Apple Announces Mental Health Tools To Log Your Daily State Of Mind
Images via Apple
As well as giving users more opportunities to express themselves with customizable ‘Contact Posters’, Apple is also inviting them to get in touch with their feelings. Alongside a new digital Journal announced at WWDC 2023, the Cupertino tech giant also unveiled new mental health features to help understand themselves better.
The Health app will now also incorporate mental health resources, as Apple acknowledges that mental well-being is just as important as physical fitness.
In the Health app for iOS 17 and iPadOS 17, and the Mindfulness app in watchOS 10, users can easily document their current emotions by scrolling through morphing shapes to describe their moods, which range from ‘Very Pleasant’ to ‘Very Unpleasant’. Tapping further within, they can also choose associations that most affect their feelings, like ‘Travel’ or ‘Family’.
With these new insights, the Health app can help users determine if factors like sleep or exercise, or associations like their peers, are influencing their mental state, enabling them to better grasp and manage their overall health.
Video via Apple
On the Apple Watch, users can discreetly log their state of mind via the Mindfulness app by twisting the Digital Crown, which would cycle them through the same multidimensional shapes to best identify what they’re dealing with at the time.
Video via Apple
The company cites research confirming that reflecting on one’s state of mind can improve emotional awareness and strength.
“Identifying our feelings has been shown to help us manage difficult emotions, appreciate positive moments, and improve wellbeing,” says Dr Michelle Craske, an esteemed professor of psychology and psychiatry at UCLA, in the press release.
Besides the momentary mood log, Apple is also adding standardized depression and anxiety assessments to the Health app. Users who take the evaluations can save them as PDFs and be connected with the relevant mental health resources, with their permission.
At the same time, Apple reassures users that the features—which are “grounded in science”—are also “built with privacy at the core.”
“When iPhone and iPad are locked… all health and fitness data in the Health app—other than Medical ID—is encrypted on device,” Apple elaborates. “Additionally, health data synced to iCloud is encrypted both in transit and on Apple servers.”
Apple reiterates that the data stored in the Health app is never shared with third parties without the owner’s explicit permission.
The new software updates, currently in beta, will be widely available to the public this fall.
[via MobiHealthNews and Mashable, videos and images via Apple]
