How to Build a Meditation App Like Headspace and Calm

When Coronavirus (COVID-19) induced fear & stress forced masses behind closed doors & Work From Home (WFH) further affected mental health, people started looking for healthier ways to converge their professional and personal life.

In the need of the hour, meditation apps became a reliable source of mindfulness, mental peace, and calmness. These apps helped millennials & Gen-Z as well who suffer from a high level of anxiety and other mental health issues.

Let’s dive deeper into the world of meditation apps to further understand how they changed the world.

Numbers’ Talk

• Top 10 meditation apps earned $195 million in 2019, 52% more than in 2018
• Between 2015 and 2019, meditation apps’ revenue grew from $8 million to $195 million
• North America is the Prime Market for meditation apps
• Roughly 18 million Americans use meditation apps regularly
• About 14% of US adults have tried meditation at least once
• The meditation app industry is expected to grow to $4377.95 million by 2027 @ 41.3% CAGR
• 75% — 90% of people in the United States visit doctors for stress-related issues
• 13% of kids in the USA show symptoms of Anxiety disorder
• Between 200–500 million people meditate as of 2019
• 16% of females practice meditation, whereas, only 12% of males are doing so
• The US meditation market is expected to reach $2.08 billion by 2022

As per NCCIH, 8% of the total adult population uses meditation apps to reduce stress and improve mental health

Meditation Apps’ Class Division

Natural Classification:

• Traditional- It consists of traditional meditation programs of varied lengths occasionally guided by voice instructions to help with the ‘How To’ aspect of the process.
• On The Go- Listening to meditation sessions while walking, running, cooking, and more, can be classified as the ones that can be performed while on the move.
• SOS- Short meditations which last a few minutes as their goal is to help a person calm down if there is an emergency. It’s especially helpful for those who suffer from severe anxiety or clinical depression.

Interest-based Classification:

• Meditation App for Beginners- Help beginners to understand the concept & process behind different meditation routines while paying attention to breathing and its importance.
• Meditation App for Weight Loss- Meditation apps promote patience & control that leads to a healthier lifestyle and eating habits, resulting in weight loss.
• Meditation App for Guided Sleep- Deep relaxation routines help improve insomnia symptoms which enables the person’s brain to relax, unwind, and ultimately, sleep.
• Meditation Music App- In many religions, music is deemed as a guiding force towards inner peace, reducing stress, aligning hormones, and releasing dopamine to relax and feeling calmer.
• Mental Health Tracker Apps- Apps like PTSD Coach, Code Blue, Equanimity, Happify, among others, are specifically designed to identify varying patterns of moods and suggest self-help methods. It’s particularly valuable for people suffering from bipolar disorder, clinical depression, anxiety, or excessive mood swings.
• Yoga Meditation App- Meditation is a part of Yoga. In essence, it’s a way of life and an ancient way of relaxing, aligning mind & body, increases body awareness, sharpens attention, and more.

Why build an App like HeadSpace & Calm

• Tranquillity- Meditation apps help counter stress caused by everyday life. Also, it helps in easing everyday problems related to stress, anxiety, and other mental health-related problems.
• Mindfulness- In our fast-moving world, meditating for 5–10 minutes enables the brain to relax which helps in achieving mindfulness.
• Depression- The brain can be guided to stay in the moment, thus helping with clarity of thoughts, resulting in a happier mood.
• Stress & Anxiety- Meditation improves cardiovascular health if practiced regularly. It also assists in being less reactive to anxiety triggers.
• Focus & Energy- Meditation helps improve focus, which aids in renewed energy levels. An energetic person feels the motivation to improve his/her mood which further sharpens focus.
• General Wellness- Meditation brings a sense of calm which is needed for a healthier life.
• Pregnancy- Postpartum depression may lead to severe depression later in life. Meditation helps align hormones in the right way.
• Smart Wearables- When integrated with wearable devices like watches, bands, and others, it enables users to keep a real-time record of their mental health and well-being.
• Gamification- Gamification makes a person curious, thrilled & open-hearted when meditating. It also increases motivation, strengthens the communication process, and further develops cognitive skills.

