MoodyTunes: A Smartphone App for Youth Mental Health & Wellbeing

The MoodyTunes app was designed to help young people become more aware of how their music listening habits can influence mood—often in ways they might not consciously realise. While the core of the app was grounded in strong evidence, the original look and feel didn’t resonate with its target users. In response, the team undertook a bold co-design process with a cross-section of young people aged 15–25, collaborating to redesign the interface, user pathways, and complementary web-based resources. Together, they created a contemporary, appealing, and intuitive experience—making MoodyTunes a tool young people genuinely want to use.

A complete redesign transformed MoodyTunes into a vibrant, youth-driven experience. The process of co-design uncovered surprising aesthetic preferences among young people who struggle with their mental health, which challenge common assumptions. With these preferences integrated into the final design, the updated app features a contemporary, mature colour palette set against a cinematic dark background, paired with custom typography and emojis, and easy-to-access pathways to mental health resources and professional support. Refined over multiple iterations with direct youth input, the new MoodyTunes has seen strong uptake and a low bounce rate, proving its appeal to young users.

MoodyTunes has a powerful impact on youth wellbeing. After 4 weeks users show significant improvements in mental health literacy and reductions in stress and anxiety. 98% of testers believe the app can help them manage their moods, rating it 4.36 out of 5 for quality. One 16-year-old male user said: “This app was honestly so interesting and amazing to use.” MoodyTunes represents an innovative and appealing way to improve the quality of life of young people and reduce the societal cost of poor mental health, while repositioning design as a key driver of youth wellbeing.

There is nothing else like MoodyTunes on the market—it uniquely combines music, mood, and co-designed tech to support self-awareness and wellbeing •Integrates with Spotify to make MoodyTunes part of everyday music listening habits •Daily mood check-ins; mood tracking across time via a visual graph •Prompts users to record the way specific songs actually make them feel, to raise awareness of the effect of personal choices on wellbeing and challenge assumptions about what helps. •Algorithms within the app automatically create a playlist of user-selected music that has had positive effects on their mood, giving them an easy-access tool for mood management •Diary feature that draws on principles from cognitive behavioural therapy to help users understand how thoughts, feelings and memories triggered by music influence their mood. This helps them learn to challenge automatic negative thoughts and cognitive distortions that contribute to depression and anxiety. •Recommends new music that other users with similar preferences have also found helpful for improving mood •Allows users to share personal stories and read the moderated stories of others. •A youth-designed ‘care’ icon on every page contains ready-access links to professional support and mental health resources •Short, youth-friendly articles help increase awareness about mental health.