Artificial intelligence, or AI, continues to advance in leaps and bounds. Many of your gadgets and apps already use AI in some form, and many more will soon adopt it. And while AI is nowhere near the dreams of science fiction writers, it is already being applied in amazing ways.
You can also test this amazing AI technology on your Android phone. If you’re dealing with stress or feeling overwhelmed, like so many people, you can try talking to an AI-based chatbot therapist through your phone. These apps come in handy especially if you are hesitant to discuss your problems with people around you. Let’s take a look at some of the prominent AI chatbot therapists available on Android and iOS.
1. Wysa
Wysa is a pretty thorough app that works as your partner for mental wellbeing. It offers a chatbot therapist, plenty of mental health exercises, and even an option to talk through voice messages. Your conversations with Wysa are confidential to protect your privacy. You just need to give it a nickname to start chatting.
Wysa is programmed to ask you questions to help you open up about your problems. This virtual AI companion cum therapist is quite interactive and feels realistic. In addition, it saves your therapy sessions in a diary so that you can keep an eye on your health.
There are plenty of exercises to choose from depending on what you’re dealing with. However, only some of those exercises are free. The rest requires payment. You also get an SOS feature in case you find yourself in an emergency. This feature is designed to help you stay calm and avoid panic. Speaking of emergencies, check out how your smartphone can always make emergency calls.
Wysa offers all basic self-care therapy features for free, including some exercises. However, the free version has certain limitations that require a premium subscription to unlock. In addition, you can talk to real therapists if you pay for the sessions.
To download: Wysa for Android | iOS (free, subscription available)
2. Wobot
Woebot allows you to choose a time to add scheduled therapy sessions for each day. It has a feature that allows you to select the common answers in the chat instead of typing the answer each time. This helps make communication more efficient.
It also offers targeted chat sessions to work on a specific issue. You can select your problem in the subjects tab. These sessions include interactive quizzes, tests and games to help you overcome a challenge in a light-hearted way. In addition, the app offers an SOS function in case of emergency. And you can keep a diary with Woebot to track your progress. The best part: the app is completely free for everyone.
To download: Woebot for Android | iOS (free)
3. limbic
Limbic is a minimalist AI chatbot therapist that takes you straight to the therapy session without any distractions. You don’t even need to register or sign in to use the app. It allows you to record daily therapy sessions to keep a diary of your mental health and track your progress. It provides insights based on the information you’ve shared and saves all your notes for analysis and later viewing.
Limbic also recommends actions and tools based on your feelings and mood. The daily therapy sessions enable it to detect your health patterns and optimize the therapy based on your situation.
It also offers emergency SOS services like other apps on this list that help you contact the relevant authorities in case of a medical emergency.
Limbic is completely free and you don’t need a subscription to access its features. If you need help with anything, you can easily connect to the app’s technical support.
To download: Limbic for Android | iOS (free)
4. Get up
RiseUp is a feature-packed chatbot therapist that helps you overcome fear, feel confident and achieve your goals. You start by sharing your current feeling and then seek therapy based on your situation.
The chatbot contains precise questions designed based on human reactions to different feelings. In addition, you can also take a personality test that helps you learn more about your personality and gain insight into your passion and goals.
The app also keeps track of your daily therapy sessions and moods under the To reveal section. This helps you track your overall mental health progress. It also has several other resources such as tests for understanding depression and anxiety. These tests can be helpful in identifying the causes of your feelings and help you find an early diagnosis. Most of the app’s features are available for free, but some of them are stuck behind in-app purchases.
To download: RiseUp for Android | iOS (free, in-app purchases available)
5. Mind spa
Mindspa is mostly a content based app with articles, courses and tasks to improve your mental health. The app also allows you to keep a mental health diary. In addition, it has a chatbot therapist hidden in its settings. Tap to access the chatbot More in the lower right corner, then tap Emergency. This will take you to a chat screen with an AI bot on the other side.
You usually have a conversation with the Mindspa chatbot by selecting answers from a list. You rarely have to type your answers manually. The more you talk to him, the better he begins to understand your problem and can offer helpful help. Most of the features that this app offers are free. However, you do need in-app purchases to access some of the advanced functionalities.
To download: Mindspa for Android | iOS (free, in-app purchases available)
Should you rely entirely on AI-based apps?
No, you should not use AI as your sole mental health tool. These apps are not an alternative to real-life therapists and treatments. However, you can use these apps to complement your current treatment and simply enjoy the convenient company of an AI friend.
The performance of these chatbots is impressive but far from perfect. That said, you’ll still appreciate how far AI technology has come. You may find some of the suggestions and guidelines too simple, but there are some points where these apps really share something new to improve your mental health.