App Review: Happify
- Wendimere Reilly, RDN, LDN
- Mar 19, 2019
- 3 min read
App Description: The Happify App includes games, tasks, and motivational prompts to help you become a happier person. Evidence based activities. The Happify App claims that activities are based on neuroplasticity (brain retraining) to help us overcome negative thoughts and learn new ways to better cope with stress. The app is designed to create help users create new habits and break negative behavioral patterns.
Research/Evidence: According to the United Nations World Happiness Report, happiness is considered a measurement of social progress and happiness indicators should be considered when crafting public policy (Helliwell, 2017). Being happy at work can improve productivity by about 12% (Oswald, 2013) and being happy in general can lower your risk for heart disease (Boehm). Research from the UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center supports the theory that we can re-wire our brain to reset our happiness set point.
Technical Requirements: Apple iOS (7.0 or later), iPad, iPod, iTouch, or Android (4.0.3 and up). Can be used on a Smartphone or Desktop.
Cost: Basic: Free, in-app purchases (Monthly $14.95 for premium features, annual and lifetime memberships also available).
Website: Happify
Download the Happify App:
Original Review (10/2017): I am not sure if I’ve used the app long enough to determine if my happiness factor has improved but I do enjoy the positive playtime. One of the games is a spin-off of the popular Angry Birds game with twist. The point of the game is to stomp out your negative emotions or any daily frustrations. It was quite fun.
Other activities focus on determining your strengths, overcoming anxiety causing situations and practicing mindfulness and gratitude. I think it’s a good alternative during those spare moments during the day when there is a tendency to check email, social media, or surf the net. I usually don’t allow apps to send me notifications but I did turn on the function for this one. I like getting the periodic reminders to check-in or complete an unfinished activity.
Update: 3/18/2019
Is the Happify App worth the money?
According to the 2018 World Happiness report the United States ranked #18 in the world for happiness for 2015-2017 while the top spots were held by Scandanvian countries, so working on our "happiness factor" in general makes sense. According to the folks at Happify, 86% of frequent users get happier in as little as two months with some users seeing improvements in as little as two weeks. Game on!
When I wrote this original app review I only trialed the free features. Lately, I've had some trouble tuning out negative thoughts and it has been disrupting my sleep patterns. Around this same time I have been working on my website and it turns out that this app review happens to be getting a good amount of google traffic so I thought it was worth freshening up. I am a big believer that everything in life happens for a reason so decided to take another look at the app. It's still on my iPhone although I haven't used it in over a year.
Back to the original question above, is the Happify app worth the money? I started using it again and decide to take the plunge so I pulled out the credit card and purchased the year subscription. The app does come with a 30-day money back guarantee but after using the premium features for only about an hour I am going to say, Yes, I do think it is worth the money. And if the $100 for the year seems a bit steep I would say that even one month at $14.95 is a good deal. I could see someone on a tighter budget going with a monthly option and turning it on/off as needed.
Now that I have committed to an entire year of improving my happiness I will continue to share my experience so that I can let you know firsthand if positivitity games can help you stomp out negativity. In happiness and with gratitude, until next time!
References:
Boehm JK, Kubzansky LD (2012) The heart's content: The association between positive psychological well-being and cardiovascular health. Psychological Bulletin 138(4):655-691.
Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley. Available at: http://greatergood.berkeley.edu
Helliwell, J, Layard, R, & Sachs, J (2017). World Happiness Report 2017, New York: Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
Oswald A, Proto E, Sgroi D (2015). Happiness and Productivity, Journal of Labor Economics 33, (4)789-822.
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