Smartphone users have long used this method to focus or simply live a stress-free life. They frequently blame mobile applications for the distraction and anxiety they experience on a daily basis.
However, this viewpoint shifted dramatically when mindfulness apps became available. Users of mobile applications such as the Calm meditation app meditate and live a peaceful life. They are an excellent example of how your smartphone apps can assist you in remaining focused, rested, and productive throughout the day.
The growing demand for mindfulness meditation apps, particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic, has resulted in unprecedented growth in the market size of such apps. According to the most recent data, the meditation app market is expected to grow to USD 4,377.95M by 2027, up from USD 188.64M in 2018, at a CAGR of 41.3%.
Meditation apps like Calm have not only allowed users to live a peaceful life without leaving the digital world, but they have also demonstrated that it is a wise decision to enter this market with the help of top app development companies.
But, before you or anyone else thinks in this direction and invests in Calm-like meditation app development, it is best to understand why this is so popular. Or, to put it another way, understanding the key driving factors of the Calm-like mediation app market size. We'll get a taste of it in the next section of the article.
Factors Influencing the Market for Mindfulness App Development
The demand for mindfulness meditation apps has been increasing as users shift toward a more healthy lifestyle. Work-life stress and a flurry of personal and social engagements that impact daily energy levels and disrupt sleep are driving an increase in interest in meditation apps. The following are two significant factors that have contributed to an increase in the mindfulness app development market:
1. Stress and Mental Health Education
Currently, approximately 75% to 90% of people in the United States visit doctors for stress-related issues, and approximately 13% of children exhibit symptoms of anxiety disorder as a result of stress.
As a result, an increasing number of people are becoming aware of the negative effects of stress and turning to meditation to improve their mental health. Something that is propelling the mindfulness app development market forward.
2. Increased Adoption of Smartwatches and Smart Screens
With the proliferation of smartwatches and smart screens, people now have the ability to keep a real-time record of their mental health and well-being. As a result, whenever they are feeling down or stressed, they use meditation apps like Calm to guide them into a state of mindfulness. This benefits the thriving market for meditation apps once more.
Now that you know why people want to create mindfulness apps like Calm or HeadSpace, let's look at the best mindfulness meditation apps on the market.
A Basic Overview of the Calm Meditation App
Calm, which was first introduced as a meditation tool in 2012, has now gained significant market traction as a guide for proper sleep and relaxation. To date, the app has over 100 million downloads and 4 million paid subscribers. It has also been named the "World's Happiest App" and the "Top Grossing" Health and Fitness Application. This application's simple working mechanism deserves credit.
The rising demand and popularity of such apps has piqued the interest of every business enthusiast in Calm-like meditation app development and studying mood tracking app development guides. Assuming you want to try your luck in this field, let's go over the steps needed to create a successful meditation app like Calm.
How Do You Make a Calm-like Meditation App?
1. Select a Business Idea
To create a successful app, you must first decide what you will offer your users. It is critical to ensure that your app concept is worthwhile and unique. There are currently the following types of relaxation meditation apps available on the market:
Yoga application
App for tracking one's mental health
App for meditation music
App for guided sleep meditation
Meditation app for weight loss
Beginners' Meditation App
App for walking meditation
App for breathing meditation
App for tracking women's health
2. Competitive Analysis and Research
After you've decided on an app concept, the next step is to research your competitors. Knowing market leaders will assist you in developing a distinct value proposition for your application to stand out. You should also look into user reviews for the best meditation apps on the market. This will assist you in developing a better product.
3. Select the Appropriate Platform
Your mindfulness and meditation app should work on both the Android and iOS platforms. However, it will almost certainly raise the cost of app development. If your budget is limited, you can develop only an Android or iOS app. After that, you can improve your service so that it can function on another platform as well. Learn how much it costs to develop an Android or iOS app.
4. Create an MVP
Consider creating a minimum viable product to validate your app idea without spending a fortune (MVP). An MVP is the first version of a product that includes only the most basic features. It determines whether or not the product has a chance of success. Furthermore, you allow users to participate in MVP software development. Users can leave comments and feedback about their experiences with your app, as well as suggestions for new features.
