How to Develop A Mental Health App: Key Features, Cost, and Its Process

Are you curious to know about “How to develop a mental health app with no coding methods?

If yes, then you have landed on the right blog!

As per the survey, 1 in 4 people are suffering from depression, anxiety, and psychological issues at some point in their lives. Further, forceful isolation and quarantines during the pandemic have actually triggered the scenario and made people look for solutions that ensure mental peace. And that’s where mental health apps have become a real savior for patients. 

However, finding the perfect mental health app or developing a mental health app from scratch with the right set of features and functionalities can be really challenging. 

But we will help you get started rightly by making you understand why mental health apps are surging in demand and whether it is a worthy decision. Along that if yes, then what mental health app trends are to be followed to make a benchmark?  

Let’s get started!

Why Mental Health Apps Are Becoming a Necessary In Modern Lives?

In this fast-paced life and modern living, depression – stress, anxiety, and frustration have become common things for everyone to deal with. But the question is how do you see the therapist?

Do you prefer visiting a therapist or going with a mental health app offering instant access to counseling or therapy sessions with your choice of therapist?

Of course, the mental health app is the preferred option. Entrepreneurs with a mental health therapy background should not miss this opportunity to understand how these applications are creating a space in everyone’s lives for seeking a professional therapist or methal health improving therapies. 

Let’s take a look at the stats and facts of mental health app market share…

Crucial Market Statistics Related To Global Mental Health

“The statistics show that around 970 million people around the world are struggling with some sort of mental illness or drug abuse and around 8 million deaths each year are attributable to mental disorders.”

According to statistics, 20.6% of Americans are suffering from mental disorders. Depression is one of the leading mental health illnesses which contributes to 3.8% of the total population and the figures are constantly increasing as people’s concern about psychological issues has grown by over 28% in Europe and the US.

Image Source: statista

If talking from a business perspective, the opportunities and market share of mental health illness apps are expected to be worth $175 billion by 2030. 

With these figures, it is fair enough to say that mental health illness has become a serious concern for people nowadays. But before we get to the question of how to develop a mental health app, it is more important to understand the revolution of digital mental health.

Looking for top mobile app development services to create your Mental Health App? Look no further! Hire us for expert solutions tailored to your needs.

Are Mental Health Apps Real Savior For People?

In today’s tech-driven world, the rise in global stress and mental health concerns has made mental health apps essential for people from all walks of life, regardless of where they are in the world.

A good mental health app should be readily available on every mobile phone, serving as a valuable tool for maintaining one’s mental well-being.

These apps offer crucial support during mental crises and are beneficial for both individuals facing diagnosed mental health conditions and those dealing with everyday stress. They provide access to valuable advice and resources, helping users manage their symptoms and work towards better mental health.

For those with busy schedules or a need for additional support, mental health apps offer a convenient and accessible solution to address their mental health concerns. 

Digital mental health apps are not only a lifeline for patients but also a vital tool for healthcare providers. By hiring a mobile app developer in India, you can create a mental health app that can offer a wide range of services and up-to-date knowledge, prescribe tailored nutrition and exercise plans, track progress, and facilitate online sessions. All with one goal: improving patient care and alleviating the global mental health burden.

Now the question is what is what type of mental health illness app do you need to develop and how much does it cost to build a mental health app?

So let’s get into it!

What Are The Main Categories of Mental Health App To Consider?

Mental health app development focuses on aiding individuals with psychological challenges. These apps offer diverse opportunities, such as assisting those with disorders, connecting patients with therapists, and motivating people to combat stress, depression, or unhealthy habits. 

The mental health apps are often categorized by their core methodology or purpose, such as preventing depression, boosting personal motivation, or establishing healthier routines. 

So what type of app do you consider developing for your business?

Image Source: cleveroad

Let’s discuss the main categories of mental health apps…

1. A Mental Health App For Depression, Anxiety & Mood Swings

In today’s world, many of us grapple with common mental health challenges like anxiety, depression, and mood swings. Fortunately, there’s a range of apps dedicated to helping individuals manage these conditions.

These apps are designed to assist people in dealing with stress, anxiety, frustration, and more. By hiring a software developer in India, you can go beyond and offer tools for anxiety management and valuable insights into how the brain functions and how stress impacts it.

