Happ [happy + app] Review: Juice, Get Happy

I’m always looking for apps that help me do something better/faster/smarter.  So in my quest to be happier, I had to find out if there was an app for that.  It probably won’t surprise you, but there are apps designed for this purpose.  I have tried two of them so far and I wanted to share my thoughts. 

Juice – FREE in the Apple App Store

I first heard of Juice when I was poking around tinybuddha.com looking for tips on teaching myself how to meditate.  Meditation, or just the simple act of learning how to relax, I thought could help me navigate through some of the stress in my life.  Anyhow, I think I first saw it mentioned in a tiny banner ad on the website, but a more in-depth article about the app can be found here from tinybuddha.com’s founder, Lori Deschene.  (Just as a side note, tinybuddha.com is pretty awesome and has a lot of good ideas and articles about change in your life.)  This is the very first “happy app” I’ve tried and I like a lot of things about it.

Each day you are asked to rate your sleep quality, exercise, and nutrition; other categories of happiness factors can either be purchased or added on later once you’ve earned credits; credits are earned by successfully completing the ratings each day and viewing your “weekly report”.  The app will give you a daily tip or advice based on the ratings that you enter.  For example, if you rate your sleep quality as low for the day, the app will suggest some tips to help you sleep better.

I really got into the app for awhile and had unlocked the “mood” and “relationship” categories which made it more fun to fill out – for a period of time.  After awhile, the daily reminders (“Time to use Juice”!) became more of a nuisance than anything, and I found once I turned off the daily notifications that I didn’t really use the app anymore.  However I do still use the tips and tricks I learned from it every now and again, so it is a great app to get you started on your way to a happier existence. 

Get Happy – ways to increase your happiness; Lisa Patterson-Kane - $0.99 when it was available in the Apple App Store (no longer available as of 8/1/2013)

At the time I downloaded this app, I figured if a free app like Juice could give me some usable information, a paid app must be even better!  I chose to download “Get Happy” in particular – although there are other paid happy apps out there – because it had high ratings in the App Store.  $0.99 didn’t seem like too much of a commitment even if all of those people were wrong.

Unfortunately, I am just not that impressed with Get Happy.  The basic premise is the same – you go into the app and adjust a set of self-ratings for Relationships, Personal Growth, Leisure, and Work Education; and you can adjust these as little or as often as you like.  Each day the app will give you a new tip to read, presumably based on those ratings.  I however seem to be getting the same dozen-or-so tips over and over again in spite of how frequently I adjust my ratings.  Maybe I’m just not changing drastically enough or fast enough for the app to give me additional advice.  The app also gives daily notifications, which are usually just a few words to help guide your day.  These were cute at first until they too started repeating themselves; sometimes the notification has nothing to do with the tip of the day that generates for you.  There are lots of additional tips in the app you can read on your own, but I don’t need to download an app to sit around and read all day.  The idea, I thought, was that the app could tailor my information, but it’s kind of a flop. 

I still have the app downloaded on my phone, but only because I feel the extra obligation since I paid for it.  Of the two choices here I recommend giving Juice a try, even if temporarily; and in doing the research for this post it seems Get Happy is no longer available anyway.  Juice is the app I’ll go back to unless I find something I like better, and it’s a great starting point for those of us just starting our happiness journey!  And it’s FREE!  Free things make me a little bit happy.