Sonia: AI Emotional Support 17+

Has Potential!

I got this app from a reddit comment I saw on a forum. I want to say I'm blown away by how responsive Sonia is, but I've run into a bit of a bug. I had an alarm go off during my first session. After I snoozed the alarm, I was unable to continue the session. All the buttons on the app were unresponsive. I closed out of the app and saw that I had a session, but I was unable to continue where I left off. I started another session. It was going well until the same thing happened. An alarm went off and made it impossible to finish the session. I'm going to try a third time to hopefully start and finish a session, making sure there are no alarms set to go off. I truly can see this app taking off, but I still want to make it through a full session first before giving a more detailed review.

It's $13 a month so you know

REVISED: Company contacted me to explain their pay model. They worked to create a good customer experience. I would say give this app a try, especially considering the importance of mental health and the promise of AI in this space.

ORIGINAL REVIEW
Just a heads up – They don’t really tell you until you get into the app that it’s $13 a month. i’m not saying that’s good or bad but I wish they would’ve stated that upfront. The app seems pretty good but it’s hard to tell unless you complete a session before you’re charged for it.

Developer Response ,

Hello, thanks for your review and sorry to hear about your bad experience. We have made several changes to adjust for that. You can now test Sonia for 4 entire session before deciding whether a subscription makes sense and we have also included a new onboarding screen to communicate that clearly. We'd like to offer you a free subscription for all of 2024 to make up for this inconvenience. Feel free to email me directly at chris@soniahealth.com to get you set up.

Pleasantly surprised

I’m not going to lie, I’ve always been pretty skeptical of chatbots or anything AI-assisted when it comes to applications to mental health. I came across Sonia on a reddit forum recently and tons of people had agreed saying it was helpful for them when it came to anxiety/other mental health struggles, so I figured I would give it a shot.

I mean, wow. I’m pleasantly surprised. During my first session with Sonia, we got into some of my past trauma & strategies to re-direct my thinking patterns, and I have to say I was drawn in. Like, it was genuinely more helpful than some actual therapists I’ve spoken to in person.

Will definitely be giving it a shot, at least for the time being. Sonia is really on to something.

Developer Response ,

Thank you for this amazing feedback! It's quite normal (and healthy imo) to be skeptical at first. I'm glad Sonia could convince you that she's helpful and not so scary after all :)