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Mental Health App Development: Ideas, Case Studies, How to Create…

Table of contents
Aspects to Consider When Developing a Mental Health App Features You Must Include in a Mental Health App Our Expertise — Emotional Intelligence Case Study Benefits of mental health apps Types of mental health apps Mental health app ideas Top Mental Health Apps in the Market Primary Business Models for Mental Health App Development Standards and Regulations for Mental Health App Development I have an idea for a mental health app. What should I do next? Conclusion

The last decades have made mental health problems much more visible than before. People talk about mental illness more, consider them more seriously, and the infrastructure for dealing with symptoms has grown significantly.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, in 2020 one out of five adults in the United States live with mental illness. It is about 53 million people only in the USA who regularly feel discomfort due to their psychological state. All of them need some assistance — whether it’s attending a psychiatrist in their neighborhood, taking pills, or trying to improve themselves on their own.

All these people would win from having some kind of app that would help them reduce struggling and increase happiness levels. That’s what mental health apps are about — bringing calm to people’s lives and making them happier. If you want to create a startup and think about what exactly you should do — mental health apps are definitely something to consider as they are not only in demand, but also bring good to this world. 

Mental health apps bring even more awareness to mental health issues in people’s lives, and more people start taking preventative steps to decline mental health problems before it develops into something serious.

Aspects to Consider When Developing a Mental Health App

Despite many downloads, some mental health apps on the modern mobile market have a low number of active users. Only half the battle is won by releasing a successful app receiving user retention. Then you have to win consumers’ loyalty, which is simpler to achieve with a fundamental understanding of critical specialty KPIs that you should consider straight during the development: 

Expertise

When it comes to finding answers for mental health issues, including specialists and providing data with a scientific foundation is always a win-win situation. People are becoming more careful when it comes to their own health. Thus, they are choosing solutions that are supported by data, statistics, and studies.

Business leaders should remember that therapists have already developed strategies for managing specific problems. These approaches are covered by medical testing held by practicing doctors. Thus, consider real-life statistics when deciding how to design a mental health app. Your product should be helpful at the maximum but at least not harmful or scientifically unfounded at the minimum. 

Human Support In-App

Entrepreneurs who are developing mental health apps should ensure that the in-app support is appropriate and provided by licensed therapists. In an emergency, doctor help may be crucial. Therefore, business owners that care about their customers’ safety and well-being ensure professional help and 24/7 medical support are available within their apps.

Relevant Content

Apps for mental wellness must provide accurate and up-to-date information, as even tiny errors could endanger a patient’s well-being. Unfortunately, a lot of apps that support mental health offer stale advice, incorrect therapy recommendations, etc. Business owners must continuously update material to prevent this misunderstanding, ensuring that clients obtain knowledgeable assistance.

Intuitive Design 

The design of a mental health app should adhere to UI/UX guidelines that emphasize simplicity and minimalism. Extensive details and vivid colors shouldn’t be used because they can exacerbate disorders. Additionally, pay particular attention to how sound affects your in-app experience. Avoid using loud, abrupt sounds and choose tranquil, calming music or the sounds of nature instead.

Interactive Tools

Incorporating self-monitoring features typically influences a person’s progress because they learn to self-monitor potentially hazardous situations, recognize triggers, maintain control over mood patterns or sleep patterns, and develop appropriate reactions. Thus, all types of interactive diaries, tools for self-discipline, and fill-in charts will be popular with users. 

Praising Inspiration

Motivation triggers are crucial when considering how to create a mental health app because their users typically suffer from severe psychological conditions that cause sadness, anxiety, and a lack of drive. Users feel better when they receive little prizes (in-app cash, stickers, or badges) since they become more motivated. Gamification components also motivate users to complete tasks they are unsure of. Remember that users may become discouraged if they do not receive the desired reward.

