Around 20 million people in the United States struggle with alcohol or drug use, with around one in twelve requiring medical treatment for substance abuse. Moreover, around 19% of those who need help cannot receive it due to various factors, including cost, lack of childcare, no health insurance coverage, fear of losing their job, or worry of the stigma attached to their condition [1].
Addiction is a complex issue, and nothing can substitute for receiving the right medical intervention. However, smartphone apps for addiction can offer convenient and reliable support to people with limited access to conventional support systems or as a complementary tool to help overcome daily temptations and instill discipline between therapy sessions and meetings.
After all, in the digital age, smartphones have become an indispensable part of our lives, with many of us carrying them around wherever we go. Moreover, with relapse rates of 40 to 60 percent, addiction recovery apps can be great for having 24/7 access to additional tools and resources that offer daily reinforcement and accountability.
There’s a whole range of smartphone apps specifically designed to support people in their recovery. Such apps are created using longstanding evidence-based research and new technology to help people track their sobriety, practice mindfulness, monitor triggers, connect with peers, seek personal coaching, and more.
This article rounds up the best apps for addiction recovery based on cost, content, features, reliability, effectiveness, and more. Keep reading to discover the best apps for sobriety.
Getting on the road to recovery (and staying there) requires a holistic approach, and forming new habits plays a crucial role in your recovery journey. Addiction often involves a mental conflict, whereby the victim is battling temptations and triggers. Meditation can help ease this mental struggle by teaching people to replace problematic thought patterns with positive ones, thereby decreasing psychological stress.
Mesmerize is a visual meditation app that helps to clear your mind and relax through a unique audio-visual meditation experience. The soothing psychoacoustic music and engaging visuals combined with expertly-crafted guided meditations are based on clinically-validated principles to ease your mind and body into a state of deep relaxation.
Lowering anxiety, relieving stress, overcoming depression, and enhancing self-awareness are some of the benefits you can reap on your recovery journey with Mesmerize. With audio and visual speed control, the option to fuse external audio with built-in sounds, a health kit to track your mindful minutes, and offline compatibility, Mesmerize offers a whole host of features to help you on your self-improvement journey, making it the perfect meditation app for sobriety.
You can enjoy a free three-day trial of Mesmerize by downloading it from the App Store or Google Play.
When you’re recovering from drug and alcohol dependency, withdrawal symptoms can make it difficult to fall asleep and get a good night’s rest. In fact, people with substance use disorders are ten times more likely to struggle with sleep disorders [2]. Conversely, not getting quality sleep during recovery can make you more vulnerable to relapses.
Pzizz is an effective sleep app to have in your sobriety toolkit that can help you recover successfully, avoid relapse, and improve your sleep issues in the long term. The app is designed to quieten a racing mind to help you fall asleep fast, stay asleep throughout the night, and wake up feeling refreshed and confident to take on challenges ahead of the day.
Using a range of clinically-validated techniques, Pzizz plays dreamscapes-a range of sleep-optimized psychoacoustic music, voiceovers, and sound effects-to help users overcome their sleep troubles.
With highly-customizable features, including volume adjustment, sound durations, 3D effects, and voice gender selection, the app offers a highly-personalized experience to each user. Moreover, there’s an extensive library of audio to choose from to give you a unique listening experience each time you use the app and maintain effectiveness over time.
So if you’re looking for results in your recovery journey, download your free trial of Pzizz on the App Store or Google Play today.
If you’re looking for a sobriety-tracking app that isn’t too complicated to navigate, then Nomo is the app for you. Designed by a former addict, the app features all the tools that were essential to him remaining focused and sober.
Create multiple sobriety clocks to monitor the number of days you’ve been sober and how much money you’ve saved. Track milestones and share them with people supporting you on your recovery journey or on social media.
Record your thoughts, feelings, struggles, and triumphs in a personal journal or share them with other Nomo members in a safe, non-judgmental space. Use the ‘refocus’ feature to distract you anytime you’re triggered or struggling with a craving, or refer to the ‘resources’ section for useful links and information on addiction recovery.
Nomo lets users monitor their progress down to the minute and earn chips each time they achieve a milestone to keep them motivated. The app is available on the App Store and Google Play.
Featuring daily affirmations, meditations, and prayers, Twenty-Four Hours A Day is the ideal app for addiction recoverers searching for a faith-based experience. There are 366 daily meditations to inspire and motivate users, with handy daily reminders to ensure you’re engaging.
