Why One Columnist Says the Woebot Chatbot Earned a Spot on His Phone's Home Screen

A Tom's Guide columnist has put a free app called Woebot on his iPhone home screen, and he says it has earned the spot. His piece, part of the outlet's series on apps its writers can't live without, makes a simple pitch: if you already spend hours doom-scrolling, some of that screen time could go toward your mental health.

Woebot is available for both Android and iOS. It is built to help with whatever you're struggling with, whether that's anxiety, stress, loneliness, grief or depression. You check in as often as your schedule or needs allow, even daily, and an AI-powered chatbot leads a guided conversation aimed at your particular concern. The columnist says that after working it into his daily routine, the app has changed how he reacts to and approaches life's challenges.

He is careful about what the app is and isn't. Talking to Woebot resembles a therapy session in some ways, but its makers stress that it does not replace a human therapist. They frame it as a complement to any help you already have, or as a first step for someone testing the waters of seeking support. The columnist uses it as a quick, meditative start to his day, asking what challenges he faces, how he feels about them, and whether those thoughts help him or hold him back.

The method underneath is cognitive behavioral therapy, which focuses on specific problems and on the actions and strategies used to address them. Much of Woebot's advice involves spotting cognitive distortions, such as "I always screw this up" or "nobody cares what I have to say," and reshaping them into something realistic and productive. A session may include a quiz or a thought exercise. Sometimes you write down how you reacted in a situation and are then prompted to challenge any negative thoughts. The columnist admits this can feel repetitive, but says repetition is part of how CBT works to rewire thinking. He also concedes CBT isn't for everyone.

New users begin with a quiz that identifies which issues they want to work on, and later sessions build tools for those issues. You can set Woebot to ping you at a certain time or open it whenever convenient. A Get Help With a Problem option lets you raise a specific concern with the chatbot. Some people may find the conversation a bit stilted, he notes, since it is a program and not a person, but he says you get out of it what you put in.

For evidence beyond his own experience, he points to a Stanford study cited by Woebot's makers, in which use of the app led to significant reductions in anxiety and depression among people aged 18 to 28. He is well outside that range and has used the app only a short while, but says techniques he has picked up help him handle setbacks with more composure.

Privacy is the obvious worry. An account requires signing in with an email address, and the content is deeply personal. Woebot's makers promise hospital-level security policies and procedures, with data encrypted in transit and at rest, and say the app complies with GDPR and HIPAA requirements on anonymization and transmission. The columnist says he is comfortable with those stated policies, while acknowledging the assurances may not satisfy everyone.

His closing argument is that society has made strides in treating mental health like physical health, with more emphasis on prevention so small problems don't grow. By that logic, he calls Woebot a valuable part of his toolkit and one of the best additions to his phone in years. Readers weighing it should remember that this is one writer's opinion, and that the study he cites covers a much younger group than he belongs to.