An AI-powered mental health and wellness app for families

The app helps families understand each other’s emotions – encouraging the right conversations at the right time

Spotted: According to Australian startup togetherAI, over 70 per cent of caregivers struggle to communicate with their children. And over the last three years, the likelihood of young people having a mental health problem has increased by 50 per cent. TogetherAI is helping families to have difficult conversations about mental health and wellbeing with an app that combines wellbeing expertise with artificial intelligence.

The togetherAI app was developed by a team with decades of experience in child psychology, research, and clinical care, and the startup’s wellbeing framework is based on empirical, evidence-based research and insights. Moreover, the company is quick to highlight that its solution is different to parent monitoring platforms which it says destroy communication. Instead, the app hopes to encourage timely conversations that develop positive mental health, build resilience, and keep children safe.

The app is based around several core features. Children create their own ‘digital companion’ that will check how they are feeling, share positivity, play games, and provide lessons on how to understand, manage, and talk about emotions. For parents, the app provides step-by-step conversation guides, as well as real-time insights into how their children are feeling. Based on these insights, the app’s AI-driven detection will flag to parents when conversations with children are necessary, and when best to have them. For the whole family, there is a messenger that enables private, secure, and personal messaging within the app.

TogetherAI is still early in its development, having only been founded in 2021. According to Crunchbase, the startup has raised A$3.7 million (around €2.4 million) in pre-seed and seed funding.

Other mental health innovations spotted by Springwise include an AI-powered mental health companion, and a virtual environment for treating phobias.

Written By: Matthew Hempstead

Mental health is a complex issue, and those in need of urgent help can find information about the services available on the United for Global Mental Health website.