According to data, on average, a user picks up a phone 40 times to use it for 2 minutes or less, 15 times for a use time of 2 to 10 minutes, and 3 times to interact with it for 10 minutes and longer. Overall, it amounts to an average of 3 hours and 47 minutes a day. In the midst of it, it is easy to reach users’ minds for beneficial meditations or daily habit improvements. All in all, application development solutions in healthcare span quite a few distinct categories. They are:
- Meditation, sleep & mindfulness apps;
- Mood & symptom tracking;
- Telemedicine & online counseling;
- AI emotional support chatbots;
- Apps that incorporate Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for depression, anxiety, and building up resilience;
- Mental health apps that integrate wearables;
- Mental health support and community apps.
The Need for Digital Mental Health App Development
According to academia:
“Mental disorders (MDs) affect almost 1 in 4 adults at some point during their lifetime, and coupled with substance use disorders are the fifth leading cause of disability adjusted life years worldwide.”
In addition to this, if you consider the question of how many people are affected by depression, anxiety, or mental fatigue, that probably covers almost everyone. The need for mental health care is universal. However, it is the issue of adoption: whether one would turn to a mobile app or seek any help for that matter. Overall, a mental health app is defined as any app whose functions range from improving mood or helping a user acquire a habit that will improve one’s well-being to highly specialized medical apps that support users with a diagnosed mental health disorder.
In terms of market analytics, application development solutions in healthcare amounted to 7.48 billion US dollars in 2024. The market is projected to show moderate growth with a CAGR ranging between 9.5% and 14.6% according to different analysts. Others indicate even a 17.6% CAGR. Importantly, approximately 90% of mental health users seek a mobile app rather than a web solution. With that in mind, there is a strong need for mobile healthcare application development, and the figure below shows the mental health app market by platform type. Android healthcare application development is generally surpassing iOS, even though both iOS and Android take up significant market shares.
Understanding the User of Mental Health Apps
Mental healthcare is stigmatized in society. If a person feels sick, the normal and immediate advice is to go and see a doctor. If a person feels down for a prolonged time or experiences anxiety, the advice can range from cruel and harsh to indifferent and dismissive. In healthcare mobile application development, this is the first and basic thing to understand about the users of mental health apps. On the one hand, there is a huge audience that has a real and undeniable need for mental healthcare. On the other hand, there are ingrained long-standing attitudes against mental health adoption, be it an app or talking to a professional.
The majority of the users land on an app, keeping it secret, covered in a cloak of privacy, and experiencing hesitation. Healthcare mobile application development begins with addressing these user needs. For instance, one place to start is avoiding medicalized vocabulary and clinical language. Then also UI/UX designers need to make appropriate selections to make the app feel reassuring, calm, and non-judgmental. Most importantly, a good healthcare application development company finds clever ways to underscore the privacy and anonymity of user data.
However, more generically, considering the broad range of mental health apps, the users can be:
- Enthusiastic seekers – the users who find mental healthcare a norm, and seek therapy sessions as well as efficient self-help tools like meditation, journaling help, and whatnot;
- Technology detox seekers – this trend has been on the rise lately, and some apps help people detox from social media and broader technology use;
- Overwhelmed professionals & corporate users – these are people who struggle to balance work and personal lives, those who feel passionate about what they do, but this passion often leads to burnout, and those to whom companies provide corporate access to mental health programs.
Future of Mental Health Applications
Even though some generations come from times when mental healthcare was stigmatized, newer generations find mental well-being an important part of their lives. Moreover, some percentage of older generations accept more favorable views towards mental healthcare. From this point of view, the user base and need for mental health apps are only going to grow.
Technologically speaking, the future of mental health applications is going to be filled with a diversity of apps with different approaches to enhancing mental well-being.
Here are major trends explained in the table below.
| Trend | Description |
| Virtual therapists | Healthcare application development services are increasingly embedding AI technology to provide round-the-clock, immediate support to every user; |
| Stress-watching technology | When combined with wearables, mental health apps can measure stress levels and make immediate suggestions to alleviate those. |
| Personalized Mental Health Enhancement Plans | With a growing number of available therapies and mental health tools, healthcare web application development can work towards personalizing the mix of those to serve unique user needs, thanks to AI and ML |
| AR/VR apps | Therapy and relaxation can greatly benefit from applying Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality technologies. |
MindOwl Founder – My own struggles in life have led me to this path of understanding the human condition. I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy before completing a master’s degree in psychology at Regent’s University London. I then completed a postgraduate diploma in philosophical counselling before being trained in ACT (Acceptance and commitment therapy).
I’ve spent the last eight years studying the encounter of meditative practices with modern psychology.