Artificial intelligence, or AI, continues to make progress by leaps and bounds. Many of your gadgets and apps are already using AI in some form, and many more are going to adopt it soon. With ChatGPT, Bing, Bard, and many others, it's easy to see what this technology can do and will do.

An interesting use case for this AI is as a virtual therapist. If you are facing stress or feeling overwhelmed like so many people, you can try talking to an AI-based chatbot therapist on your phone. These apps come in handy, especially if you hesitate to discuss your problems with people around you.

So, let’s look at some of the best AI chatbot therapists available on Android and iOS.

1. Wysa

Wysa is a pretty thorough app that works as your mental well-being partner. It offers a chatbot therapist, plenty of mental health improvement exercises, and even an option to talk through voice messages. Your conversations with Wysa are confidential to protect your privacy. You just have to provide it with a nickname to start chatting.

Wysa is programmed in a way that it asks you questions to help you open up about your problems. This virtual AI companion-cum-therapist is quite interactive, with a realistic feel to it. In addition, it stores your therapy sessions in a journal so that you can keep a check on your health.

There are plenty of exercises to choose from, depending on what you're dealing with. Only some of those exercises are free, though. The rest require payment. You also get an SOS feature in case you find yourself in an emergency. This feature is designed to help you keep calm and avoid panic. On the topic of emergencies, do check out how your smartphone can always make emergency calls.

Wysa provides all the basic self-care therapy features, including some exercises, for free. However, the free version has certain limitations that require a premium subscription to unlock. Moreover, you can talk to real-life therapists if you pay for the sessions.

Download: Wysa for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)

2. Woebot

Woebot lets you pick a time to add scheduled therapy sessions for each day. It has a feature that allows you to select the common responses in the chat rather than typing the answer each time. This helps make communication more efficient.

It also offers targeted chat sessions to work on a specific issue. You can select your issue from the Topics tab. These sessions include interactive quizzes, tests, and games to help you overcome a challenge in a light-hearted way. In addition, the app provides an SOS feature in the Tools tab in case of emergencies. And you can keep a journal with Woebot to track your progress. The best part: the app is completely free for everyone.

Download: Woebot for Android | iOS (Free)

3. Replika

Replika may seem like a casual chatbot that you could use just for fun. However, if you start chatting with it and share your problems, it offers some pretty solid advice. It's more of a companion-cum-therapist. That's why the developers of the app have mentioned in its description that it can help when you're feeling down or have anxiety.

The setup process is slightly long if you customize your Replika's avatar, but it's pretty straightforward. Once you're done, it takes you straight to the chat. The chat itself is pretty robust compared to the ones on the previous apps listed above, as you get to vote up or down on each response and can regenerate a response if you don't like it.

Your companion also takes notes of important points and keeps them in memory. In addition, you can send voice notes, attach images, or video call your Replika. There's also an option to upgrade the chatbot to the pro version for better responses.

Download: Replika for Android | iOS (Free, in-app purchases available)

4. Mindspa

Mindspa is mostly a content-based app with articles, courses, and tasks on improving your mental health. The app also lets you keep a mental health diary. In addition, it has a chatbot therapist hidden inside its settings. To access the chatbot, tap on More in the bottom-right corner and then tap Emergency. This takes you to a chat screen with an AI bot at the other end.

You have a conversation with the Mindspa chatbot mostly by selecting responses from a list. You rarely have to type your answers manually. The more you talk to it, the better it starts to understand your problem and offer useful help. Most of the features this app offers are free. However, you do need in-app purchases to access some of the advanced functionalities.

Download: Mindspa for Android | iOS (Free, in-app purchases available)

5. Bing

Bing is not your usual therapist, to begin with. However, you can convert it into a great chatbot therapist by starting the conversation with a prompt along the lines of:

        "Act like my psychologist and therapist. Apply all the best practices in your responses to offer great therapy."
    

Feel free to add more detail to the prompt to customize your therapist according to your needs. Once you send this message, Bing will confirm and ask you how it can help. You can start sharing your problems in the following messages.

This trick doesn't only apply to Bing. You can convert ChatGPT, Bard, and other LLMs into chatbot therapists using this method.

Download: Bing for Android | iOS (Free)

Should You Rely Completely on AI-Based Apps?

No, you shouldn't use AI as your only mental health resource. These apps are not an alternative to real-life therapists or treatment yet. However, you can use these apps to complement your current treatment and simply enjoy the convenient companionship of an AI friend.

The performance of these chatbots is impressive but far from perfect. With that being said, you’ll still appreciate how far AI technology has come. You might find some of the suggestions and guidance too simple, but there are some points where these apps really do share something new to improve your mental health.