13 min read

Mental health app development from A to Z

Healthcare

Software development

Looming financial crises, constant political uncertainty, pressing environmental concerns, and the post-COVID loneliness epidemic — all these factors take a mental toll on millions of people every day. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 1 in 5 people in the US are diagnosed with a mental health disorder, which often means they need consistent monitoring and regular treatment. Also, around 17% of people in the US were dealing with substance abuse within the last year and required qualified behavioral therapy, as well as dependable peer support groups and sponsors, to speed up the recovery.

However, a major issue remains: people often struggle to get the help they need because of the ongoing shortage of medical professionals. Even though 70% of Americans live in areas covered by mental health organizations, only about 27.7% of mental health care needs are actually being met. This gap in access to care drives software companies and healthcare organizations to venture into mental health app development and create solutions that complement traditional therapy and provide alternative ways to improve mental well-being.

Mental health application development in a nutshell

Mental health app development is all about creating digital tools to manage and treat psychological and behavioral disorders, alleviate daily mental strain, and help cope with overwhelming emotions. At Innowise, we design and develop intuitive apps, including those tailored to specific conditions, to help end users access therapy remotely and keep track of their mental state.

Mental health app market insights

Globally, the mental health app development market is on the rise. From 2024 to 2033, it is expected to reach $32.05 billion, expanding at a CAGR of 18%. Major market drivers are the disappearing stigma around mental health issues, growing adoption of advanced technologies, increased focus on preventative care, and proven efficiency of mental health apps.

When it comes to the types of mental health applications, the depression and anxiety management segment holds the largest market share, around 26%.
iOS apps lead the mental health mobile software market, having a 68% share. In the coming decade, the Android app segment is expected to grow fastest.
Geographically, North America holds the highest revenue share, about 38%, while the Asia Pacific region is about to expand at the fastest rate.

$7.23 billion

mental health app development market size in 2024

18%

CAGR is expected between 2024 and 2033

38%

of people in the US meet a medical or mental health professional via telehealth

59%

of Americans are ready to use telehealth for mental health services

Types of mental health apps

Within the medical community, there’s no standard way to classify mental health apps since their features often blend and overlap. Instead of offering one-size-fits-all solutions, software companies and healthcare organizations focus on more tailored mental health apps that holistically address issues and offer users the support they need at the specific stages of their mental health journeys. However, most commonly, mental health apps are split into the following types.

Meditation and stress relief

Meditation and stress relief apps are designed to help users master mindfulness practices, enhance their emotional resilience, and improve their overall mental well-being. Available anytime and anywhere, these apps offer breathing and relaxation exercises, guided meditations, and relaxing soundscapes to help users cope with emotions. Ultimately, such apps cultivate new daily habits and rewire patients’ brains to reduce stress and anxiety, thanks to employed engagement and motivation techniques.

Teletherapy

Telehealth platforms connect users with licensed therapists for online counseling. Thanks to videoconferencing and messaging features, users can get real-time mental health support right from home. Often, these platforms also host online support group meetings so that users can connect with others going through similar experiences and build strong support networks.

Mood and symptom trackers

With mood and symptom tracking apps, people rate their emotional state throughout the day, log the symptoms they experience, and record other lifestyle data. Over time, the apps consolidate extensive records that help assess a person’s mental health state and illness progression. When integrated with data analytics, these apps can scan sleep, physical activity, diet, and medication log data to identify potential personal triggers.

Software as a medical device for mental health

Ranging from mental disorder symptom checkers to tools for therapeutic interventions and emergency support, SaMD apps are clinically approved to help patients and medical professionals diagnose, manage, and treat mental health conditions. To avoid any issues that may be caused by faulty software, SaMD systems pass rigorous registration processes (for example, according to FDA and MDR guidelines) and are often subject to clinical trials.

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Core features for a mental health app

Mental health apps’ features can vary greatly depending on their purpose and target users. That said, certain features often appear in many mental health apps, no matter their focus. Below, we’ve outlined some of the most common ones.

Self-help and mental health management

Telehealth

Gamification and user motivation

Crisis intervention

Community

Payment and billing

Self-help and mental health management

These features help users log their feelings and moods, journal their thoughts and behaviors throughout the day, and track their lifestyle to improve their emotional well-being. Often, mental health management includes guided meditations, mindfulness exercises, relaxing videos, and guides for cognitive behavioral therapy techniques.

Telehealth

Users can plan online therapy sessions, access private text chats with therapists, and join video consultations as an alternative to in-person visits. Also, with telehealth-enabled mental health apps, users can call an on-duty medical professional if they need urgent emotional support.