You can bookmark any reflections you find particularly noteworthy and share them with your friends, family members, or anyone else invested in your recovery. Other than that, you can rely on prayers and religious teachings as a spiritual resource that can be applied practically in daily life in recovery.
Simply shake your device to read words of encouragement and support in the moments you need it most, or swipe forward or back to access as many readings as you like.
You can download Twenty-Four Hours A Day for $5.99 from the App Store and Google Play Store.
One of the best apps to track sobriety, I Am Sober offers a personalized approach to users through customizable metrics, such as time or money you’ve saved while recovering from addiction. You can also choose the category of motivation, the addictions you’re struggling with, and end-of-day summaries to suit your situation, needs, and habits.
Other unique features include daily pledges to help keep you focused on your goals and access to a withdrawal timeline to help you anticipate any difficulties or obstacles you may face on your recovery journey.
Give and receive help to other app members on the community wall by exchanging symptoms, learning from each others’ experiences, and sharing insights and recovery tactics. Add photos and journal entries to monitor your sobriety and remind yourself of why you started in the first place.
You can download I Am Sober for free on your iOS and Android device or upgrade to the premium version for $9.99 a month or $119.88 per year.
Think of Sober Grid as a social networking app created specifically for recovering addicts, allowing you to connect with sober people in your local vicinity and worldwide.
You simply create an online profile and interact with fellow recoverers as much and as often as you like; alternatively, you can share anonymized updates on your sobriety progress, your mood, what’s going on in your life, and more.
The really cool thing about this app is that by switching on your smartphone’s location feature, you can locate other sober people nearby, which is especially useful if you’re traveling to a new city or going to a particular event and want to connect with those also on a similar journey.
The app’s emphasis on the social aspect of sobriety means users have access to 24/7 peer support and certified coaches anytime and anywhere. You can also track your progress with daily quests, setting small manageable tasks to complete throughout the day that can help boost your mood, reduce negative thinking, and serve as a useful distraction from cravings and temptations.
Sober Grid is free to download from the App Store and Google Play Store, with additional in-app purchases also available.
Whatever you need to support you on your recovery journey, the WeConnect app has useful features and tools to help you stay on track. Whether it’s wellness planning, one-to-one meetings via Zoom with a coach or sponsor, or scheduling daily routines and activities to complete and earn rewards, you’ll be sure to find something to give you an extra push.
You get unlimited access to recovery meetings at no cost, and they’re available at various times throughout the day and in different time zones. Moreover, the ‘SOS’ feature provides additional personalized support when you’re feeling particularly vulnerable.
After six months of using the app, 84% of surveyed members reported successfully reaching their recovery goals. Moreover, WeConnect isn’t just for recovering addicts, it can also be used by family members, friends, or mentors to support recovery, and you’ll be asked which category you belong in when first downloading the app.
A free version of WeConnect is available to download from the App Store and Google Play Store. You can access the premium version for $40.00 per month or $350.00 annually.
Not only is Quitzilla one of the best sobriety calculator apps, but it’s also unique in that it enables you to break any other bad habits, such as unhealthy eating, self-harming, and more, and get your life back on track.
The app’s simple and sleek design means it’s super easy to navigate through its various features, which include a sobriety counter and addiction tracker. The ‘rewards’ tool also lets users calculate how much money they’ve saved from abstaining from their bad habit and use it as a weekly reward.
Additionally, in the ‘motivations’ tab, you can list all the benefits of quitting and let it serve as a helpful reminder of why you should continue your journey of tracking and overcoming your addictions.
Quitzilla also shows you detailed statistics on each of your addictions or bad habits and an effective rewards system in the form of a trophy room; the longer you’re abstinent, the more trophies you earn. There is also a ‘quote of the day’ feature to keep you motivated and focused.
The app is available on the App Store and Google Play.
SMART Recovery is an excellent tool that gives users access to a global community of mutual support groups. You can find and develop the power to change and lead a fulfilling life by participating in various science-backed programs.
The ‘Meetings Finder’ is a built-in search engine that lets you find and attend meetings in your community. In such meetings, participants help one another by discussing problems related to their addictions and developing effective solutions.
With the SMART Recovery app, users also get access to an impressive library of informative, therapeutic, and motivational material to support their sobriety in a range of formats, including videos, podcasts, and articles.