What’s particularly great about these apps is that they offer:

• Assessment Tests: While an official clinical diagnosis is needed to confirm these conditions, these apps provide preliminary assessment tests to gauge potential symptoms.

• Video Calls: Patients can have face-to-face video calls with specialists, creating a more personal connection.

• Self-Assessment Features: Some apps offer features like journaling and questionnaires, empowering individuals to reflect on their mental well-being.

• Suicide Prevention Tools: They include distraction techniques in the form of audio and video recordings, which can help divert attention away from self-destructive thoughts.

• Emergency Support & Ambulance: In case of urgent situations, these apps can connect individuals with immediate help.

• Progress Tracking: Users can monitor their progress over time, which is essential for ongoing support and improvement.

These apps offer a valuable lifeline for those dealing with mental health challenges, making it easier to navigate the complexities of our emotional well-being.

Read More: How Much Does It Cost To Hire Software Developer?

2. Managing Mental Disorders

These apps are tailored to individuals dealing with conditions like OCD or bipolar disorder. They serve as tools for symptom management, self-care, and early detection. Using established therapeutic methods such as cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) and positive psychology, they help users track their mental well-being meticulously. 

Features include journaling, mindfulness exercises, and identifying worsening stages. For those grappling with anger management, some apps incorporate breathing exercises and offer quick access to contacts for timely support.

3. Addiction Recovery Apps

Breaking free from behavioral addictions is a formidable challenge. These apps provide progress tracking, motivating notifications, and relapse prevention features. Users can set goals, monitor their journey, and receive encouraging messages to stay on track. Peer support groups and round-the-clock live support are also integral components to prevent relapse.

4. Self-Development Apps

Apps like Happify and Coach.me empower individuals on their journey to self-improvement. They cover a wide spectrum of personal growth areas, from memory enhancement to confidence building. Users can access coaching sessions, connect with professionals via live chats and video calls, and utilize habit trackers and exercise plans.

5. Meditation and Mindfulness Apps

As life gets busier, more people are seeking solace in meditation and mindfulness. Calm and Headspace offers a wealth of resources, including meditation techniques, breathing exercises, relaxation tools, music, and soothing sleep stories. These apps cater to the needs of those looking to reduce stress, gain mental clarity, and find tranquility in the midst of chaos.

6. Multipurpose Apps

Some apps serve as telemedicine platforms, connecting users with mental health specialists online. Whether it’s individual, couple, or family therapy, these apps enable convenient access to professionals through messaging, audio, or video consultations. 

Read More: How mHealth Apps Changing the Landscape of Healthcare?

No matter what type of mental health app category you choose to develop, the success of the app depends on what KPIs you consider while developing an app.

So let’s jump to know how to develop a mental health app with no coding method…

How To Develop a Mental Health App With These 5 Simple Steps?

Here are the quick steps to follow to develop a mental health app with minimal coding:

Step 1: Define Your Target Audience and Platforms

Begin by identifying your app’s target audience, whether it’s seniors, adults, or teenagers. Understanding your users is crucial for designing a relevant mental health app. Conduct research to determine:

• The age group your app aims to assist.
• Analyze competitors to define audience expectations.
• Create a typical patient profile.

AppsDevPro can assist in this step by conducting market research and creating user personas to tailor your app to the intended audience effectively.

Step 2: List Features and Create Rapid Prototypes

Compile a list of features your mental health app will include and test them with a prototype. Prototyping helps validate design ideas and ensures your app functions as intended. 

Prototyping saves time and costs compared to direct development. At this stage, developers should be involved to assess technical feasibility.

Alternatively, AppsDevPro can help you create a no-code prototype using stock interface elements, allowing test users to review the software on their mobile devices.

Step 3: Develop the App for Patients and Doctors

The development phase is where most of the work happens. Agile principles should be followed, with interim tests during each iteration. Tips for successful development include:

• Use third-party HIPAA-compliant audio/video calling SDKs for telemedicine apps.
• Implement off-the-shelf components like chat with audio messages to expedite delivery.
• Set up a DevOps pipeline to streamline development.
• Adhere to cybersecurity best practices per HIPAA regulations.

