The fast-paced world where almost everyone is stuck in a cycle controlled by capitalism faces a plethora of challenges every day. Physical health and mental health getting bad are a couple of examples of these challenges.
The report by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) department of the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) mentions that mental health disorders have a lifetime prevalence ranging between 12% to 47.4% million globally.
These disorders impact the mental health of millions of people around the world making healthcare organizations and experts overburdened.
And it is also a dark reality that mental health is still an ongoing topic and across many regions, there are not enough resources to help people keep their minds healthy.
Thankfully, the advancement of technology has brought some comforting options into existence that are helping in bridging gaps between users and mental health assistance. For instance, Calm, one of the most popular mental health apps existing in the current market.
But before we move further and dive into the in-depth Calm app review, we have a few stats to share to show you the position of top mental health apps in the industry.
To get a deeper look into the position of mental health apps in the current market, here are some important mental health app statistics that can help:
The Calm app was launched in 2012 with the purpose to make this world mentally healthier. Michael Acton Smith and Alex Tew are two geniuses credited for building this one of the most loved mental health solutions.
The saga of building the Calm app has some interesting phases. Acton Smith, one of the co-founders of the Calm app was bored of his regular jobs after he graduated from the University in Birmingham, England.
So, he and a friend of his decided to build a business that sold toys and gadgets on the Internet. Later on, Acton moved to another business venture that focused on a real-world scavenger hunt video game.
Acton started leaving clues for the scavenger hunt in the form of classified newspaper ads and hired actors that he planted on the streets. But as he says himself, the business idea turned out to be completely bonkers.
The next brainchild of Acton was another game with similarities to Tomagotchi but in the online form. The game was called Moshi Monsters and soon attracted 80 million registrations making it valued at $200 million.
Creating and managing businesses impacted the mental health of Acton making him feel stressed and burned out. However, he was not sure about tactics like 10-minute meditation that could help him tackle his mental health issues.
But his curiosity triggered a research of mental health assistance by Acton making him see meditation as a form of neuroscience. And that became the reason behind the birth of Calm which Acton decided to create with his friend.
After creating the Calm mental health service, Acton and Alex Tew (co-founders of Calm) relocated to California in their hunt of looking for a more open-minded market for mental health compared to the UK.
For almost five years, Calm struggled due to bigger competitors in existence like Headspace. But by 2019, a major investment led Calm to value at $1 billion.
Now, we’re all aware of the wonders of meditation. And what could be better than having an app that makes us sit down and calm our minds; an app that we can use to sleep peacefully at night, all stress-free?
Calm is one of the best free meditation apps that can help you meditate and sleep better through its various programs and sessions.
Calm promises to lower stress, decrease anxiety, and give more restful sleep with its sleep stories, guided meditations, calming sleep music, and breathing programs. Moreover, all these programs are certified and recommended by top psychologists, therapists, and mental health experts.
For beginners and advanced users alike, it caters to your needs with its dedicated programs and sessions, varying in length to 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, or 25 minutes. So, you can choose the meditation length as per your schedule.
One of the very first Calm app features, that we need to discuss in this Calm app review is its range of meditations. There are helpful tags that you get under the Meditation category of the Calm app like All, Anxiety, Stress, Self-care, Kids, Inner Peace, etc.
Once you pick the tag that defines your meditation requirements better, click on it to find a range of guided meditations. Some guided meditations are free while others are locked under a Calm subscription.
Calm’s mediation feature has been praised by thousands of users in Calm app reviews posted on app stores like the Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
You can feel the calming impact of bedtime stories that the Calm app features in its app. These stories are tagged with categories as well; for instance, Fiction, Sleep Stories for Kids, Trains, Celebrated Voices, Non-fiction Sleep Stories, and more.
To dictate stories under the Celebrated Voices, the Calm app features popular celebrities like Camila Cabello, Shawn Mendes, Kirby, Harry Styles, ROSÉ, Matthew McConaughey, and more.
Calm app features masters of meditation from around the world to organize expert masterclasses. The feature that you will find people appreciating in Calm app reviews is the app’s ability to keep videos safe offline. To guide you through the meditation, the app has Calm subscription packages that cover exclusive content.
The music that you hear can be a great impact on your mood and experts at Calm understand it. So, the Calm app features a range of music that can shift your mood for good. The categories included in the music section of this one of the soothing music apps are Healing Piano, Cascade Falls, Lindsey Stirling: Lunar Lullaby, Calming Thoughts, Campfire, Quietness, and more.
