Sadly, Not Very Happy with Happify Happiness App

The mobile app world has seen as recent boom in well-being apps and apps that aim to make people happier. I decided to give one a try, to see if it really could make me feel happier. I chose Happify, one of the newer happiness apps that had a high rating and claimed to be based on science and research.

According to its description in the Apple App Store, Happify can help people be happier and feel better about their lives through different "tracks" of games and activities. It was developed with leading scientists and is based on decades of research into activities and games that help people develop habits for happier, more fulfilling lives. It has been featured in the New York Times and on CNN.com.

After reading the App Store description, I had high hopes for Happify, but unfortunately it fell short. Overall, I found that the app tried to do too much, making the process of building happiness almost stressful and confusing. It felt similar to the stress of having a person or app that checks up on your for fitness training.

The app opens with a screen describing how it will help me be happier. It claims to:

• Increase happiness with fun activities and games
• Teach me life changing habits based on science
• Reduce my stress and help me build skills for a happy, healthy life

Tells me that I will need to pick a "track" that is right for me, and complete the activities in that track as I have time throughout the day. I'm also encouraged to get inspiring content by visiting the "Happify Daily" section of the app, which is basically just a news feed of self-help and fluff news articles.

Just when I think I am finished with the "setup" portion of the app, I am filtered to a "Getting Started" questionnaire where I am asked a series of questions including gender, age, employment status, relationship status, whether I have kids, frequency of interaction with people throughout the day, just to name a few. There are fifteen total questions -- too long. I did, however, appreciate the tracker dots at the bottom of the screen that told me how many questions i had to go.

I was then led to a page of tracks to choose from. Some were labeled as premium and not available to me. Each track had information on how it will benefit me and who created it, along with their credentials.

Most of the exercises involve listing things - there are many that involve listing things, such as things you are grateful for and daily victories. There are also exercises that are more game-like, for example, the Uplift activity where you are supposed to tap positive words and avoid negative words.

There is also a "Happfiy it Now" section, which I thought was different content than the track content, but is really just the same information repackaged. Activities and exercises are grouped by theme rather than track. 

The Happify app includes one last section called "Community," where other users can post results of completed activities and tracks, and share other feel-good content. 

While the intentions of the app are good, and the theories behind the activities are sound, the Happify app fails to add much more utility to the process. The number of choices in terms of tracks, activities, and content to view make it hard to feel like I can jump in and out of the activities on the go. I believe a better structure would be one simple daily activity that is the only thing available to you when you open the app. It may vary according to preference and personality, but for me this app was simply overwhelming.