Do Meditation Apps Really Work? Scientists Reveal the Truth

Meditation apps have been shown to lower blood pressure, lessen repetitive negative thoughts, and even influence gene expression linked to inflammation.

Do you use a meditation app on your phone, computer, or wearable device? If so, you’re not alone.

Today, there are thousands of meditation apps available around the world, with the top 10 alone surpassing 300 million downloads. Early studies suggest that even short-term use of these digital tools can provide benefits, including reduced depression, anxiety, and stress, as well as improvements in insomnia.

“Meditation apps, such as Calm and Headspace, have been enormously popular in the commercial market,” said J. David Creswell, a health psychologist at Carnegie Mellon University and lead author of a review paper on meditation apps, published in the journal American Psychologist. “What they’re doing now is not only engaging millions of users every day, but they’re also creating new scientific opportunities and challenges.”

One significant benefit provided by meditation apps to users is access.

“You can imagine a farmer in rural Nebraska not having many available opportunities to go to traditional group-based meditation programs, and now they have an app in their pocket which is available 24/7,” said Creswell, who is the William S. Dietrich II Professor in Psychology and Neuroscience.

Meditation apps also provide scientists with opportunities to scale up their research.

“Historically, I might bring 300 irritable bowel syndrome patients into my lab and study the impacts of meditation on pain management,” said Creswell. “But now I’m thinking, how do we harness the capacity of meditation apps and wearable health sensors to study 30,000 irritable bowel syndrome patients across the world?”

When paired with devices that track heart rate and sleep patterns, such as Fitbit and Apple Watch, meditation apps now have the ability to integrate biometric data into meditation practices in ways not previously possible.

Perhaps the most significant point is that meditation apps are transforming how these practices reach the public. Research on usage trends shows that meditation apps make up 96 percent of all users in the mental health app market.

“Meditation apps dominate the mental health app market,” said Creswell. “And this paper is really the first to lay out the new normal and challenge researchers and tech developers to think in new ways about the disruptive nature of these apps and their reach.”

Meditation apps challenge users to train their minds, in small initial training doses

Much like traditional in-person meditation programs, meditation apps are designed to meet users at their current level. Early lessons often emphasize breathing or mindfulness, usually delivered in short sessions whose effectiveness is still under discussion.

Research indicates that engaging with meditation app exercises for just 10 to 21 minutes, three times per week, is sufficient to produce measurable benefits.

“Of course, that looks really different from the daily meditation practice you might get within an in-person group-based meditation program, which might be 30 to 45 minutes a day,” said Creswell.

The flexible, pick-and-choose style of app-based meditation may be especially appealing to people with busy schedules or limited resources for formal coaching. Many users also value the convenience of having guided meditation available on demand, without the need to attend at specific times or locations.

“Maybe you’re waiting in line at Starbucks, and you’ve got three minutes to do a brief check-in mindfulness training practice,” said Creswell.

Finally, as meditation apps continue to evolve, Creswell believes integration of AI, such as meditation-guiding chatbots, will only become more common, and this will offer the option of even more personalization. This could mark an important development for meditation adoption at large, as offerings go from one-size-fits-all group classes to training sessions tailored to the individual.

“People use meditation for different things, and there’s a big difference between someone looking to optimize their free-throw shooting performance and someone trying to alleviate chronic pain,” said Creswell, who has trained Olympic athletes in the past.

The elephant in the room

Of course, with new technology comes new challenges, and for meditation apps, continued engagement remains a huge problem.

“The engagement problem is not specific to meditation apps,” said Creswell. “But the numbers are really sobering. Ninety-five percent of participants who download a meditation app aren’t using it after 30 days.”

If the meditation app industry is going to succeed, it will need to find ways to keep its users engaged, as apps like Duolingo have. But overall, Creswell said the market demand is clearly there.

“People are suffering right now. There are just unbelievably high levels of stress and loneliness in the world, and these tools have tremendous potential to help,” he said.

“I don’t think there is ever going to be a complete replacement for a good, in-person meditation group or teacher,” said Creswell. “But I think meditation apps are a great first step for anyone who wants to dip their toes in and start training up their mindfulness skills. The initial studies show that these meditation apps help with symptom relief and even reduce stress biomarkers.”

Reference: “The meditation app revolution” by J. David Creswell and S. B. Goldberg, 8 August 2025, American Psychologist.
DOI: 10.1037/amp0001576

Funding: NIH/National Institutes of Health

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