The Calm subscription features a great range of music that you can unlock for a greater range of choices.
Another impressive feature that Calm app reviews are found to commonly appreciate is its ability to support digital watches. The Calm can be accessed without using a smartphone if you have it installed on your smartwatch.
Play music, meditations, change songs, control playbacks of sleep stories, and more using your smartwatch for greater comfort.
To ensure your mental health is progressing, you need to keep it in check, and you can do that by using the Calm app. While using the Calm app features to boost your mental health, you can track how much progress you are making using an in-depth mood tracker of the app. The Calm app comes with a smart analytical graph that shows the progress you are making.
Using the Calm app, you get to maintain a daily streak that shows for how many days you are regularly using the app. Maintaining these daily streaks is a reflection of the efforts you are making to feel better.
If you are consulting a specialist that has recommended the app, using daily streaks you can show that you are taking care of yourself mentally and physically and the Calm app has been helpful throughout the process.
The Calm app features one of the easiest UI/UX designs to make users’ journeys easier. However, if you are a new Calm app user, you can simply refer to this guide on how to use the Calm app to start using the app.
Tip: Start with 3-5 minutes daily and gradually increase it to 8-15 minutes. The guided programs of this relaxation app will help you achieve your targets easily.
The Calm app follows a freemium business model to keep users engaged. It provides some content free and some exclusively under Calm subscription packages to help users. Here are some sources from where the Calm app makes money:
Calm subscriptions: Calm subscription costs are categorized into three sections for individuals, family members, and employees of organizations.
The Calm app has received some amazing reviews on app stores like the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. At the time of writing this Calm app review, there are over 522k reviews posted on the Google Play Store maintaining a 4.3-star rating out of 5.
On the Apple App Store, the average rating is 4.8 stars out of 5 stars. This rating is an average of 1.6 million ratings making Calm one of the highest-rated mental health apps out there.
Here are some featured Calm app reviews to give you a sample of its popularity:
“This is no joke. Hands down the best app out there for "calming" the mind. So many sounds to choose from. I just put it on and it takes me on a journey. The music this app has. It makes you feel like you're present at a different location (use your imagination when you listen to music). Really good! Some might even get addicted. If you're feeling sad, if you're feeling happy, if you need some motivation or even some stress relaxation this app works for everything!”
-Review posted on the Google Play Store
“I got this app when I started a new job/new career and was experiencing a lot of stress and anxiety. It definitely helped me through those first few months with different programs, soothing music to start the day, and guided meditations to help me fall asleep at night...there is so much material there for stress, anxiety, depression, etc. Most meditations are short enough to start the day off right or provide quick anxiety relief at lunch-time, or even during a 10 mn break. I highly recommend it!”
-Review posted on the Google Play Store
“I’m generally wary of meditation apps because they sometimes weave in too much mystic talk for my taste. But Calm instead contains guidance like ‘Concentrate on your body’”
- New York Times
“In the frenetic, crazy, digital world we live in, sometimes it's necessary to take a step back and smell the roses”
- Mashable
The journey of the Calm app has not been a cozy one thanks to its major competitors like Headspace which were existing in the market already where Calm was introduced. However, as SensorTower statistics show, Calm dominated the English-Language Mental Wellness Apps category for April 2020 in terms of downloads.
Calm maintained the first position in Global Downloads, United States Downloads, and Great Britain Downloads as well. However, the race between Headspace and Calm was close and its other competitors were Meditopia and Reflectly.
If you are stuck with your absurd office life and need some space to breathe, Calm is one of the best meditation apps that will give you some peace of mind. It starts with an introductory 7-day program, which later includes statistics and meditation tracking, along with optional daily reminders.
The other fascinating fact about this amazing app is its customizable audio and visual cues to support relaxation. If this doesn’t suffice, there is a complete curriculum, including stories, to help sleep like a baby.
However, it does cost a bit more than other similar productive apps, but it really depends upon the user what all features and functionalities they want from the app. Also, to access content beyond introductory sessions, you need to shell out some coins!
Then again, the results depend upon the user’s commitment and adherence to the programs.
Calm, the best meditation music app, does call for attention. All thanks to its innovative and exciting features. To summarize in short what you can expect from the Calm app, here are a few topics covered by the mental health app:
The meditation topics of Calm include:
Once you get started with this relaxing app, you can track your progress with:
Since this Calm app review was written after having gone through thousands of user feedback, we can assure you that this app will surely help you in some way or the other. So, if you are considering the Calm app, you should go for it.
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