Features You Must Include in a Mental Health App

In-depth mental health app design can lessen the stress on therapists and psychiatrists, enable mental health providers to reach a wider audience, and keep a constant relationship with their patients to better understand their mental condition and present needs. It’s also important to realize that users can be of any age and come from any background. Making a mental health tracking app’s UX as user-friendly as feasible is crucial. The following features are key to developing a successful and modern mental health app:

Registration and Profiles

The addition of sign-up and profile elements is the first stage in developing a mental health app. Given that the signup procedure is a user’s first encounter with your app, it should be simple and straightforward.

In contrast, the profile settings should have all the data required to use the app, such as complete name, contact information, age, gender, disorders, long-term illnesses, allergies, intolerances, etc. Additionally, if experts use this patient profile, you might want to add a file-uploading feature so that users can attach test results and reports.

Self-Monitoring

Apps for mental health can also be used for tracking general well-being and monitoring mental health issues. This tool might be helpful for keeping track of things like eating habits, mood swings, symptoms, physical activity, thoughts, and sentiments. Data can be examined by users themselves or by experts. To make self-monitoring simpler and more practical, you can also include a calendar and a checklist.

Diary

Every mental health app seeks to enhance its users’ quality of life. The diary function makes it easier to write down ideas and allows users to express feelings. The diary must offer features for regular typing, drawing for people who express their feelings better with graphics, and audio notes for people who prefer speaking and those with dyslexia and dysgraphia. Additionally, think about enabling note-sharing with a specialist via the app or another platform.

Audio and Video Content

In situations where a therapy session or immediate assistance isn’t required, including additional video and audio content options is a good idea. It may feature calming elements, mood-lifting affirmations, educational materials, stress-relieving activities, symptom mitigation or aggravation stage prevention, management of sleep loss, etc. Additionally, the video recording feature and uploading audio and video files will be useful for patients or practitioners who would like to rewatch their sessions. 

Reminders and Notifications

Include the notification feature so that users are reminded to monitor their mental health throughout the day, engage in exercise, take medication, rest, get informed when a specialist appointment is coming up, and receive encouragement for completing tasks. However, it’s crucial to avoid going overboard because, according to psychologists, too many notifications and reminders increase stress in daily life.

Our Expertise — Emotional Intelligence Case Study

Devlight has an amazing experience in mental health app development! Let us tell you about EQ — the first app in the world to foster emotional intelligence. It aims to help users develop three long-lasting skills: regulating their emotions, creating their preferred resource emotional states, and influencing other people’s emotions.

The ability to experience and communicate emotions in our interactions with others, the world, and ourselves is fundamental to being human. However, the classical education and parenting system mainly emphasizes the formation of IQ or the mental and cognitive skills developed via acquiring and applying information knowledge. EQ has always been striving to change this, and they saw us as the company that would share their vision. 

About EQ App

EQ develops and produces a range of educational programs, including seminars, lectures, and offline and online workshops. They choose thematic apps as one of the tools for information sharing. Through its products and services, the company aspires to support individuals in becoming more effective and attentive in life’s most crucial domain: interpersonal relationships.

Request

As the client reached out to us for help, they already had an app operating, but it wasn’t what they wanted it to be. Users found it challenging to grasp the app’s value and seemed discouraged from making a purchase because of some problems and an unclear content structure. Our overall goal was to raise the value of the app by making improvements and developing means for the user to easily and clearly access mental health content offered by the EQ app.

Solution

Devlight created a new app version with a fresh idea and altered the content distribution mechanism. The EQ app aids users in achieving their individual objectives, such as overcoming fears, gaining control over their reactions, or healing broken connections with loved ones.

The Designer from our team designed new UI elements and upgraded the app structure. It became clearer and more intuitive so users could explore the app easily and without being distracted. The younger audience may now find the app useful despite the fact that it touches on a number of quite complicated subjects. Studying emotional intelligence is now fun and interactive together with EQ.

