A new one iOS Social Health App Called exist Hope to help middle-aged consumers connect and build meaningful communities in life and the stress that comes with it.
The app describes itself as a calm or headspace cousin, whose main characteristic is a social diary. The idea behind the app’s social and community-driven diary is to help people recover together, not just one person. Exist also has daily mood trackers, audio exercises, guided meditation and more.
The app was founded by iOS developer Jason Jardim, who previously founded a startup called “Startup” in the past loungeand Alicia Waldner, the founder of a marketing agency called Adventure Marketing.
The co-founders did not meet online events, work or their Alma bed. They dated. Waldner said in an interview with TechCrunch that the two were still friendly and began talking about the idea of a mental health app, a topic they both were passionate about.
Waldner participated in a series of small groups of mental health experiences and heard letters from people who wished to have a variety of community experiences at home. Jardim and Waldner set out to create an application covering the idea of building this community.
Although initially intended to target Gen Z users, the premise eventually resonated with middle-aged users, as the average age of users who signed the app was 40. The duo decided to focus the app on this older group centered around the app.
There are feeds with Tiktok-like that allow users to slide through a mix of video and text posts, including people’s public diaries and their response to daily prompts. Users can share comments on these posts to share similar experiences or provide support and suggestions.
“The biggest feature that sets us apart is the community aspect,” said Waldner. “Headspace and calm prove this audio-based market, but in these experiences and real life people will feel very lonely and then they meditate in their diaries, but it’s a solo experience and what we do is make your social experience, rather than documenting all your thoughts at home and putting them in your bed and you’ll share them with the world.”
There is also an AI-driven problematic feature that prompts users to expand their journals and explore more thoughts and feelings. Waldner said the feature is designed to help people get stuck at the bottom of the problem and to get them thinking more deeply about something.
The community and social diary aspect of existence is free. If users want to access audio and meditation with guidance, they need to sign up for the app’s $5.99 monthly subscription.
In the future, the startup hopes to continue to lean towards the human connection aspect of existence and seek ways to improve it. There is also hope to add additional features for recording sleep habits and emotions, as well as more personalized journal tips.
