Is the Calm App as Calming as it Claims to Be?
The health and wellness industry has surpassed the $5 trillion mark. The spending in the wellness category will continue to grow given the rising popularity of the trend among the millennials.
Calm was featured as the #1 meditation app in the world and Apple’s app of the year in 2017. The calm app promises to help users sleep better, boost confidence and reduce stress and anxiety. Without the app, users used to listen to music and meditation pieces in online streaming apps such as Youtube or Spotify to sleep better. There weren’t ways to reduce stress and anxiety in a guided manner before Calm.
Calm’s target audience is the Working Adults with a median age between 30–35: With blurred borders between work and home, personal and professional life in this pandemic era it’s become very difficult for working adults to manage stress and anxiety has become a part and parcel of their daily life.
The onboarding journey:
For a first-time user, the app takes in the goals of the person as inputs for personalization (covers one of the 10 usability heuristics). There are modules that are free and recommended for the first time user to get started.
But where is the “Hook”?
Calm begins with this screen: Take a deep breath. It's the starting screen every time you open the app. The background has a gradient purple color which gives a very soothing feel to the user. The first trigger is “internal” where the user desires to sleep better and feel better on a daily basis. The actions are very simple. The user needs to complete a session as short as 5 minutes to get started. The app has mastered the “reward of the hunt” where to unlock more resources and sessions, the user has to opt for a monthly or annual subscriptions. Every time the user enters the app, there is new content to surprise the user.
After the user has completed one or two modules and is feeling relaxed. The user is asked to set a reminder for daily habit (external trigger) and asked to share about the app with others (virality).
Calm has partnered with various artists to drive influence amongst the Millenials: Idris Elba, Anna Acton, Zahn Mclarnon for its featured section of “Sleep Stories”. The short 30–35 minute stories begin with the motivation of the artist deepening the connection with the app (external triggers).
Michael Acton Smith strives visions Calm to become a lifestyle brand and “Nike of the mind” by focusing on the biggest lifestyle challenges: sleep and stress.
How does the app motivate me to become a regular user from a new user?
The app opens with the calming voice of flowing water, water falling on the leaves in a forest which takes the user to a different world.
As soon as the user likes the initial sessions, the user feels like accessing the locked sessions to experience the calming and soothing effect they might bring in the future.
The different filters on the top make it easy for the user to navigate to the session which will address the user's need perfectly. The user can deepen his practice by accessing the master session.
The sleep stories cover different categories: stories for kids, fiction, non-fiction, and a featured section to grab the user’s attention which certainly grabbed mine. The shortcut to access the stories by the narrator makes it easy for the user to search stories by the voice. The experience grows with the user’s needs as Calm brings in fresh content by partnering with more artists and experts in the wellness domain.
The app lacks features to level up intermediate users ( meditation series for advanced level, customization of length and time, semi-guided meditation )
How is it doing compared to alternatives in the market?
Headspace is the biggest competitor in the mindfulness space. Headspace is covering Move as a category in addition to sleep and meditation.
Headspace has just touched on the power of community by introducing group meditation. This gives the user the feeling that there are others with him investing time into the practice at the same time (external trigger)
Headspace is giving users the option to choose the time and format of the meditation (guided, semi-guided and unguided). It has leveraged the “Customization” usability heuristic giving the user freedom and flexibility. There are programs tagged as “Pro” which motivate the user to practice more and reach a higher level.
Calm needs to up its game by leveraging the social aspect (group guided and semi-guided meditation), expand its target audience (include elderly which is a sticky audience and more loyal once they get used to it), introduce features to increase engagement ( connect with wellness specialists, the leaderboard for completing #sessions,#checkins, increase in mood board), partnerships with streaming apps such as Spotify to expand its reach.
Any thoughts?