Customer feedbacks

“The Devlight team actively participates in our project development and the ideas we want to implement. In some segments of our business, they think two or three steps ahead of us.” – Andrii Zibran, Co-Founder and CMO

The results of EQ mobile application

  • 70K+ – Installs of app in the App Store and Google Play
  • 4K+ – Monthly active users just after the release
  • 200 + – Daily active users just after the release
  • 7m+ – Average engagement time
  • 300% – Ukrainian market users growth


Benefits of mental health apps 

Let’s outline the importance of apps for mental health. Why do people need them, what can they do better than an ordinary therapist in the vicinity, and what are their benefits?

Wider outreach

Both patients and healthcare professionals win from mental health apps. Therapists can reach more people in less time, and patients don’t need to look for a doctor in their own city, wasting their time traveling to the clinic. 

Less stress, more happiness

Depression, burning out, stress, and anxiety are one of the most common mental disorders today. They became as usual as morning coffee, and almost everyone experiences them once in a while. There is a scope of mental health apps targeting this audience: they help to reduce stress through meditation or other conscious practices. This results in a more calm, happy, and stable society.

Immediate access from anywhere

Physical visits to clinics are no longer needed to get a proper consultation with a therapist or doctor. This benefit brings out two more. Foremost, people can get help immediately and at any time, if needed. Imagine how many people need help at the darkest moments when nobody is around them. That’s when mental health apps emerge in all their efficiency. Secondly, people from remote regions and small settlements win from mental healthcare mobile apps. Living far from big cities doesn’t mean you don’t have to deal with mental health problems, but unfortunately in remote regions usually you can’t find a good clinic or a proper therapist if there is one. Mental health apps bring help to places where it is needed.

Treatment assistance

People undergoing mental health treatment need to keep in mind all the medication, doses, and when to administer them. Sometimes it is hard to handle. Some mental health apps are created to solve this problem: they are making data recording and monitoring easy and convenient. This is good not only for a patient but also for doctors and psychotherapists as later they can get the data analyzed and draw the necessary conclusions from it. 

Immediate feedback 

If the app is connecting healthcare providers with people who need treatment, it can provide immediate feedback according to the service the patient has used. This results in fast improvement of services and creating a better experience for patients with each feedback received.

Types of mental health apps

There are certain types of mental health apps. Before we continue with ideas for mental health apps, let’s quickly go through their types, each of which is intended to solve different types of problems.

Mental Disorder Apps

They are generally made for patients who are already diagnosed and need to stick with treatment, but don’t want or can do it offline. Mainly, they are apps for connecting patients with healthcare providers, like an online clinic. Here one can go through a course of therapy right in the app or attend several consultations with different specialists if needed. But also, mental disorder apps can not include the second parties as healthcare providers — they can also be just self-guided programs for dealing with different types of mental illness.

Anxiety and Stress Management Apps 

In a 2020 survey, 62% of respondents reported experiencing some degree of anxiety. Thus, anxiety becomes one of the most common psychological problems among ordinary people — those we see every day in queues, at cafes, at work, and in shopping malls. It can be described as persistent, undue worries that just don’t go away. And with anxiety there is always stress — people experience it under external triggers such as conflicts at work or in personal life that often lead to anger, fatigue, and even muscle pain. People all over the world struggle to build inner calmness and mental strength, and you can help them by developing a relevant app. A distinguished stress management app will be widely recognized by people all over the world. 

Self-Improvement apps

Monitoring mood swings, empowering positive thinking, fighting addiction, sleep improvement, or just keeping oneself motivated — are some examples of what self-improvement apps could be aimed at. The most recognizable such apps are Calm and Headspace, which offers meditations, calm music, and practices for deep introspection or better sleeping. Apps of this type are usually used widely all over the world and are easy to scale even more.

Mental health app ideas

Online therapy app

These types of apps are specially designed for people with mental disorders, who need to see a therapist regularly. With this app, treatment will be accessible to everyone. People struggling with depression or psychosis can discuss their worries and problems with a qualified specialist from the comfort of their homes. This can significantly reduce patient resistance to taking the first step toward treatment. They don’t have to leave their comfort zone, they can choose from a bunch of different specialists and try different ones until they find the right one. This searching process doesn’t include traveling to a dozen different clinics, that is what makes it convenient and attractive.

