You can’t spell ‘happiness’ without ‘app’, but are health and wellness apps the key to a positive life? It’s easy to see why such applications are proliferating: with mounting social and political tensions, and the sensation that time is slipping away from us in a busier, more connected world, some believe the answer to keeping on top of life’s many pressures sits in the palm of your hand.

Attitudes towards mental and physical health have been changing in recent years, and wellness apps have been riding the wave. Extreme diet and fitness plans are increasingly being traded for approaches to physical health that favour strength and balance. Meanwhile, mindfulness has grown to be a hot topic, thanks in no small part to apps like Headspace, which have helped to turn meditation from an antiquated practice into a modern billion-dollar industry.