Gamification and user motivation

To achieve consistent use, mental health apps feature game-like elements, like rewards and challenges. Users can earn points and badges or complete activity streaks, like breathing exercises, meditations, and mood tracking. To engage users with different backgrounds, apps can feature several age-group-specific design options.

Crisis intervention

Crisis features of mental health apps help provide immediate support during acute distress. Some popular crisis intervention features include videoconferencing-based emergency lines and panic buttons that help users quickly alert their caregivers and share their real-time location.

Community

Combining expert guidance and self-help practices with social support may further improve care efficiency. Thanks to moderated forums, community dashboards, group chats, online meditation and group therapy sessions led by experienced behavioral specialists, users can connect with peers and encourage one another on their journeys.

Payment and billing

Healthcare organizations, therapists, and mental health app companies can instantly invoice users for the delivered services — say, through per-session payments or an app subscription. If insurance does not cover the services, integrated payment gateways allow users to pay with their debit or credit cards, or mobile wallets.

Self-help and mental health management

Telehealth

Gamification and user motivation

Crisis intervention

Community

Payment and billing

Types of mental health apps

AI-driven recommendations

AI recommendation engines suggest in-app content tailored to user preferences or recently logged symptoms and lifestyle changes. The profound level of personalization helps users access practical tools to improve their mental state.

AI chatbot

An integrated smart virtual assistant offers mental health app users real-time support when medical professionals’ engagement is not an option. For instance, a chatbot can engage in conversations with app users, assess their mental state, help recognize their emotions, and provide strategies for coping with stress or anxiety.

Dictation

Speech-to-text feature makes taking notes a less daunting task, improving app use continuity. Patients can express their thoughts verbally, and the app will capture them as text entries. Therapists can use voice-to-text to create appointment summaries or treatment plans faster. Also, dictation boosts accessibility for those with visual, motor, or cognitive disorders.

Predictive analytics

Based on the collected health and lifestyle data, the predictive analytics module can identify patterns in users’ behavior, like mood changes due to the lack of sleep, define users’ personal triggers, and predict issues before they escalate. The app can then send alerts about mental health risks to patients or their caretakers and offer self-help tips.

AI-based emotion recognition

Using machine learning algorithms, the app analyzes users’ facial expressions, tone of voice, and text messages to detect their emotional states and provide real-time insights into the user’s mental wellbeing. It helps track emotional patterns and can be used to further personalize suggestions.

Innovative AI-based therapies

Artificial intelligence augments mental health applications with custom evidence-based tools for managing mental disorders. Some state-of-the-art applications cover AI-based play activities for children and adults with ADHD, AI sound therapy for people with autism spectrum disorder, and other solutions.

Benefits of mental health apps

Research shows that mental health apps can be really effective at managing and treating various disorders. For example, a study conducted by Michigan Medicine found that depression, anxiety, and suicidality symptoms decreased measurably when patients used mobile mental health applications. Another study is positive that mental health chatbots have great potential to offer social and psychological support when real-world human interaction or professional support are not available. The following benefits of mental health apps reinforce the clinical efficiency:

Accessibility and convenience

Mobile apps can supplement in-person therapy sessions and help deliver mental health care services to patients from underserved areas.

Anonymity of mental health care

For many people, visiting a therapist’s office often comes along with shame for their mental health struggles and fear of exposure. Mental health apps wipe out these barriers, providing a comfortable and private therapy experience instead.

Care continuity

In between therapy sessions and in-person visits, mental wellness apps allow users to track their mental health state, manage their symptoms, and receive urgent care in crisis situations.

Best practices for mental health app development

Fail-proof security measures

To keep sensitive mental health data safe, it’s a must to implement end-to-end data encryption that will safeguard the data in transit and at rest. Another critical aspect is adopting strong identity and access management techniques, like multi-factor authentication. Also, regulatory requirements, like HIPAA and GDPR, provide a solid framework for the data privacy measures that should be implemented during mental health application development.

Multi-platform support

Thanks to cross-platform compatibility, mental health apps are accessible to wider audiences. Patients or therapists can leverage all app functionality for seamless mental health monitoring and timely care interventions, regardless of whether they use iOS or Android smartphones.

Integration with IoMT devices

Integrating mental health apps with IoMT devices, like wearables or sensors, can help track sleep patterns, heart rate, and physical activity — and draw conclusions about a person’s mental and physical well-being. Later, this data can be used to adjust care plans or recommend in-app content, like relaxation exercises or guided meditations.