Features to include:

  • matching client with a therapist

Based on patients’ preferences, special needs, and disorder particulars, the app can make the perfect match with a therapist, whose qualifications will satisfy patients’ requests.

  • therapists review

Making it possible for users to leave feedback to therapists they’ve spoken with will also make it much easier for newcomers to find the perfect match among all the specialists.

  • video, audio, or text chat

Video chat is essential for therapy, though for some customers it will be easier to start using a less personalized and more anonymous way like texting. Aiming to create the perfect environment, we have to prepare for all situations that could take place dealing with mental disorders. 

Self-managing app for people with mental disorders

The target audience for this type of app is the same as for the previous one, but this doesn’t include direct communication with specialists. These apps come more as a supplement to a therapy that is in process, which makes it easier to deal with mental disorder symptoms. 

Before starting the development of such an application, you need to consult with specialists or invite several to your team. A person without a medical education will not be able to create a real working application that can make life easier for people with serious mental illnesses. Depression, psychosis, and schizophrenia will all have different features, and they all need to be considered.

Features to include:

  • notifications

Only regular exercises will help to achieve the result. Notifications will remind the user about tasks that need to be completed.

  • self-monitoring

It will help clients track their way and the improvements they make going through it

  • medication tracker

People diagnosed with mental illness usually are prescribed meds. To make treatment more convenient, app can remind what pills and when the user has to consume.

The apps listed below will be aimed at mentally healthy people who want to improve their lives, track their moods, cultivate positive thinking and break bad habits.

Sleep app

Having a good quality night’s sleep is essential for having a good quality of life. But nowadays a lot of people are struggling with it. According to the Philips Global Sleep Survey conducted in 2019, 62% of adults around the world say they don’t sleep as well as they would like. And 8 out of 10 adults would like to improve their sleep. Sleep apps suggest different ways to bring more quality to your sleep and help fall asleep faster: through relaxing music, sleep meditation, or relaxing interactive games.

Features to include:

  • sleep tracker

So that customers can not only feel results by having better sleep at night, but also see it on the reports.

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Mood tracker app

Mood, symptoms, day-to-day activities, thoughts: through these applications, you can make your customers track anything, depending on needs and your target audience. They are useful for noticing mood swings and triggers that cause them. For a better understanding of causes and consequences, you can add to your features a detailed private journal. 

Meditation app

Mindfulness and meditation are a huge trend over the last few years and the demand keeps increasing. According to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the number of people practicing meditation has tripled since 2012.

Meditations help reduce stress, be more concentrated, get grounded, understand yourself and your feelings better, and reach inner calmness. These applications are still on the rise today. In 2015 the U.S. meditation market was estimated to be valued at $959 million, growing to $1.08 billion in 2016 and $1.21 billion in 2017. Annual revenue growth is expected to be 11.4%, to $2.08 billion by 2022. If you analyze the meditation apps market and find out how you can fill the unmet demand, you can definitely get your share of the market.

Self-improvement app

This type of apps is for everybody. They are really diverse and can be for any aim you can imagine: overcoming fears, breaking bad habits, cultivating positive thinking, creating new habits like reading, running, and doing breath practices. As there is a wide range of different types of these apps, first you need to answer the question about your target audience and what problem of the self-improvement field will this app solve.

Top Mental Health Apps in the Market

The best mental health applications are reasonably priced, easy to use, well made, and have few technical issues. Many of these applications offer distinctive features that make improving your general wellness fun and convenient. By removing some of the usual obstacles, high-quality therapy apps assist you in receiving better mental health care, while mindfulness applications can improve your focus and productivity. With so many options accessible today, we considered these five winners the best based on their use of evidence-based therapies, availability of frequent content updates, the range of therapies provided, prices, and individual user ratings. 

