![]() Study results suggest that users are willing to share their mood with their friends in social networks 18, 19. Besides self-tracking, apps such as Aurora 19 and MobiMood 18 also encourage users to share self-tracked mood data in their social networks to seek emotional support 22. Other mobile apps have elicited users’ mood using emojis 21. CopeSmart 20 users log their mood by selecting a corresponding value on a scale. For example, MobiMood 18 allows users to register their mood by selecting colors, and Aurora 19 supports self-tracking by allowing users to select photos that best represent their mood. Researchers have employed various technologies to help individuals to record, analyze, and regulate mood 16, 17. Self-tracking mood could facilitate gaining knowledge and awareness of one’s mood patterns and thus help maintain emotional well-being. ![]() Positive mood can enhance cardiovascular, hormonal and immune functions, promote healthy behaviors such as better sleep and exercise 14, and lead to more open-minded thinking and effective problem solving 15. Therefore, we investigate apps that allow users to self-report their mood, and we use self-tracking to refer to keeping track of mood via self-report.Įmotional well-being is an essential part of mental health 13. Despite emerging sensing technologies and apps that could potentially detect users’ emotions, since mood and emotions are subjective, the accuracy of such sensing technologies remain unclear 15. To the best of our knowledge, little research has investigated the features, consumers’ experiences, and challenges of using mobile apps that are designed for mood tracking. A few studies have investigated Android and iOS apps for specific health conditions, such as mental diseases 9 and weight loss 10. Researchers have argued that many apps lack scientific- and clinical-based evidence in the feature design, and also lack evidence of consumers’ empirical usage 8. The latest versions of smartphones provide built-in self-tracking functions for health 7. Self-tracking is among the most common strategies used by health apps, including tracking preventative behavior such as exercise, as well as monitoring health indicators, such as blood pressure and mood. ![]() According to a report from Statista, “health and lifestyle” is one of the most popular categories in smartphone apps 6. The ubiquity of smartphones and their apps has enabled their use for a myriad of health purposes. ![]() Self-tracking mood helps users increase their awareness and proactive self-regulation of their emotional well-being 18, 19. Tracking health related data helps users to gain knowledge about their health, establish the correlation between the tracked data and their health conditions, and proactively engage in healthcare management 11. Mood tracking has been investigated as an approach to help healthy individuals stay in healthy emotional states, and assist individuals with mental diseases, such as bipolar disorder and depression, in their health management 5. For example, Google has recently launched Verily, a healthcare lab that aims to digitalize mental health with the help of brain and behavioral sciences 4. Along this line, both researchers and industry are increasing their efforts to develop technological solutions that enable individuals to manage their mental health. Creating technology to support self-management of mental health may benefit consumers by empowering them to have a more active role over their own well-being, and making mental health resources more accessible. ![]() Despite the importance of mental well-being, initiatives to increase mental health awareness and services have been hindered by the absence of mental health in public health agendas and the lack of integrating mental health with primary care 3. The World Health Organization (WHO) has defined mental health as “a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community 1.” Mental disorders such as stress and depression can be burdensome and disruptive, and also increase the risk of becoming ill from other diseases such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes 2. ![]()
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