Interoperability

Apps integrated with healthcare providers’ EHR or CRM software can help care teams gain insight into patients’ actual mental state outside the traditional clinical setting. Then, they can make more informed care decisions (e.g., adjust the medication dosage) and suggest tailored mental exercises based on the logged patients’ experiences or mood changes.

Mental health app development roadmap

Laying plans to develop a mental health app may seem mind-boggling at first. Breaking down the project into manageable tasks, accommodating the risks and uncertainty, setting accurate time estimates — all of that requires experience and deep understanding of the development process. To be on the safe side, it’s best to engage a healthcare IT consulting vendor in the project planning process: they’ve done it many times before and can anticipate the roadblocks and plan workarounds.

At Innowise, we help small and medium-sized enterprises along with large companies create tailored mental health app development plans based on our time-tested approach.

Discovery

Our team works together with the stakeholders on the customer’s side to shape the mental health app concept.

Requirements engineering

We outline specific functional and non-functional requirements of the mental health app, including those related to security, privacy, and compliance.

Tech design

We choose a reliable and well-suited tech stack, define app features, and plan scalable solution architecture that can accommodate a growing user base in the future while protecting sensitive mental health data. Also, at this stage, we plan implementation of security and data privacy measures required by applicable regulations, like HIPAA or GDPR.

Project planning

We create a clear project roadmap: plan the project budget, allocate resources, set timelines, and define key project milestones with potential risks factored in.

UX and UI design

Focusing on app convenience and accessibility, UI and UX designers create visually distinct app interfaces and research-based screen wireframes that outline how users will interact with the app.

Development and testing

Our mental health app developers build the solution’s front end and back end in 2–3-week sprints. At the end of each sprint, we test the app and continuously refine its functionality.

Deployment

At this stage, we thoroughly test the app, root out the bugs, ensure stable performance, and double-check the mental health app meets all applicable regulatory requirements — like GDPR or HIPAA — before deploying the solution and releasing it to app stores.

Support and maintenance

If needed, we provide app maintenance services: handle any arising issues, address bugs, perform updates, apply security patches, and upgrade app features. We can also offer post-rollout training to ease the software adoption.

01 Discovery

Our team works together with the stakeholders on the customer’s side to shape the mental health app concept.

02 Requirements engineering

We outline specific functional and non-functional requirements of the mental health app, including those related to security, privacy, and compliance.

03 Tech design

04 Project planning

We create a clear project roadmap: plan the project budget, allocate resources, set timelines, and define key project milestones with potential risks factored in.

05 Development

06 Support and maintenance

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Mental health app development costs

Feature complexity, chosen tech stack, development team composition, UI/UX requirements — all these factors may heavily influence the mental health app development costs. For example, developing a sleek mental wellness app featuring mood tracking, journaling, or stress relief guidance will likely be the cheapest option. More complex functionality, like videoconferencing, smart self-help recommendations, and patient data analytics capabilities, will increase the costs. And with innovative mental health apps designed for AI-based diagnostic and therapeutic interventions or requiring registration as SaMD, you’re looking at an even heftier investment.

When allocating the mental health app development budget, it’s best to bear in mind that ongoing costs — hosting fees, maintenance costs, and customer support expenses — will pile up. Can these additional costs be avoided? Unfortunately, no. But there’s good news: they can be minimized thanks to an experienced healthcare IT consulting vendor. At the earliest project stages, IT consultants will help choose a cost-efficient tech stack, plan an optimal project team, and design and prioritize value-driving features to get ROI faster. Also, engaging seasoned consultants is a good way to get a complete project cost breakdown, so you know exactly what expenses to expect at each stage.

Partner with Innowise to develop a mental health app

MedTech experience since 2007

60+ delivered medical projects

UI/UX design tailored for patients’ and medical professionals’ convenience

Compliance with HIPAA, HITECH Act, and GDPR

ISO 9001 and ISO 27001-certified quality and security management systems

93% of customers trust us again and again

A team of 1,800+ specialists, including those experienced in AI, ML, and data analytics

Resilient and flexible software architectures that can handle growing user loads

FAQs

How to develop a mental health app?

To build a mental wellness app, we recommend starting with the discovery, requirements engineering, and planning phase and then proceeding with UI and UX design, development, and testing. Once the mental health app is ready, it’s time for its rollout to the app stores, customer support setup, and ongoing maintenance.

Can I get a good profit from a mental health app?

Sure! To profit as a software company, you should pay attention to your marketing strategy, especially in attracting and retaining users, and create a solid monetization plan. Healthcare organizations should focus on ROI during the planning stage and identify the patient care gaps, which can be addressed thanks to a mental health app.