Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsSign-UpPros and ConsFinal Thoughts
Table of ContentsView All
View All
Table of Contents
Sign-Up
Pros and Cons
Final Thoughts
My life is changing faster now than it has since I graduated college. In one summer, I am starting a new job and moving across the city during one of the worst housing markets in recent memory, all while recovering from leg surgery. Although most of these changes are positive, I’m fraying at the edges. I wanted to find an app that would help me cultivate habits that would maintain my mental health as I go through these transitions. And, in theory,Happifyshould have done the trick.
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How I Signed Up
How Much Does The Happify App Cost?The free version of Happify would not have given me the full experience. It doesn’t track your happiness statistics and there are several “tracks” (which I explain below) that are unavailable to those not paying the fee. So I paid the $14.99 monthly fee to unlock the premium version.Had I been sure I would like the app and would want to use it for the whole year—or even indefinitely—I also had the option to pay $139.99 for yearly access or a whopping $449.99 for lifetime access.
How Much Does The Happify App Cost?
The free version of Happify would not have given me the full experience. It doesn’t track your happiness statistics and there are several “tracks” (which I explain below) that are unavailable to those not paying the fee. So I paid the $14.99 monthly fee to unlock the premium version.Had I been sure I would like the app and would want to use it for the whole year—or even indefinitely—I also had the option to pay $139.99 for yearly access or a whopping $449.99 for lifetime access.
The free version of Happify would not have given me the full experience. It doesn’t track your happiness statistics and there are several “tracks” (which I explain below) that are unavailable to those not paying the fee. So I paid the $14.99 monthly fee to unlock the premium version.
Had I been sure I would like the app and would want to use it for the whole year—or even indefinitely—I also had the option to pay $139.99 for yearly access or a whopping $449.99 for lifetime access.
How I Used the App
Once I’d signed up for the paid version, I first had to decide whether to use the app privately or join its online community, a feature available to free members as well. For the first half of the month, I used the online community but didn’t find it helpful. Every time I visited the community page, I faced a series of posts that varied from encouraging stories from people’s mental health journeys to confessions from random strangers that should have come with content warnings for experiences such asdomestic abuse. After two weeks, I turned the feature off.
Survey After Sign-UpI was also presented with a survey after sign-up asking me a series of questions about my basic demographic information, my mental and physical health, and questions to evaluate my happiness.
Survey After Sign-Up
I was also presented with a survey after sign-up asking me a series of questions about my basic demographic information, my mental and physical health, and questions to evaluate my happiness.
One example of those was “In the past month, how often have you felt joyous, exuberant, inspired, or awestruck?” Although I expected to receive a follow-up assessment within a week or two, I was never offered another survey during my experience. I would have liked to track the success of the app (or lack thereof) with another survey.
Happify
Once I completed the survey, a screen popped up that looked like a messaging app. Several messages appeared instantly and they were from my “therapeutic assistant,” Taylor, explaining that they were my “personal Twill guide” and would be helping me through some of the activities and checking in with me (Twillis the company that owns Happify). I was then forced to respond “Nice to meet you 👋” (emoji included) because that was the only option available.
After that, they explained that they would show me how to “get the most out of Twill based on the personal needs and preferences [I chose] to share.” I was then only had the option to respond “Sounds good,” upon which they explained that I could type “I don’t know” if I ever needed help and that they were learning as they go and asked me to be patient if they make a mistake. They also said that everything I told them was confidential. The only option I had was to reply “Got it” and “I’m ready” when they asked, “Ready to begin?”
I disliked this entire interaction with my therapeutic assistant because I didn’t like being prompted to say things I wouldn’t normally say to continue using the app.
Also, I suspect that Taylor is an AI chatbot, not an actual human being, but I have no way of knowing this for sure, which is alarming on its own. I’m generally wary of AI chatbots being used in mental healthcare. And my fears are not without evidence:According to this NPR story, the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) shut down its human-run helpline in favor of an AI chatbot back in May. The program ended less than a day later when the chatbot began offering weight loss advice. Need I say more?
I doubt that Taylor, if they are an AI, was designed to replace a helpline. However, their affirmation that our interaction was confidential reminded me of what a therapist would say. No one should view an AI as a therapist, even though there are a few AI-powered apps now in addition to Happify, likeWoebot appand others.
Using Happify’s Tracks
The dozens of tracks offered varied in theme, from those focusing onsleepto coping withstressto fightinglonelinessto dealing withracism. As a former creative writing major, I chose the “artistic” track in hopes of being able to write my way through my big move.
ActivitiesAfter choosing a track, the app presented me with around four activities at a time, which I could do in any order, but I would only be offered another option after completing at least one activity.