You will not only save money, but you will also be able to analyse user behaviour and add the most requested features during the second development stage.
It's best to avoid complex features like in-app payments, video streams, and chats when creating an MVP. Instead, your app's MVP should include key features such as:
Registration and enrollment
User profile with stats on progress
For an introduction, use a short video or slideshow.
Meditation sessions are pre-listed in the library.
5. Select the Appropriate UI/UX Approach
When creating an app like Calm, you should create a programme aimed at assisting people suffering from stress, anxiety, and depression. In this case, the proper UI/UX approach is critical. Users suffering from anxiety or depression may become irritated and leave due to poor navigation, a cluttered interface, distracting colours, and other details. As a result, include UX/UI specialists at this stage.
Here are a few suggestions to help you avoid mistakes when designing an app like Calm:
Avoid using bright colours. Instead, choose pastel colours.
Avoid overloaded patterns because they may distract app users.
Instead of text, use animations.
6. Run your App
After developing the app, it is critical to test its performance in terms of speed, response time, scalability, and compatibility with universal platforms. Testing will also help ensure that all app features work properly and that there are no major bugs that cause the app to crash.
7. Submit app to Google Play/App Store
When you're happy with the app's performance, you can submit it to the Android or iOS app stores. However, publishing an app to the App Store and Google Play is not always as simple as you might think. You must not only follow Apple and Google's developer guidelines, but you must also align your monetization model with their requirements.
But it's worth it, even if the application has to meet a slew of requirements to get there. You can reach a global audience and millions of potential users by submitting your meditation app to the App Store and Google Play.
8. Track User Engagement
Following the launch, you must meticulously track user engagement to determine where you can improve your product. You should keep track of the following user experience characteristics:
What are the most common routes that users take within the app?
Is there anything preventing them from taking action?
How long does it take them to complete a task?
Furthermore, there are additional economic KPIs such as:
Churn and retention rates
Stickiness of an app
The average revenue generated per user (ARPU)
Your Calm-like App Must Have Meditation App Features
In this section, we have listed the most common meditation app features that any user would expect. These features will assist you in engaging and retaining your mindfulness app users over time:
1. Profile Development
When it comes to Calm-clone app development, the most important feature to consider is profile creation.
This feature, as implied by the name, will allow users to create their own profiles on the application, where they will be able to see/store all information related to them or the activities in which they have participated.
2. Bedtime Stories
Users can select the best stories in this category to relax their body and mind and help them sleep soundly.
3. Tutorials for Beginners
This section will contain introductory courses and programmes to help beginners. These types of onboarding tutorials highlight the fundamentals of meditation and related exercises, as well as step-by-step instructions for making the most of this app. To provide quick responses to app users, such introductory tutorials must be visually appealing and concise.
4. Master classes
The app's Masterclasses feature will allow users to access exclusive classes from the world's best mindfulness experts from around the world.
5. Meditation Resource Library
Hundreds, if not thousands, of meditation sessions should be in your library. You should categorise them and offer appropriate sessions to each user. You should show how long each session will take, its category, and other information so users know what to expect. A sleep meditation app library could include soothing music, bedtime stories, and so on.
6. Personal Information
This feature will enable users to track their progress in daily meditation. If you integrate with wearables, you can also display data from smartwatches and fitness trackers to show how a user's sleep quality improves over time. Personal statistics should be visually appealing, so pay attention to data representation and incorporate animations.
7. Notifications
The mobile app will send various types of reminders to users in this category to help them live a stress-free life. This includes reminders to meditate, sleep, and check in with the app.
8. Support for Chat
If your users have any questions, they can ask them directly from your app. A chatbot that can answer simple questions can be used to provide chat support. For more complex inquiries, you can contact your support team.
9.Discovery Screening
On this screen, you can display all meditation sessions and materials, as well as updates and the most popular programmes. This screen must provide materials from multiple categories and always include something unique.
10. Stories
Many apps have found the stories feature useful. You can include this feature to encourage your users to share stories about how meditation has helped them overcome anxiety and depression or improve their lives in general.
These meditation app features have shown to provide users with peace of mind. The application's unique user experience strategy, however, has given a new definition to calmness.
