Did you know that according to the Canadian Mental Health Association, in any given year, 1 in 5 Canadians will experience some sort of mental health problem or illness? Luckily, mental illnesses can be treated effectively using a variety of techniques and solutions, one of them being the use of mental health or mood tracking apps. These may not be a permanent solution for improving someone’s mental state, however, they can be a step in the right direction for getting help.
Mood apps can be split up into different types like mood tracking, mood diary and meditation apps. These types of mobile applications exist to help users improve their mental health, manage their anxiety and provide stress relief, bringing mindfulness to the stressful parts of their lives. Mood trackers can help people gain a sense of inner balance, helping with their emotional well-being and finding calm and peace in their everyday lives.
Thanks to the help of meditation and other mood solutions, app users can dig deeper into their own behaviour and break out of old habits and patterns. They can be helpful in managing negative feelings and unhealthy thinking and aid users with their self-awareness and self-discovery.
Common Features Found in Mood Apps
Have you ever thought of building your own mood mobile app? Below we take a look at some of the common features you can consider during your development process.
- Meditation: Expert guided meditation, access to meditative music, personalized meditations based on quizzes and ability to download meditations for offline usage.
- Mood tracking: Recording any personal triggers, progress tracking of moods, ability to share mood tracking results with a counsellor or doctor.
- Health symptoms: Monitoring mental health symptoms for bipolar, depression, anxiety and other disorders.
- Mood diary: Recording thoughts and how users feel throughout the day and creating journal entries with custom templates. Provide mood statistics so users can better track their habits and behaviour.
- Mood charts: Displaying a user’s progress so they can pinpoint the times and places where their stress was at an all-time high. Users can make, save and chart their daily mood ratings.
- Social media: Social media features for sharing results with family and friends.
- Mood improvement tools: Audio lessons, activities and tools for mood improvement and stress, anger and anxiety management. Other features include self-talk strategies, relaxation techniques and guided self-help paths.
- Thought checker: Identifying and changing negative thoughts impacting a user’s mood.
- Wearable connection: Connection to wearable smartwatch devices to measure heart rates, breathing patterns and blood pressure showing the changes in levels of stress. They can also warn users when they start experiencing stress.
- Factual help: Providing factual information to app users about the results of stress on the body and the mind.
- Thought analysis tools: Providing tools to help users discover how different thinking patterns can contribute to anxiety.
- Goals: Give users the opportunity to record daily challenges and goal tracking.
- Health tracker: Monitoring habits that affect stress like caffeine, sleep, exercise, alcohol.
- Support: Offer peer support communities.
Popular Mood App Examples
After reading up on some of the common features found in mood apps, the following are some successful examples of popular mood tracking, mental health and meditation apps. Check it out:
Evenflow: Mindfulness and Meditation
According to the team: “Designed by an expert team of 15 mindfulness-based therapists and meditation teachers, our guided meditations help you apply mindfulness to the areas of your life where you crave more calm, less stress and better focus. We offer a variety of subjects where you can customize your practice, from our sleep, to career, health, relationships and many more. From beginners to more advanced meditators, we’ll give you the tools to help you build a lasting practice and create real change in your life.”
Fun fact: Guaraná is super proud to have worked on this app! Check it out in our portfolio!
Moodtrack Diary: Track and Graph your Moods
According to the team: “Graph your moods on the fly. Track as little or as often as you want (mood-swings? no problem!), whenever you want (at home, on the go, and even without Internet!), and look back to see your moods over weeks, months, and years to learn about yourself and live better! See what others are going through and optionally chat anonymously. Form instant friendships and support networks. Get support when you need it, and give support when you feel like it.”
Apple App Store
Google Play Store
Moodkit: Mood Improvement Tools
According to the team: “MoodKit is a one-of-a-kind app designed to help you apply effective strategies of professional psychology to your everyday life. With four integrated tools, MoodKit helps you to engage in mood-enhancing activities, identify and change unhealthy thinking, rate and chart mood across time, and create journal entries using custom templates designed to promote well-being. Developed by two clinical psychologists (co-creators of Moodnotes), MoodKit draws upon the principles and techniques of Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), one of the most effective and scientifically-supported methods of psychotherapy. MoodKit’s innovative design enables it to be used on its own or to enhance professional treatment.”
Pacifica: Managing Stress and Anxiety
According to the team: “Stress, anxiety, and depression can get in the way of you living your life. Pacifica gives you psychologist-designed tools to address them based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, mindfulness meditation, relaxation, and mood/health tracking. Stress, anxiety, and depression are caused by an ongoing cycle of negative thoughts. Thoughts cause physical feelings and emotions which cause actions. Pacifica helps break this cycle using tools that target each of its components. Day-by-day, you’ll learn to manage stress, anxiety and depression at your own pace. We’re not about quick-fixes or false promises. We are about real progress, a day at a time.”
Apple App Store
Google Play Store
Breathe2Relax: Portable Stress Management Tool
According to the team: “Breathe2Relax is a portable stress management tool which provides detailed information on the effects of stress on the body and instructions and practice exercises to help users learn the stress management skill called diaphragmatic breathing. Breathing exercises have been documented to decrease the body’s ‘fight-or-flight’ (stress) response, and help with mood stabilization, anger control, and anxiety management. Breathe2Relax can be used as a stand-alone stress reduction tool, or can be used in tandem with clinical care directed by a healthcare worker. Breathe2Relax now uses HealthKit and your Apple Watch device to measure your heart rate throughout your breathing exercise to help provide an even more complete picture of the relaxation experienced.”
Apple App Store
Google Play Store
Daylio: Mood Tracker and Diary
According to the team: “Daylio enables you to keep a private diary without having to type a single line. Try this beautifully designed micro-diary app right now for FREE! Pick your mood and add activities you have been doing during the day. You can also add notes and keep an old school diary. Daylio is collecting recorded moods and activities in the statistics and calendar. This format will help you to understand your habits better. Keep track of your activities and create patterns to become more productive! You can review all entries in the statistics on charts or the calendar and share them with your friends.”
Apple App Store
Google Play Store
As you can see, mood trackers, diaries and meditations apps are great for helping users to manage their stress and anxiety and improve their overall mental well-being. If you have a mood app in mind that would like to build be sure to let us know and we will be happy to help you out and guide you through the development process!
