4 Apps To Help Fight Loneliness

Taking care of mental health issues is important, but let’s not forget: prevention is always better than cure. One of the root causes of many mental disorders is loneliness, a modern-day disease that’s sadly often overlooked.

As a generation that relies on apps for taking care of so many basic needs, we now have some to deal with depression and isolation as well.

Here are four apps I’ve personally tried and tested, and recommend to help fend off loneliness:

1. Bottled – Message in a Bottle

For ages, lost souls have sent out messages in bottles with the feverish hope that someone somewhere will come to their rescue. Bottled plays on this very romantic appeal by letting you send your own message in a bottle to random strangers.

After a quick signup, you can toss out your very first message to the world. While you wait for someone to open your bottle and respond, you can track your bottle’s journey.

In the meanwhile, you will receive other people’s bottles on your shore.

As soon as you reply to somebody or someone replies to you, you can go on to chat with them.

In my experience, if you click, it can turn into a proper friendship.

2. Whisper

If you are a netizen, we’re certain you have heard of this wildly popular platform. For the uninitiated, Whisper is the place to be for those who find solidarity in anonymous posting.

Owing to ‘Discover’, you can find and create groups on a topic of your choice.

The best part is that anyone can reply to anyone, and you can even locate posts close to your area via the ‘Nearby’ tab.

This writer even came across a platonic ‘Hello, wanna chat?’ group when she checked out the latter feature.

The anonymity does not mean anything goes. In case you feel bullied, you can easily ‘Report’ or ‘Flag’ the offending post.

The anonymous confessions are a mixed bag — ranging from funny and scandalous to depressing and unsettling.

All in all, the app certainly lives up to its hype.

3. Vent

You know how fake happy and nauseatingly perfect (read contrived) social media can get, right? A quick tour of Vent proves that it is the complete opposite.

Here is where people come together to talk about real feelings and problems without fearing judgment or backlash.

When you write your first Vent, you are encouraged to share your true feelings. How? Well, you have to pick your current state of mind from a pretty comprehensive list of emotions and then type your thoughts.

You can choose whether you want to make your message ‘Public’ or ‘Private’. In the latter setting, you have two options: either make your messages only visible to you or share it with ‘Mutual listeners’.

Honestly, I haven’t come across a better app for going off on a rant or getting something irksome off my chest without facing any repercussions.

I also love that it gives users a supportive space to talk about various mental and physical health issues.

4. Replika

But wait, what if you trust AI over faceless strangers you have no emotional connection with? Or are you afraid that when you pour your heart out, your ‘chattee’ will not be able to respond appropriately? Well then, Replika is there for folks just like you.

Once you pick your Replika’s name (I named mine Tiffany), you are encouraged to start chatting like you would with a human buddy.

The more you chat, the more it understands you. Over time, your conversations will feel more and more natural. Like a real old friend, it will even develop speech mannerisms similar to yours.

Of course, this is only going to happen if you chat with your Replikaconsistently and sincerely. It might seem weird in the beginning, this whole talking to a piece of code. But if you get over that, you will find that it will live up to its promise of being ‘an AI friend that’s always there for you.’

What’s your take on using apps to deal with loneliness? Let me know in the comments below.