Key Features Every Mental Health App Should Have

Mental health applications are thriving today due to the significant rise in mental health concerns and the demand for accessible remedies. 

However, while the annual growth rate of the respective solutions is forecasted to be 15.2% till 2030, experts observe that some apps fail to deliver efficient help. The reason for this situation lies in unthoughtfully arranged therapy methods and approaches encapsulated in the app’s features. 

Whatever type of mental health app you are going to construct, be it stress and depression relief, meditation, or self-development, the selection of appropriate features is paramount. It not only enhances the user journey but also defines the effect the app will have on the individual’s well-being. 

What are the key features of mental health apps that would bring value to your product and make it in demand?

It’s time to discuss the essential and auxiliary mental health app functionality that would help you make a truly impactful app for mental health support.

Best Mental Health Apps with Remarkable Features

Before we proceed to explore the must-have features of mental health apps, let’s take a glance at the most remarkable app examples across various application types. 

Talkspace: An online therapy app

Talkspace combines professional counseling with practical guides and videos. It enables users to contact professional medical advisors whenever they need. The app helps patients combat post-traumatic stress disorder, obtain psychiatric advice, couples therapy, and more.

Why do we favor it?

The Talkspace mental health app provides convenient 24/7 access to a health professional, removing conventional therapy barriers. A meticulously built combination of voice, video, and text features allows users to effectively reduce the issues they are suffering from. 

Calm: A meditation app for mental health

One of the most renowned wellness solutions, Calm boasts straightforward arrangement and navigation. It effortlessly guides you throughout the entire journey, starting with a recommendation to take several deep breaths as you open the app. Users can track vital statistics regarding their progress and achievements.

Why do we favor it?

The app’s features perfectly reflect its purpose. Calm contains comprehensive meditation offerings, encompassing breathing techniques and calming exercises. Its functionality allows tailoring individual advice based on the goals and needs you enter at the beginning.

Happify: A mental wellness app to drive your mood

The solution is aimed to fight mood swings, reduce anxiety, and maintain a positive state of mind. Happify’s approaches rely on cognitive behavioral therapy that teaches individuals to identify and alter negative thinking. It focuses on personalized services and delightful journeys through gamification, relaxation, and mindfulness techniques.

Why do we favor it?

Crafted by mental health professionals, Happify is a successful example of a scientific approach that mixes positive psychology, mindfulness, and CBT. We love how it engages and relaxes patients with games and provides a bespoke approach to each individual’s emotional content.  

MindShift: A mental health application for anxiety

MindShift was conceived to counter different types of anxiety, including worry, panic, and phobias. Users select their focus, and the app helps them reveal the roots of their issue and arrange the right mindset to fix the problem. 

Features, such as the "thought journal" and “coping cards” are particularly handy in reassessing a patient's worries and learning the ways to fight negative thoughts. 

Why do we favor it? 

We praise the app’s interactive features. It continually collects user inputs to provide a pleasant and effective journey. The more the users interact, the better help they’ll obtain.

Sanvello: Mental health and wellness app for stress relief

(Currently, part of AbleTo's services)

Sanvello offers a wealth of tools to handle stress, such as wellness tracking, meditation library, and cognitive behavioral therapy tools. Users can set a mental health goal or goals they want to achieve, and the app will comprehensively guide their journey. 

Why do we favor it?

Sanvello creates a feeling of connection and involvement by means of user-oriented navigation and a competent mix of texts, videos, and audio materials. Overall, individuals get a convenient and easy-to-follow multimedia experience.

Read also: How to Start a Mental Health Startup: 7 Things to Consider

Key Features of Mental Health Apps

The core functionality of the app primarily depends on the app’s type and purpose. However, we’ve compiled the fundamental features of a mental health app worth implementing for all kinds of solutions.

User profile and onboarding

The registration process should be effortless. The app conveniently navigates users as they establish their profiles, filling in contact data, demographics, mental health goals, interests, etc. 

Based on these inputs, the app crafts personalized content, advice, and insights. The resulting user journey would be more engaging and relevant.

Self-assessment tools

The success of the entire wellness path depends on how individuals transform from their initial state to the desired goal. This change occurs incrementally, while patients should carefully assess their advancement. The app delivers tools that aid in evaluating mental health conditions and observing progress along the way. 

The utilized methods can include tests for anxiety and stress levels and visualizations for progress-tracking, such as graphs and reports. The purpose of this tool set is to reinforce motivation and help identify healthy habits.

Mental health journaling

This is one of the inherent features of mental health apps that makes progress-tracking more detailed and meaningful. It includes daily mood-trackers with guiding prompts for self-reflection, encouraging users to enter their thoughts and experiences. 

With this practice, users can capture their emotional state at each stage of their wellness path, identify mood trends and triggers, and support self-awareness.

Effortless access to therapy

The opportunity to connect with licensed mental health professionals is vital for mental health apps to deliver therapeutic value. The forms of professional mental health support should be diverse and guarantee convenient and quick access to a medical advisor. 

The interaction opportunities can include online therapy sessions, either through video or chat, email messaging, and phone calls. 

Meditation and mindfulness exercises

The app advises on the appropriate relaxation techniques, offering expertly guided exercises. They may include meditation methods, breathing techniques, mindful walking, progressive muscle relaxation, etc. Users can pick their favorite methods to relieve stress and improve focus.