The ‘Toolbox’ section features extensive educational content in the form of worksheets, videos, and summaries of theories and methods to help you better understand your addiction. Lessons include a cost-benefit analysis tool, goal setting, unconditional self-acceptance, recovery methods, obstacles and triggers, treatment programs, and much more.
The app is available on the App Store and Google Play.
Based on the Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book, the 12-Step Toolkit app breaks down your journey to recovery in small, manageable stages and is a great tool for understanding your addiction and recovery on a deeper level.
Each of the twelve steps encourages users to make a minor yet significant action to progress further on their road to recovery while providing useful tools to navigate every step. Other handy features include a sobriety tracker, a gratitude list, and the full range of readings and prayers that are usually read out at AA meetings.
Users also have the option to connect with over 400,000 members and sponsors via the instant messaging chat box for added support when they need it most.
The 12 Step Toolkit app is available to download from the App Store and Google Play Store, with additional in-app purchases to access the full range of features.
Developed by a Harvard-educated addiction counselor, the SoberTool app teaches people proven techniques and skills to address their relationship with addiction, cope with cravings and triggers, and adjust their mind frame to think and act like a sober person.
Like many other addiction recovery apps, SoberTool features a sobriety tracker, calculates how much money you’ve saved since being sober, and sends daily motivational messages; however, the search engine tool is a unique feature that identifies readings related to the user’s specific needs. For example, during moments of cravings, you type in specific keywords to describe how you feel, and the app returns relevant information to help prevent relapse.
Answer a questionnaire to receive more personalized options that help you work through triggers, or use the journal to document and reflect on your mental state and emotions as you progress through your recovery journey.
The app is available on the App Store and Google Play.
The only addiction recovery app approved by the FDA, Pear reSET-O is a 12-week prescription digital therapy for people with substance use disorders who are already in an outpatient treatment program.
Through interactive Cognitive Behavioral Therapy lessons, users can learn new skills that can be applied in daily situations to support their recovery journey. You can complete these sessions at your own pace and receive virtual rewards after completing each one.
The app easily lets you track your substance use, cravings, and triggers so you can understand and discuss your progress with your doctor or addiction healthcare professional. You also have weekly check-ins with a certified therapist, and a clinical trial found that 40% of patients who used the app had improved treatment outcomes and higher rates of abstinence compared to 17.6% who didn’t use the app [3].
Pear reSET-O is available on the App Store and Google Play Store, but you will need a prescription access code from your doctor or clinician before downloading.
Developed by a team of physicians and mental health professionals, Nobu is an app that is backed by proven strategies and techniques to not only manage addictions but also improve your overall wellness.
Nobu helps users gain insight into their addiction and recovery through evidence-based principles, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, mindfulness, meditation, and more.
Personalize your recovery journey and receive curated recommendations on the most relevant and useful content and lessons. Set goals and track your progress using daily guidance, clinical assessments, and other tools available in the app. Schedule appointments and connect with licensed mental health and addiction recovery clinicians right in the app through messaging and live video sessions.
The app is available on the App Store and Google Play.
The I Am app offers an easy and effective way to incorporate motivation and positivity into your daily routine through affirmation exercises. This technique allows you to become aware of your limiting thoughts and beliefs, as well as your goals and aspirations, and verbalize them to rewire your brain and successfully tackle a substance-free life.
Choose from a wide variety of daily intentions and set reminders to receive them routinely throughout the day. If there are certain times when you feel your cravings are more intense or you’re exposed to more triggers, simply configure the app to send you affirmations at those times.
The I Am app’s affirmations help you to recognize and challenge negative thought patterns to claim power over your addiction and remind yourself that you are central to successfully overcoming it.
The app is available on the App Store and Google Play.
Other than professional medical treatment, people recovering from substance addiction also have a whole wealth of resources available via smartphone apps. To discover the right apps for you, consider where you are on your recovery journey, what type of support you currently have, and areas where you require more assistance.
If the overwhelming anxieties and uncertainties of recovery prevent you from falling asleep at night, the Pzizz app is a quick, easy, and reliable way to help relax your mind and body through voiceovers, psychoacoustic sounds, and guided narrations.
If you want to use guided meditations and mindfulness to feel inspired and uplifted through your recovery journey, Mesmerize offers an expertly-crafted and unique audio-visual meditative experience for added support when needed.