Soon, an app to reduce your stress

Managing stress could soon be literally at your fingertips as researchers have now developed a stress management app that has the ability to identify when users are most likely to notice and respond to its notifications.

Designed using mindfulness theory and cognitive behaviour therapy techniques, the Healthy Mind app provides users with nine tools designed to minimise stress and encourage calmness.

"Most people who are stressed would not be seeking any kind of help from a professional," said professor Lucy Yardley of University of Southampton in Britain who is leading the research team.

"Many, however, will have their phones with them the vast majority of the time and this is an untapped resource in terms of helping people with stress," Yardley added.

The free app is a live research project, which will evaluate the effectiveness of notifications sent by the app and how best to use mobile technology to help people reduce their stress levels.

The app will invisibly monitor data such as time of day, physical activity and location of the user to decide when to send the notification.

"We want to know when is the most appropriate time to send a notification so that they are helpful rather than them being ignored," Yardley noted.

The app is now available to download for Android devices. Users must be over 18 years old and they will be asked if they want to take part in the trial. The study will run for about five months.