  1. BetterHelp

BetterHelp is one of the most adaptable, user-friendly therapy subscription apps accessible, with reasonable prices, a broad choice of available therapists, and many communication options. BetterHelp is a wonderful option for people seeking psychological help while on a tight schedule because it provides flexible communication choices and a wide range of therapists. A monthly subscription to BetterHelp includes one talk therapy session per week with your therapist through live video, audio, or chat, 24/7, unlimited in-app texting in a “room.”

  1. Talkspace

Another highly adaptable psychological treatment application we would like to emphasize is Talkspace, which has a huge selection of therapists and therapy approaches. From the less expensive messaging-only option to a plan that includes one weekly live video session combined with unlimited messaging and weekly expert-led mental health courses, you may select from a variety of membership options at a broad range of rates.

After completing a brief initial screening, you will be paired with a qualified Talkspace therapist and given a time slot. All of the company’s clinicians have undergone a background investigation. You won’t have to worry about long wait times because Talkspace therapists offer limitless texting in your personal therapy “room” five days a week.

  1. Headspace

Although meditation is the main focus of Headspace’s services, the app also has tools for assisting you in overcoming daily obstacles. Targeted “SOS” sessions from Headspace specialists help people with anxiety relax in stressful situations. You can select a session to suit your particular needs, regardless of whether you’re struggling with loss, rage, or stress. If you seek more activity while working from home, fitness professionals may help you stay more present in your body by accompanying you in breathing, cardio, and movement routines. Many users love the “sleepcasts” function of Headspace, which combines ambient noises with calming stories you can listen to before falling asleep.

The premium Headspace app is available for both iOS and Android users and operates on a subscription-based model. With a monthly membership, you’ll receive a seven-day free trial; with an annual subscription, you get a fourteen-day free trial. Verified college students and families (whether or not they reside in the same household) are eligible for discounted subscriptions.

  1. Sanvello

Sanvello, which is accessible on iOS and Android, offers users evidence-based support in four important areas: self-care, peer support, coaching, and therapy. It is based on mindfulness and a CBT approach. No matter where you are on the mental wellness continuum or how much care you need right now, this model will offer you assistance when you most need it.

The self-care features offered by Sanvello are intended to assist you as you navigate the typical stressors that will come your way. You can track your patterns over time — including your thoughts, routines, physical activity, sleep, and emotions — by using mood tracking to identify areas where you could make positive adjustments. 

  1. Calm

Get grounded during the day with yoga, stretching, and dancing courses from Calm, and develop deeper mindfulness with a collection of thematic meditations. You can monitor your development using Daily Streaks and Mindful Minutes along the road and participate in one- to three-week mindfulness workshops.

With the Calm app’s free version, you can use a few restricted functions, like timed meditations, sleep preparation routines, one bedtime tale, and one breathing exercise. Before deciding to subscribe, you can use the free seven-day trial to try out Calm Premium. There are family and student plans available.

Primary Business Models for Mental Health App Development

If we consider the top-performing mental health applications, we’ll see that the majority of them continue to work based on membership fees. That can be explained by our subscription economy, where ownership costs increase over time. Apple acknowledges that the subscription revenue model brings in more money for apps. Nevertheless, all kinds of standard app monetization methods are now applied to mental health app development:

  • Premium app versions

Paid apps use a concept similar to freemium apps, but users cannot access the app before making a real purchase in the relevant app market. If a customer purchases a certain application, some businesses might also provide bonuses or complimentary little co-products.

  • In-app purchase of specific services

This means that a user must make an in-app purchase to access more features or content. Internal links that promote relevant things like books, podcasts, or workshops allow you to market and sell goods.

  • Paid add-free app versions and in-app advertising in general

Keep in mind that mental health app development commercials shouldn’t ever ruin the user experience (if you prefer them to all other forms of monetization). The advertising business strategy appears to be entirely legitimate except for that. Consider integrating convenient banner ads or mixing & matching in-app promotions.

  • The freemium model

Freemium continues to be one of the most well-liked business and consumer revenue models since it enables simultaneous engagement of multiple user segments. The typical freemium software offers a small number of features, but if a user wants access to extra features or material, they must make an in-app purchase. The freemium business model may also offer a fully functional free version for a brief trial time, following which customers must pay to use the app on an ongoing basis.

