The 10 Best Self-Improvement Apps for Mental Growth and Well-Being

Looking for the best apps for self-improvement? Find out which life-changing tools can help you grow and reach your goals. From the award-winning microlearning app like Headway to wellness programs like Intellect and Headspace, the following list of mobile apps will help you improve your lifestyle through organization and skill-building.

Using an app for personal development can benefit your mental and physical health, including learning new skills, reading more books, and even drinking more water. So, if you're thinking about taking the plunge toward creating a better you, start by downloading a self-growth app (or several) and enjoy your wellness journey!

The top three self-improvement apps to install now

• Headway – The ultimate microlearning tool with 15-minute book summaries and interactive challenges.

• MyFitnessPal – Fitness and nutrition tracker with progress reports and nutritional insights.

• Headspace – Mindfulness and meditation app with guided meditation sessions for stress relief, better sleep, and mindfulness.

10 must-have apps for self-growth: Learning, fitness, and more

During your self-improvement journey, you may need some help and support along the way. Here are some of the best smartphone apps designed to help you lead healthier and more fulfilling lives.

1. Headway: to master life-long learning

Headway is a book summary app that provides 15-minute book summaries with key insights from bestselling nonfiction books.

Reading more books is a remarkable way to gain knowledge on nearly any topic imaginable. However, busy lifestyles can get in the way of reading full-length books. Luckily, the Headway app is a fantastic time-saving solution for aspiring readers with a collection of over 1,700 text and audio summaries of the world’s leading nonfiction books.

Headway is a bite-sized learning app for iOS and Android users to use as part of their development journey. Listening to book summaries allows you to gain key insights from any book in less than half the usual time.

Readers can choose their summaries from a library of books, track their reading progress, and participate in unique, gamified challenges to collect fun achievements.

Replace social media doomscrolling and discover a world of self-help resources and motivational tools with Headway’s fun learning platform. Download the Headway app from Google Play or App Store to gain exclusive access to special titles and personalized recommendations delivered straight to your bookshelf.

2. Intellect: to practice self-care

Intellect is a mental health app that uses CBT-based learning paths to help manage stress, anxiety, and burnout, improving your emotional well-being.

Self-care may be a personal practice, but there are ways to improve your current methods to challenge your thought patterns and give yourself the best possible treatment.

For instance, Intellect is a counseling app that offers solutions to many mental health issues like burnout, emotional management, and anxiety, as well as features that align with mood tracking, particularly through its focus on mental health and self-care.

On the app, you can participate in Learning Paths, which are four-week programs dealing with specific topics such as productivity and healthy communication. These programs are packed with written, visual, and audio content that provide valuable tips to help you manage your mental health.

Intellect is owned by a mental health care company that uses cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to promote positive self-care strategies. Once the app has been downloaded, users are asked to complete a unique personality test designed to help them understand themselves and determine their needs.

After a 7-day free trial, you can purchase a subscription that grants you access to additional features on the app.

3. Babbel: to learn a new language

Babbel is a language learning app offering interactive lessons that teach real-life language skills in just 15 minutes a day, perfect for beginners.

Whether you’re planning on visiting a new country or would like to try something new, Babbel offers the perfect way to learn a new language without ever leaving the comfort of your own home.

Users of this app have access to an extensive curriculum specially curated to help them learn languages quickly and efficiently. Babbel is a great resource for beginners looking to learn the fundamentals of a language to build upon later in more advanced settings.

With a Babbel app subscription, you can gain unlimited access to hundreds of expertly-crafted lessons and filter according to your personal needs and the challenges of your daily life.

Aside from offering 14 languages to choose from, Babbel designs interactive language courses based on skill level and time commitment to ensure its users can fit lessons into their schedules.

The courses also teach applicable spoken and written language tips, including grammar, real-life phrases, and sentence structure.

4. MyFitnessPal: to work out and eat healthier

MyFitnessPal is a fitness app that tracks calories, meals, and workouts to help you reach your health goals with personalized progress insights.

MyFitnessPal offers special tools to help you stay on course with your fitness and nutrition journey. MyFitnessPal app not only helps in tracking calories intake but also allows users to record their workout activities.

This feature makes it a comprehensive tool for managing both diet and exercise as part of a fitness journey. The app allows users to track their meals, snacks, and exercise activities and then visualize their progress and trends over time using graphs or charts.

Despite its focus on viewing progress and goal maintenance, MyFitnessPal is more than just a fitness app on your Iphone that helps you maintain your diet and exercise.

It also lets you track your eating by listing nutrition information for every meal you input. This way, you’ll be able to become more mindful of your eating habits and become more inclined to eat healthier food.

5. Headspace: to become calmer

Headspace is a meditation app that provides guided meditations, breathing exercises, and stress-relief tools to improve your mental health in just 10 minutes a day.

If you struggle with anxiety or find it hard to relax, a mental health app like Headspace may help. Headspace is specifically designed as a meditation app that offers a variety of interesting audio tracks and guided meditations and daily affirmations ("I Am") to bring your mind into a calmer and more focused state.

Each meditation is only ten minutes long, a feature perfect for people who need to take their self-development on the go.

Headspace provides various stress-reducing resources like podcasts, sleep music, soundscapes, and bedtime stories. It is available on iOS devices, making it easily accessible for Apple users looking to improve their mental health.