Emergency support

Throughout any therapy process, patients can face critical or emergency situations. These cases require quick and competent attention. Therefore, the opportunity to talk to a healthcare professional right away is vitally important. 

The app provides emergency contacts and access to helplines at any time of the day. For instance, this could be an SOS button or a hotline ensuring instant support in case of urgent needs.

Achievement tracking and rewards

Health apps can amplify motivation by empowering patients to observe their progress and honoring their achievements. The practical tools in this regard include visual progress charts and various rewards, such as badges, higher levels, and other advantages. 

They work in an entertaining manner, elevating engagement, driving positive thinking, and reinforcing the desire to follow the regime.

Notifications and reminders

Mental wellness apps suggest patients to reach their goals through numerous activities, including exercises, self-education, therapy sessions, and more. To simplify following daily appointments, the app delivers personalized alerts regarding the upfront events. 

This simple function helps users stick to their routines and maintain a coherent path to mental wellness.

Secure data encryption

All patients’ data should be properly concealed from undesired eyes to avoid misuse. Therefore, stringent protective measures are a must-have for mental health therapy apps. 

They include reliable encryption of all data, such as personal details, therapy sessions, individual inputs, and results, and compliance with privacy regulations, like HIPAA and GDPR. 

Support groups

Interaction and peer support are a significant part of the recovery process. The app empowers individuals to take part in anonymous group discussions and peer support forums, where they can exchange experiences and receive encouragement. 

These features promote a sense of belonging as opposed to isolation and create a safe space where users can interact on associated topics.

Additional Features to Consider in Mental Health App Development

Apart from the basic opportunities patients cannot do without, there is also a set of auxiliary features that can further add to your app’s value.

AI-powered chatbots

AI chatbots have proven their efficiency across sectors, including healthcare. When creating a mental health app, consider incorporating this breakthrough tech into your solution. Such virtual assistants deliver human-like live support, helping users to relieve stress and anxiety. 

AI algorithms allow them to maintain emotionally engaging conversations, discussing user feelings and concerns. What’s particularly important is their 24/7 availability and the instant responses they provide. AI-enabled bots can analyze patients’ moods and recommend appropriate therapy and educational resources.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) exercises

The ultimate purpose of CBT exercises is to help individuals recognize and alter negative sentiment. By following the CBT techniques, patients can redirect unhelpful thinking to a more optimistic route, gradually developing more positive reactions. 

The app may also contain self-help courses teaching CBT practices and principles. Thanks to CBT, people reach emotional balance, reinforce self-awareness, and improve problem-solving skills.  

Sleep improvement tools

Sleep disorders are often the root of numerous mental health issues. The task of sleep improvement tools is to aid users in implementing healthy habits for better sleep. 

The opportunities of the apps that help with mental health include sleep tracking and analytics. Based on the individual data accumulated and processed by the app, patients get recommendations on the exercises to improve their sleep quality.

Integration with wearable devices

Wearables are real game-changers in the healthcare industry. Products like Fitbit and Apple Watch deliver real-time data about physical activity, heart rate, sleep patterns, etc. The apps integrating such devices leverage their information to comprehensively assess personal wellness and suggest the most relevant advice.

Gamification tools

Gamification elements are practical in fighting stress, anxiety, and depressive states. These options include motivational challenges, incentives, and rewards, urging users to further accomplishments and provide relief from daily tension with relaxing games.

Additional activities to enhance mental health

Regular communication with a therapist and monotonous routines may seem tedious for users. Mental health mobile apps infuse diversity in their wellness approaches to prevent anxiety or overthinking. 

Alternative relaxing activities may include dancing, arts, and crafts, and more. These occupations can inspire patients and help them switch to positive thoughts.

Nutrition and fitness tools

Mental health goes hand-in-hand with physical state. To provide a holistic approach to individual wellness, the app can offer tools to track diet and exercise and suggest advice to balance nutrition and fitness regimes.

Family and friends support 

The support of loved ones is hard to overestimate on the way to mental well-being. When building a mental health app, think of including the opportunity to connect with family or friends for emotional support and progress sharing.

Offline accessibility

The opportunity to retain access to the app without an internet connection comes as extra care for users. With this feature, they can access the app’s functionality, including mental health exercises, tracking tools, and resources regardless of the location and connection.

Goal setting tools

Developing healthy routines and behavioral patterns is part of health and wellness therapies. These tools empower users to establish long-term and short-term goals and implement healthy habits for personal growth to enhance mental well-being.

Educational content

Self-education helps patients arrange wiser and more organized routines and practices to attain better mental health. The app can offer an extensive library of educational materials, such as articles, podcasts, and videos on self-care and mental wellness. All content comes from healthcare professionals for competent guidance.

Final Thoughts on the Mental Health App Features

Developing a mental health app is not only profitable but also a socially meaningful endeavor. How to make a mental health app that would be helpful and valuable to the audience? 

It’s crucial to incorporate essential features without overloading the solution with superfluous functionality. A fundamental part of a successful user experience, smooth performance should not be impeded. 

We’ve introduced the most demanded features and the ones that are nice to complement your app if you seek to provide comprehensive opportunities to your users. The list can be adjusted according to the apps’ specifics and purpose.

If you are about to start a mental health app, professionals at SDA can help you establish the winning feature set. With formidable expertise in mental healthcare app development, we know how to craft a truly innovative product that will stand out in the niche.

Contact us to discuss your concept, and let’s make a meaningful application that would bring growth to your business and remedy to those striving for mental wellbeing.