The app to help depression by COVID-19

So many limitations, so many restrictions, masks, schedules … All this composition of measures that are preventing us from leading a normal life takes a toll on our mood. Therefore, the more tools we have to combat the negative effect of this pandemic.

Yana, a virtual assistant with a 24-hour bot

Yana is a virtual friend who helps strengthen emotional well-being during the covid-19 quarantine. The first jug of cold water, so to speak, is that when checking in we only have South American countries to set as country of origin. The idea has been started by a Mexican developer, so that is where the reason lies, although it is not an excuse to internationalize the platform.

Once in it, we already have a bot available with which we can talk about any issue related to problems of stress, depression, or anxiety. The bot will start asking us questions about personal and mood aspects, all to start a conversation and delve into the problem that is flooding us. We don’t always have an answer to your comments, so she proposes default answers to get out of the way. Not only specific answers, but with emoticons it allows us to show feelings to the messages sent by the bot.

We can really discuss any topic with Yana, as she asks us why we have come to this platform. The topics are varied, from depressions, love breaks, low self-esteem, aspects related to LGTBI +, social rejection, family problems and, above all, problems related to COVID-19 pandemic.

An app that offers tips to improve habits

If we look at the upper left corner, we have an icon of a house. This icon takes us to other menus where the app proposes routine exercises to improve our habits

and solve that problem we have, all related to the interaction of the bot.

There are two specific sections for this, being “Exercises” and “Routine”. In the first, there are tools such as mental monitoring, answering some questions to determine if there are symptoms of depression or anxiety that require attention. In addition, it has other elements such as a emotional diary and other tools that make us remember only what makes us happy. If we want to focus on something specific such as the economy or self-esteem at a certain time, there are also specific accesses to talk to the bot.

In the second section, we have a kind of planning that sets guidelines for us to follow on a day-to-day basis. It is important to answer the questions well and honestly, since Yana will make us a personalized planning, with habits that adapt to our routine. We can include some techniques to carry out or reminders such as calling loved ones, walking or doing meditation.