You can start your days with mindfulness classes as part of an easy-to-learn course. Once you complete the beginner’s course, you can upgrade to a paid membership or continue using free starter classes.

6. MasterClass: to learn new skills

MasterClass is an educational app offering expert-led courses on various topics from world-renowned instructors, allowing you to learn at your own pace.

Learning new skills can be a valuable part of your self-development journey. Perhaps you’d like to start with a new hobby or even brush up on skills to boost your professional portfolio.

Skillshare offers thousands of virtual classes on hundreds of topics available to watch at your own pace. Many of these classes are free, but bonus classes and additional features require a paid subscription plan to access them. 

MasterClass partners with various celebrities and influential people to offer expert-led courses. Engaging with 'MasterClass' can be akin to attending a series of personal TED Talks, where each lesson is designed to inspire and educate, helping users to grow and reach their personal and professional goals.

From a writing course taught by James Patterson to a cooking class by Gordon Ramsay, you’ll learn tips from the world’s best performers, chefs, producers, and much more. With a monthly subscription, Skillshare also allows you to download classes to watch them offline at your convenience.

7. Readly Magazines & Newspapers: to be more informed

Readly is a digital magazine app providing unlimited access to over 6,000 magazines and newspapers, helping you stay informed and explore diverse content.

The news is full of exciting stories and headlines that keep us informed on happenings worldwide, but sometimes it can be difficult to keep up with various media outlets. Luckily, the Readly app offers an innovative way to stay informed by obtaining all your news from one unique source.

Users of the app can gain unlimited access to 6,000 magazines and newspapers specially optimized for digital reading.

For a low monthly fee, Readly provides coverage of the world’s current events broadcast across various platforms like Cosmopolitan, National Geographic, and Reader’s Digest. The app also has a family-sharing feature that allows up to five profiles, making it easier to share interesting news stories.

Without making you pay for multiple magazine subscriptions, Readly helps you increase your knowledge and personal awareness by staying up to date on the latest news.

8. My Water: to drink more water

My Water is a hydration app that reminds you to drink water, sets personalized hydration goals, and rewards you for staying hydrated.

Let’s face it — most people aren’t drinking as much water as they should. My Water is an app specially designed to help you prioritize your hydration by sending you daily notifications to remind you to drink at certain times of the day.

If you aren’t huge on drinking water on its own, you can add other beverages like tea and juice to your daily fluid intake.

My Water provides insights into the amount of water you should drink each day based on gender, weight, and activity level. Once you use the app, you’ll receive fun achievements and compete with friends to help motivate you along your water journey.

The app also offers a three-day free trial before upgrading to a paid full version that removes ads and unlocks additional features.

9. HabitBull: to build good habits

HabitBull is a habit-tracking app that helps you set, track, and maintain good habits with progress reports and motivational reminders.

Nearly everyone can admit they have at least one bad habit they wish they could eliminate. HabitBull is designed especially for people struggling to break repetitive behaviors. With the help of this app, you’ll be able to create better habits and organize them into a daily or weekly calendar.

Whether you’re trying to find the motivation to quit an unhealthy practice or need a push to clean your house, this app can provide you with the tools and resources.

A great feature of the HabitBull app is its cross-platform compatibility, allowing you to check your progress on your smartphone and computer. It also lets you organize your daily and weekly habits and keep track of your stats with colorful themes to help inspire you.

Another feature of HabitBull is the discussion forums that allow you to share motivational tips and engage with like-minded people.

10. Sleep Monitor: to sleep better

Sleep Monitor is a sleep tracking app that analyzes your sleep patterns and provides insights to improve your sleep quality and overall health.

A lack of proper sleep can have many negative impacts on your health — including poor cognition, an inability to focus, and excessive drowsiness. The Sleep Monitor app allows you to focus on getting a better night’s sleep by tracking your sleeping patterns, recording sleep talks and snoring, and giving you a detailed analysis of your sleep quality.

Sleep Monitor also shows you the duration of your sleep, how much time you spent awake, and whether you slept lightly or deeply.

Many people suffer from sleeping problems caused by stress, electronic devices, and poor lifestyle habits. In this case, Sleep Monitor offers a science-backed approach to supporting your sleep cycles with soothing sleep sounds and gentle wake-up alarms.

With this app, you can engage in a 21-day better sleep challenge designed to help you beat insomnia, develop better sleeping cycles and change your life for the better.

Start you self-improvement journey with Headway

With these bests self-improvement apps on your phone, you can easily develop new habits, boost productivity, and improve mental and physical health wherever you are.

The Headway app stands out as a powerful tool to help you achieve your goals with concise 15-minute summaries of bestselling nonfiction books like 'Think and Grow Rich!' by Napoleon Hill and Ross Cornwell, 'Change Your World' by John C. Maxwell and Rob Hoskins, and 'Mini Habits' by Stephen Guise.

Coupled with interactive challenges and features like progress trackers and personalized recommendations, the creates a customized growth plan based on your personal goals. If you want to remain consistent with your productivity and learning without sacrificing your busy schedule, listen to Headway's book summaries while on the go and revisit them whenever you need. 

Download the Headway app to gain exclusive access to a library of over 1,700 book summaries on leading self-improvement topics.