Essential Features of A Meditation App

• Sign Up & Login- An option to register with a phone number, email address, and social media to ensure quick signup.
• Introduction- An introductory video about features, programs, offers, and other important things that users must know about.
• Customized User Profile- Simplified process of customizing user-profiles wherein they can store their programs/progress, and monitor the activities.
• For Beginners- New users may require guidance, so an introductory course is profitable. It also encourages users to browse the app which can be beneficial in the longer run.
• Statistics- Stats concerning progress and achievements to keep the users interested, motivated, and excited for the next program.
• Timer- A reminder is an essential feature to ensure users are in-sync with their programs & sessions.
• Search- Categorize content in a proper manner so that it’s easier for the users to search different programs, sessions, routines, among other things.
• Library- Provide logically distributed libraries for different sets of users suffering from stress, insomnia, trouble in concentration, depression, and more. Display the duration of each session and incorporate audio tips for better user engagement.
• Play Button- A call-to-action button to play a story whenever a user clicks on it.
• Discover- A section to get updates, news & other interesting news regarding meditation.
• Push-Notifications- Push Notifications helps in sending updates, current trending sessions, and reminders to keep users in the loop with the latest offerings.
• Sleep Stories- Allow users to choose sleep stories to calm their minds for a sound sleep.
• Live Streaming- Enable your app to broadcast live streams using cloud and other servers to distinguish your app from other existing ones in the market.
• Free Trials- A free trial is a smart way to engage users with quality meditation programs, gamification ideas, and other things that will prompt them to buy the subscription.
• Chat Support- To improve customer experience, retention, and problem-solving, in-app chat support is essential.
• Stories- Meditation app users may vary — from Gen-Zers to millennials to boomers to experienced to beginner level meditators — so it is important to have stories that are categorically divided to ensure proper targeting.

Meditation App Development — A Word to the Wise

• Examine your Competition- For any business owner, it’s imperative to know about your existing competition in the market. It helps you plan app features. business model, and meditation app development company, accordingly.
• Clarify your Business Idea- Currently, there are various categories of meditation apps available in the market. As a business owner, you need to decide whether the meditation app development will be focusing on beginners, experts, or mid-level meditators. This will also enable a business owner to determine the target audience.
• The right approach to UI/UX- To build an app like Headspace & Calm, neutral colors like blue, green, yellow, purple & pink are recommended by industry experts considering they have a natural calming vibe. Avoid overloaded patterns, add animations to create playfulness, and create a crisp, aesthetic vibe for better user experience.
• Architecture- If the architecture of the app is not scalable, low performance will make concurrent users suffer. Industry experts recommend using cloud solutions to tackle app scalability issues that may arise in the future when looking to build an app like Headspace & Calm.
• Choice of Platform- Study your prospective users and accordingly decide which platform would be better suited for your audience, be it iOS or Android.
• MVP Model- Agile development with Minimal Viable Product (MVP) enables you to study your audience and make changes, fix bugs, and update software if required.
• Experts’ Assistance- To increase the credibility of the app, introduce a feature where users can avail experts’ help. Through virtual methods, users can ask meditation-related questions and clarify their doubts.
• Gen-Z- According to a study, generation- is more likely to report stress-related problems and least likely to enjoy good mental health. For effective targeting, it’s essential to understand their demands & needs, and accordingly design communication channels.
• Gamification- Gamification is known to increase user engagement thanks to its creative, fun features & the curiosity of thrill-seeking audiences.

Compatibility with Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant

• Cortana- Omnipresent home assistants like Amazon’s Alexa ECHO, Apple’s Siri, Google’s Google Assistant, Microsoft’s Cortana, among others, have extended their in-app services to virtual assistants. It’s particularly valuable for people suffering from severe anxiety, bipolar disorders, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), clinical depression, and more
• Targeting- Meditation is in demand across demographics, so targeting all age groups with customized meditation programs that will cater to all, is essential.
• Localization- Using local languages, dialects, slang assists in attracting local users. This also helps in making the app more user-friendly.
• Transparency- One of the ideal ways to increase user engagement is to let users explore the app. Once they start exploring it themselves, they get to know more about other features & information available on the app.How Meditation Apps Like Headspace & Calm make Money
• Subscriptions- Under this revenue model, a user pays a fixed amount of money to unlock the advanced features of the app. Famous apps like Calm and others use this revenue model.
• In-App Purchases- Some of the meditation apps use this revenue model extensively. In-app purchases allow users to buy products/services related to specific meditation programs they are currently practicing.
• Pay-per Download- Under this model, there is no one time charge instead, once the user completes an action, the app owner gets the money.
• Ads- Under this model, ads are created for specific websites, apps, and are placed on high traffic channels that harvest revenue.
• Freemium- In a freemium model, basic level services are free of charge while the advanced level services require customers to pay a fee.

Mindfulness of Calm & Headscape

Concluding Thoughts

Leading meditation apps like Headspace & Calm simplified the process of meditation, enabling users to savor its benefits. Earlier, people had reservations about meditation and its practices. These apps shunned the myths empowering users to focus on being healthy, mentally, and physically.

Calm & Headspace derive their success from the quality of meditation programs they offer, which not only guides the meditators but also engrosses them, piques their interest and excitement.

During perilous times like now — affected by COVID-19 — meditation apps can play a vital role when it comes to mental health & hygiene. The tricky part, however, is to create an experience that users will adore, engage with, and adopt in their daily lives. Hiring a custom mobile app development company that knows how to build an app like Headspace & Calm can be the first step in a long journey.

Bhavmeet Kaur

Myself Bhavmeet, as a business consultant having a experience of 4+ years and help you to grow your business or startup firm through complete analysis, and strategy of various business module and up trending technologies.

Follow us :