Activities
After choosing a track, the app presented me with around four activities at a time, which I could do in any order, but I would only be offered another option after completing at least one activity.
If I didn’t do enough activities in a certain timeframe (I think it was a week, but the app never clarified), the app notified me that I had run out of time to get a medal for my track, so I simply chose to continue with the same track.
Depending on the type of activity, each exercise took anywhere from under two minutes to several hours. Some required upfront planning (like saving money all week to spend on a special occasion), while others I could do during my morning bathroom routine.
Each day the app would present me with around three activities to complete and list the ones that would be available in the coming few days. There were also a few activities I could do whenever I wanted via the “instant play” feature: the mini-games, the savor challenges, a guided meditation, an option to send a compliment to a friend via provided images, and a breathing exercise that used the camera to track my heart rate.
This variability in exercise length may be great for some folks, but Happify was not designed with myADHDbrain in mind.
Every time I opened the app, I didn’t know what to expect or how much time to allot for a given activity. For the more free-form challenges, if I was presented with something that required planning, I would often put it off for days at a time. The shortest activities were the articles/ and quizzes, but five minutes after completing them, I would forget what they said.
In addition to the variability in the exercise length, the stats system wasn’t reinforcing because it didn’t emphasize skills that felt improbable. For example, the app offered several exercises that involved listening to nature sounds while watching an endless video loop of a beach or forest. Not only did the audio not always work, but each exercise ended with me earning points toward my “savor” stat. Because the entire exercise happened via my phone, I didn’t feel like Isavoredanything. Also, how can you get better at savoring things? You can get better at remembering to savor things, but that’s not what those exercises were doing. This made the stats feel meaningless.
Worst of all: The mini-games, which were the bane of my existence.
These all reminded me of games you could buy from the app store, but with emotional language attached to them. The most common was an Angry Birds knockoff that had you shooting down puff balls labeled withnegative emotionsinstead of pigs.
I loathed it. I have a strange obsession with watching YouTube videos about video game design, despite the fact that I’m an infrequent gamer. Because of this, I knew what makes Angry Birds an addictive game. The Happify designers did not. The levels started off far too difficult for someone who had never played the game before and didn’t teach the mechanics clearly. Furthermore, the stones I used to hit the puff balls were too small for my already small fingers, which made the game more of a fine motor skill test than a puzzle game.
I did have one good experience with Happify, though. The best exercise on the app asked me to do something for a friend who was struggling.
At the time, one of my current roommates was having a hard time finding new roommates to replace the people leaving our apartment (including me). They’re a woodworker who has a deep respect for termites. So, I drew them a cartoon picture of a termite after researching what the bugs look like, and wrote “May the termites bless you on your housing quest.”
Sitting down to draw the termite allowed me to stop glaring hopelessly at my computer screen and forced me to acknowledge that my problem wasn’t the center of the universe.
Once I gave my roommate the drawing and got a big hug from them, I felt like I had some control over the housing process, even if it wasn’tmyhousing process.
A large variety of tracks to follow
Some genuinely helpful exercises
Affordable monthly fee
ConsTedious mini-gamesToo little structure for daily useOnline community can be triggeringExpensive lifetime access costPotentially problematic chatbot
Tedious mini-games
Too little structure for daily use
Online community can be triggering
Expensive lifetime access cost
Potentially problematic chatbot
Happify didn’t make me happier. I could see it helping someone out of adepressive rutbecause it forces you to take action. However, I wasn’t depressed. I didn’t need more things to do—I needed ways to get my head out of the housing-panic cycle. This was probably why the most effective exercises were the ones that got me off of my computer and away from apartment listings. And, while the app purported to track my happiness, I was only offered a happiness survey at the beginning of the experience.
I expected a well-organized experience that would tell me what to do and roughly when to do it. Instead, I was presented with too many options at almost every stage, without a clear understanding of how the options differed from one another until I chose one. Although the exercises provided a great amount of variability, they were too unpredictable to schedule into my day.
Compared to other apps I’ve used, Happify actually offered much better content, but it got lost in poorly executed mini-games, an all-too-robotic chatbot, and a disorganized user interface.
While Happify’s website accurately states that the app uses strong science to support users' well-being, it fails to mention how poorly that science is delivered. If you’re thinking of trying Happify, spend that $15 on a fun video game and a book about the science of happiness instead. It will take you much further.
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1 SourceVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.McGonigal J.SuperBetter: The Power of Living Gamefully. Penguin Publishing Group.
1 Source
Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.McGonigal J.SuperBetter: The Power of Living Gamefully. Penguin Publishing Group.
Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
McGonigal J.SuperBetter: The Power of Living Gamefully. Penguin Publishing Group.
Hannah Owens, LMSW
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