While developing a mental health app, make sure you partner with app developers who specialize in using available components and libraries for authentication, scheduling, chatting, and other common app features, reducing both development time and costs.

Read More: What Are The Benefits and Challenges of Integrating IoT in Healthcare Applications?

Step 4: Comprehensive Testing

To ensure that your app is bug-free, make sure you conduct 

• Functional testing
• Performance testing
• Compatibility testing
• Interface testing
• Unit testing
• Stress testing
• Security testing

By choosing to hire full-stack developers in India at AppsDevPro, you will be free to conduct rigorous testing of your app to guarantee its reliability and security.

Step 5: Release and Ongoing Updates

Once your app has passed testing, it’s ready for release. After a successful app store submission, launch the app alongside a mobile marketing campaign. Use in-app analytics tools implemented during development to monitor performance, address user feedback, fix issues, and keep the app updated. AppsDevPro can help you set up a robust DevOps strategy to minimize maintenance costs.

Also, our experts can offer ongoing support and updates, using user engagement data to identify growth areas and continuously improve your mental health app for the long term.

So these are the basic steps to create a mental health app but what are the important features you need to integrate in the app to make it functional? 

Though features of any app are the biggest cost-affecting factor it makes sense to list down the priority features that you may prefer integrating at the initial phase of the app development. 

How To Develop a Mental Health App – Nice To Have Essential Features

Image source: devtechnosys

So now you know what core KPIs you need to consider while developing a mental health app. Let’s jump next to the key features ensuring smooth performance and high user engagement. The right choice of app developers always offers you these key features in mental health app development:

Key Features for a Mental Health App

• User Registration: Ensure a seamless and secure sign-up process, collecting essential information like name, contact details, and email for wellness apps.

• User Profiles: Allow users to create detailed profiles, including health data, allergies, chronic illnesses, age, gender, and personalized elements like photos.

• Self-Monitoring: Include tools to track mood patterns, stress levels, and sleep quality. Self-monitoring helps users maintain mental well-being, prevent issues, and track progress.

• Notifications and Reminders: Set up notifications and reminders for events such as relaxation sessions, journal entries, medication reminders, while being cautious not to overwhelm users.

• Sharing: Enable users to share mood, therapy achievements, or information with family, friends, healthcare providers, and support communities.

• Support Communities: Foster a sense of community by providing forums, chats, and anonymized communication spaces where users can connect, share experiences, and offer support to each other.

• Patient-Therapist Connection: Facilitate connections between users and appropriate therapists using algorithms that match user needs with the right professionals.

• Therapy Dashboard for Doctors: Offer therapists a web-based dashboard to manage patient information, collect data, and monitor progress.

• Reminders for Patients: Implement medication reminders to help users adhere to their treatment schedules.

• Secure Messengers and Chats: Ensure secure communication between patients and therapists through text, audio, video, or live chats within the app.

• Relaxation Exercises: Incorporate calming exercises, breathing techniques, yoga, meditation, and simple games to help users relax and improve cognitive skills.

• Gamification: Introduce interactive games with positive and relaxing designs to make mental care engaging and enjoyable for users.

• Psychoeducation: Provide users with valuable information on mental health topics, illnesses, and well-being through articles, podcasts, or educational content.

• Emergency Support: Include a feature for users to send emergency messages to caregivers or support networks during anxiety or panic attacks.

• Customizable Calendars: Allow users to create calendars for setting daily routines and mental health activities.

• Mood Journals: Enable users to track mood patterns, thoughts, and feelings through text, video, or audio entries.

• Meditation and Mindfulness: Offer a variety of guided meditation and mindfulness exercises to promote relaxation and mental clarity.

• Personalized Goal Setting: Allow users to set personal mental health goals and track their progress over time.

• Daily Challenges: Provide daily challenges or tasks that encourage users to engage with the app and focus on their mental well-being.

• Data Security and Privacy: Prioritize data security and privacy, especially for sensitive user information, complying with relevant regulations such as HIPAA.

Consider these features when developing a mental health app to provide a comprehensive and supportive platform for users seeking better mental well-being.

10 Pro Tips Adopted From Negative Feedbacks For Mental Health App Development

If you really want to know that how to develop a mental health app that can go beyond the market standard and leave the competitors behind then consider hiring Android app developer in India who can help you build an app for android devices. Apart, here we have listed pro tips by taking a note on feedbacked by the frustrated customers.