Taking this into account, let's take a look at the Calm meditation app design strategy.
Analysis of the Calm Mobile App's UI/UX
Now that you understand the key features required for an app like Calm, it's time to look at the key UI/UX design attributes for such apps. The key UI/UX design considerations for an app like Calm are listed below.
1. Aesthetic Feelings
Everything in the Calm mobile application, from the icons to the typography, colours, and visual elements, exudes warmth and tranquillity. The emphasis has remained on making difficult topics like stress, anxiety, relationships, and self-care appear more balanced and comfortable.
2. Simple App Design
Calm app has also strictly adhered to the concept of minimal app design. The app has included only the most necessary features and elements on the screens to provide users with a relaxing experience. The 'Breathing Exercise' app screen is one example.
3. Notifications via Push
The Calm mobile application makes use of Push Notifications to remind users of their scores, next activity schedules, and other important information. This not only allows users to reap the full benefits of this mindfulness app, but it also makes it necessary for other business owners to develop a push notification strategy that increases conversions.
4. Search Ease
The Calm app intelligently categorises content under different labels, making it easier to find the right content. It also provides content in the form of voice, which entices users to choose this mindfulness meditation app over others.
5. Regionalization
Calm-like mobile app has also made an investment in App Localization. The app's content is available in six languages, including English, German, and Spanish.
This allows users to access the content in their native language, increasing the likelihood of acquiring new users.
With that out of the way, let's move up the ladder and see how mindfulness technology stacks back these functionalities.
Problems You Might Face When Developing a Calm-like App
There's no denying that creating an app like Calm presents a number of challenges. There are numerous challenges to overcome when launching a successful meditation app for your users, ranging from slow loading speeds to high subscription fees. So, without further ado, let's get started!
1. Ease of Use and Quickness
The most difficult challenge your hired team app developers will face is maintaining simplicity and faster loading speed while adding numerous options to the application.
2. App Content Localization
There are several key challenges associated with developing multilingual apps when it comes to app localization. Mitigating those challenges and delivering the app on time would be another challenge for your hired app partners.
3. Accountability
There are numerous mindfulness meditation apps available on the market today. Only a few of them, however, are supported by solid research. This has made consumers hesitant to choose which app to use. As a result, it has become difficult for entrepreneurs to gain the trust of these customers and keep them engaged with their platform.
Something that is feasible if you incorporate the appropriate level of transparency into your app's operation.
4. Increased Subscription Rate
When it comes to the mindfulness market, users are overwhelmingly opposed to paying a subscription fee for the apps. Similarly, companies in this domain are heavily focusing on implementing effective price benchmarking in order to achieve better results.
Again, a higher subscription rate can be a roadblock for entrepreneurs looking to invest in the development of a Calm-like meditation app.
Let's not waste any more time and calculate the cost of developing a mobile app like Calm.
How Much Does it Cost to Create a Calm App?
The average cost of developing an app like Calm or Headspace ranges between USD 170K and USD 193K. However, the cost of developing an app, as detailed in our mobile app development cost guide, is not fixed. It varies according to a number of factors, including:
App Specifications - The cost of the Calm app is directly proportional to its size and complexity. So, if you want to build a full-fledged app, your budget will undoubtedly be higher.
Development Team - The size, location, skills, and experience of the mobile app development company you hire all have a significant impact on the app price.
Tech Stack - Similarly, the programming language, tools, and other technical elements you use in your development project will affect the cost of Calm-like meditation app development. The more tools and technologies you integrate, the higher the cost of app development.
In this case, contacting the best app experts is the best way to determine the exact cost of developing an app like Calm.
While this has provided insights into how much you will need to invest in the Calm-like meditation app development, let us now turn our attention to how you will recoup your investment. Or, to put it another way, let's learn about the business and revenue model of the Calm mobile application.
How Can Omninos Assist You in the Development of a Meditation App?
We have created many apps for our users as a leading mobile app development company. We have a talented team of app developers who have mastered the technologies required to create high-quality healthcare and meditation apps.
So, if you have any interesting app ideas, please do not hesitate to contact us. Our experts will provide the best mental healthcare mobile app development services and help you realise your vision.
