In this article, I will focus on apps to improve wellness, “apps to improve health” as was mentioned in the article “The Body Language of the smartphone” 

So, I will try to describe, what we consider a healthy app.

I will not refer to medical apps, but to apps for wellbeing, and I had no doubt that wellbeing preserves and improves our health.

Introductory note: the concepts of this article don’t apply for apps without communication between people

I-The heart, inside feelings.

Have the apps a heart?  Oh, yes, I use this metaphor to try to go deep on its structure and impact over users.

We can find these 4 levels working together:

A-Technical structure

B-Ethic design

C-Esthetic design

D-Emotional heart

A-The technical structure gives support to the other levels, but as it is the developer's area, I prefer to leave to them this analysis. 

I have no doubt these levels are strongly related, and I will focus on b, c, and d level

B-Our principles are always working and influencing over our ideas, decisions, and production. Nowadays we are more noticed about the effects that bad designs produce over our self-esteem, anxiety, and angst. If we look at digital communication and relationships, it is not so difficult to find which designs are respectful of privacy, freedom, and time well spent.

The question is: are developers thinking about these ethical issues? It seems that further developers are thinking about these issues or not, in any case, there is an ethical impact.  

C-The esthetic design impacts over emotions: colors, images, speed of movements and other aspects excite our perception and influence on wellness. 

Esthetic aspects are a silent influencer over behavior.  Even in private and public spaces, we can feel how colors, forms, distance, distribution and organization impact over emotions.

D-And what is the emotional heart? As we described both ethic and esthetic issues are all the time influencing over people, and the combination of b + c + app emotional work are constitutive of this “emotional heart”

At this point, we can approach, by intuition, to the emotions and motivation that the developer had from the begging.  But we can perceive it only on its final product. 

This emotional heart is not always clear for the developer.  Usually, a part of this emotional experience is not conscious. It emerges from deep inside.

From this emotional level of its creation, the developer sends a deep message to users, in direct relation with the emotional heart of the app. The developer is not always aware of it, but a developer that worked with wellness intention surely is aware of it.

If this “emotional heart” empathizes with you, you probably became a user, if not you go far away from this app.

Everybody can examine its emotions with each app experience, but surely this is also training, the more you practice, the best.

II- Not a silent shout, but an expressive joy.

We are walking in the digital wellness highway, so we are trying to replace the old unwellness apps and downloading this new generation of apps. 

No doubt that the old silent shout, would, step by step, be changed to an expressive joy.

It isn`t a magical process, but a logical one.  A learning one.

As in real life, what we introduce into our mind and body, always send us a message.

The apps are the heart of our smartphones and have the power to give an emotional color to our life.

We choose what apps we download, as we choose what to eat and its consequences.

It may sound extreme to say "an expressive joy", but let me tell you that I experienced the “silent shout” (and I saw it in others) and I can distinguish from “an expressive joy”, and surely you too.

We are just beginning this path, but it seems no doubt that the way presents a bifurcation just in front of us.

III- To keep in touch provides wellness, on occasions happiness, but can also make we suffer.

We need a community, everybody needs it. Since the digital era arrived, we have a community IRL and surely another one digital, but not less real. So, we have:

• • An IRL community with face-to-face relationships
• • A digital community
• • A mixed community

A-When the IRL community is strong, your digital one trend to be healthy

B-When your IRL community is weak, it is probably your digital one trend to be less healthy: anxious, a victim of frequent misunderstanding, missing out, and probably other phenomena yet described. 

C-When you have a mixed community, which is the more common situation, you need to manage both so wise.

But surely if you are in the b) situation, it is critical to provide your smartphone with health apps. 

In this article we are referring especially, to those apps that provide you a lot of contacts, so a lot of social digital relationships. 

As in IRL, none relationship is perfect, naturally nor in digital space, but digital ones present additional challenges to face.  So, if the structure or design of the app provides tools than daily evaluate your messages, you can be sure that will impact over your self-esteem, and as we know this is not the unique consequence. 

But on the other hand, a healthy and plenty of good purpose app can provide you great social communication, smiles, new ideas, and new friends all over the world. 

IV-The checklist.

We offer a checklist of what an app for wellbeing would not do:

• Liked or unliked each message
• Impact on self-esteem is day after day
• Daily angst provoked for looking after day after day your inclusion (*)
• An invasion of time in real life (IRL) 
• Anxiety to avoid loneliness what frequently erase relationships,  and finally, produce loneliness
• Not to provide a calm, reflexive, and pleasant moment with your smartphone, a real pause to relax.

(*) Daily angst, day after day, finally is established in your emotional life 

And what we would expect from a healthy app?

Ethical issues: 

• A clear and honest relationship with users. 
• That means, first of all, that you have the control of your personal information: you must be asked about what information you permit to share and what not.
• Clear rules about limits of use of your personal information, included if you quit the app.  
• Very clear Terms of Use & Privacy Policy, expressed in a language accessible not only for lawyers
• An agreement or guidelines about behavior for users.

Healthy situations:

• Strong desire to open the app, but not at an anxious one.
• Company, not invasion.
• Community, not a court to judge you.
• Open mind situation.
• Open paths situation.

Final Check:  When you finished using the app, you feel calm, even peace. 

V- Optional tips.

It seems to be useful to consider the following tips:

• Emotions are not binary; please include more than two and not less than four emotional symbols. 
• If you can add up to eight and no more, better.
• Make it possible users respectful feedback to messages, judgment-free.
• Create guidelines, based on a strong common sense.
• Make it possible users give feedback about the whole experience
• Do not let the spirit of the app have trespassed
• Keep on updating, upgrading and creating, and enjoy the process.

If your feeling is like the described, you can be sure you choose well, you choose wellness, you choose health.

You chose life.

References “Self-esteem: to see and to be seen” Damian Larrimbe. http://art-tech-forabetterworld.com/index.php?seccion=single&id=25