1. Ensure all login options, including social logins like Facebook and innovative methods like Apple ID, are functional and user-friendly.

2. Clarify the purpose behind user rewards and points to enhance engagement.

3. Strike a balance between promoting subscriptions and delivering meaningful value to users.

4. Prioritize stellar app design for a compelling user experience.

5. Pay attention to the onboarding process for seamless user adoption.

6. Maintain robust security measures without complicating the app’s usability.

7. Communicate transparent pricing policies and offer top-notch customer support.

8. Thoroughly address and resolve any bugs or glitches.

9. Ensure compatibility with the latest mobile operating systems and various screen sizes.

10. Keep upgrading your app with new features for long-term user engaged.

Read more: Hire iOS app developer in India at AppsDevPro

Monetization Strategies for Mental Health App Development

When embarking on mental health app development, it’s essential to consider the right monetization strategy.

Here are some popular revenue models to choose from:

Image Source: mobilecoderz

Freemium Model:

This is a widely favored approach, offering a mix of free and premium features. Users can access a limited set of features for free, but to unlock additional functionalities or content, they can make in-app purchases. Another variation is offering a free trial period with full access, followed by payment to continue using the app’s premium features.

Subscription Model:

Subscriptions involve regular payments to access continuously updated content such as guides, videos, or podcasts. Apps typically provide various subscription plans, including monthly, quarterly, or annual options. Customized plans can also be offered to cater to different user preferences. Subscriptions are suitable for users who use the app periodically and want to save money over time.

Paid Apps:

In contrast to the freemium model, paid apps require users to make an upfront payment before gaining access to the app’s features. Some developers may offer bonuses or additional content as an incentive for purchasing the app.

In-App Ads:

This monetization strategy involves displaying advertising banners or widgets within the app. However, it’s crucial to be selective with this option, considering the specific audience and purpose of your mental health app. For instance, in apps focused on mental disorders, it’s advisable to avoid intrusive ads. Still, in mental self-improvement apps, carefully chosen ads can be integrated, provided they have a positive and calming influence on users.

Link Your App With Other Related Services:

Another approach is to generate revenue by promoting and selling related products or services through internal links within the app. These could include books, podcasts, workshops, or other resources relevant to mental health and well-being.

By considering these monetization options, you can select the best model that aligns with the goals and nature of your mental health app development project.

How Much Does It Cost To Develop A Mental Health App?

The cost of building a mental health app can vary significantly based on several factors, including the app’s complexity, features, platform (iOS, Android, or both), and development location. However, here is a rough estimate:

• Basic Mental Health App: A simple app with core features like mood tracking, journaling, and self-help resources can cost between $10,000 to $12,000.

• Mid-level Mental Health App: An app with additional features like secure messaging with therapists, personalized plans, and reminders may range from $15,000 to $20,000.

• Advanced Mental Health App: For a comprehensive app with advanced features such as teletherapy capabilities, AI-driven mood analysis, and integration with wearables, the cost can exceed $25,000 and go up to $50,000 or more.

Keep in mind that ongoing maintenance, updates, and server costs are additional factors to consider beyond the initial development. Additionally, factors like the choice of development team (in-house or outsourced) and the app’s design complexity can influence the overall cost.

It’s essential to consult with experienced app developers or development firms to get a precise quote tailored to your app’s specific requirements and goals.

Conclusion: How Does AppsDevPro Can Help You Build a Mental Health App?

In our smartphone-driven lives, mental health apps provide accessible support anytime, anywhere. They empower individuals to seek help when they need it most, without isolation or discomfort. These apps offer a safe space to discuss challenges and make them more manageable.

If you’re considering extending mental health services to a diverse population, AppsDevPro can be your partner in building a user-friendly app. Choosing to hire a mobile app developer in India can turn your concept into a compelling solution. We’ll not only develop your app but also guide you on effective monetization strategies.

No matter how complex your app requirements are, our experts are here to support you from concept to development to deployment. If you have an app idea and are searching for a dedicated development team to turn it into a robust solution, contact us for further details. Your vision can become a reality with AppsDevPro.

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