Revitalizing wellbeing: App design for stress reduction through artificial intelligence and persuasive technology

• This paper details the design, development, and evaluation of an mHealth application called “SmileApp,” which aims to promote positive emotions as a way to address stress. • A total of 101 participants used the app for 14 days, completed a questionnaire about their experience, and a subset of participants also participated in interviews to provide additional insights. • SmileApp uses artificial intelligence and persuasive technology to promote positive emotions. • Our findings offer valuable insights into how technology can enhance emotional well-being, with important implications for the design and development of future mHealth applications. Digital health technologies, particularly mobile health (mHealth) applications have been shown to address various needs, such as stress management and the promotion of positive health habits. In this research, we designed, developed, and evaluated an mHealth application called “SmileApp” to promote positive emotions as a means of addressing stress. SmileApp utilizes the advantages of artificial intelligence and persuasive technology and was created by incorporating well-established psychological theories and models. To evaluate the effectiveness of SmileApp , we conducted a 14-day within-subject study involving 101 participants in-the-wild. This is followed by an interview with 23 participants. Our results show that SmileApp can promote positive emotions using artificial intelligence and persuasive technology. Our findings underscore the importance of utilizing technology to support emotional wellbeing and lay the groundwork for further research and development in this area. The implications of this study demonstrate a paradigm shift in mHealth app design by introducing a new approach of promoting desired behaviors by encouraging users to read persuasive messages and play mobile games using their smile.