, including deliberately taking breaks from phones and other screens where that helps you relax.
An app is a tool. It does not have to become another habit you feel obliged to maintain.
Mental health apps are support, not a substitute for support
An app can help you practise something, notice a pattern or find useful information. What it cannot do is replace proper mental health care when you need it.
If your mental health is deteriorating, you are struggling to cope or something simply feels as though it is becoming too much, speak to someone rather than relying on an app to manage it alone.
That might mean talking to someone you trust, contacting your GP or speaking to a mental health professional or service already supporting you.
The most useful technology is often the technology that helps us do something practical: pause for a moment, recognise what is happening, or make it easier to reach the right support.