Standards and Regulations for Mental Health App Development

Companies engaged in mental health app development should prioritize personal data security because the process involves what is referred to as “sensitive information.” Many clients who struggle with mental instability choose digital treatment over traditional therapy because the software assumes fewer participants (or even complete exclusion of everyone but the user) and provides a higher level of anonymity. Developers of mental health apps must adhere to specific legal and regulatory requirements like HIPAA, GDPR, and other regulations to minimize the danger of personal data exposure in order to ensure that consumer expectations are met.

Additionally, only licensed and certified therapists are permitted to provide healthcare services. Employing qualified professionals to assist the audience improves app efficiency and prevents any civil or even criminal consequences. Because mental health services are frequently subject to various levels of government liability, therapists should also have a basic understanding of the legal system of the country in which they work.

I Have an Idea for a Mental Health App. What Should I Do Next?

Short answer: implement! Long answer: divide the implementation process into the next stages and follow them to success:

To make your mental health app a sustainable business, you will have to maintain a user’s interest and encourage them to use the app frequently. How to reach this? Develop the app keeping in mind the peculiarities of your target audience, know how to approach them, and what exactly they need. Thus, start by doing a professional target audience study. 

Vital factors to take into account include cultural quirks, user backgrounds (scientifically grounded products or gamification model apps), demographics (such as mental health apps for kids, teens, and students, among many others), and financial concerns (paid or free mental health apps).

Researching the market is the next step. Examine the current market’s offers and their level of popularity. Read app reviews on App Store and Google Play. List the apps you enjoy and ones that don’t correspond to your vision. Make a note of their benefits and drawbacks. By separating applications by subject, you can determine which apps are more in demand.

  • Develop

High-quality mental health app developers must work diligently to complete the process of developing mental health apps. Depending on the project’s size and functional complexity, we assign two or more developers to create the application’s server side, APIs, and business logic and convert the UI design into a usable user interface.

In order to meet rigorous deadlines and adapt the health app development process to changing client demands and requirements, Devlight uses the Agile methodology. All features are gradually developed and tested. Thanks to this strategy, we can launch the product more quickly and spend less on development. 

  • Create an MVP

The next stage in developing an app is to create a prototype, or MVP, for each of the features you’ve specified above. This will allow you to see how the design will look and make changes before moving forward with actual development, ensuring that the product will function as intended. Making sure everything is in order before starting the app development can save you money.

  • Test

Our team advises performing functional requirements analysis, defect detection, application security verification, and compliance testing during the testing phase. Then we gradually release the product to the focus group (for example, a group of patients with mental health conditions) and all project stakeholders for testing and collecting feedback after the testing phase is complete.

Sincere feedback is obtained during distribution, and the mental health software is continually improved as necessary. The application of mental health necessitates constant care and assistance. Therefore, we urge you to keep working with the company that develops mental health apps.

  • Release

Now that your mental health application is ready for release upload it to an appropriate platform or both if you choose cross-platform development.

  • Boost the App by Applying Marketing Techniques 

Two distinct marketing phases occur whenever a new app is released on the market: one occurs before the official launch, and the other occurs after. You must market your app and raise awareness of what it is and how it will benefit people while the app is new to your business.

  • Update According to Feedback From Users

With the in-app analytics tools you incorporated during development, it’s now time to handle user complaints and requests, address bugs, and keep the application updated. To keep the expenses of maintenance low, don’t forget to implement a solid DevOps approach. Including Google Analytics or another similar service during the development stage will give you user interaction statistics once the app is released. By assisting you in finding new growth areas, this data will help you drive additional improvements to your mental health app.

Conclusion

The topic of mental health has been gaining momentum in recent years and has no plans to stop. For ambitious entrepreneurs who want to invest in an application that will be both useful for people and profitable for the owner, mental health app is one of the best choices today. You just need to select the most promising idea and go ahead.

Mental Health App Development: Ideas, Case Studies – FAQ

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