The most stress-inducing apps you should delete today – and the best ones to help you combat it
DOES each ‘ping’ of a phone notification strike a cord of anxiety within you?
With messaging, social media and news apps all handily available on our phones, it’s fair to say that each of us get a good amount of notifications daily.
In fact, the average person receives about 146 notifications daily – that’s about one every 10 minutes.
Those are pretty overwhelming numbers.
But some apps can be more stress inducing than others, lighting up your phone screen at all hours or keeping a running tally of how many messages you’ve left unread.
As Liam Howley, chief marketing officer at musicMagpie, put it: “Phone notifications can be really stressful in this day and age.
“Never before have we been so well connected, but this has both pros and cons to it.”
A new study by tech and media trading experts at musicMagpie has revealed which apps are the worst culprits for phone notifications and unread alerts.
Data was collected over a two-week period from Gen X, millennial and Gen Z iPhone users.
The study revealed WhatsApp as the biggest contributor to phone anxiety, as it was responsible for the most notification.
In fact, the app sent the most alerts to over half of the participants.
Next, came the iPhone messaging app iMessage.
Instagram ranked third for the number of notifications, followed by Facebook Messenger and the Gmail app.
There were some key generational differences.
iMessage was the top notifier for Gen Z, followed by WhatsApp, Instagram, and Mail. Spotify and The Independent newspaper were also top notifiers.
WhatsApp was the top notifier for millennials, followed by Messenger, Mail, Instagram and Snapchat, as was the business messaging app Slack.
Finally, the top-ranking notifiers for Gen X were WhatsApp and iMessage, followed by BBC News, Home, and Nest. Duolingo, the language education app, also made the list.
Unread notifications
musicMagpie also asked participants to submit the number of unopened notifications on their home screens at the time of the study.
The Mail app was the most responsible for unread notifications on the home screen, with 53 per cent of participants having unread mail alerts.
The overall average of unread emails was a whopping 11,072 across all participants.
NHS-approved stress relief apps
THOUGH phone apps can often be a source of stress, some can help ease anxiety and improve your wellbeing - they're just a tap away.
- Headspace – a science-backed app for mindfulness and meditation, providing tools and resources to help reduce stress, build resilience, and aid better sleep
- SAM – a self-help app to learn to manage anxiety
- What’s Up? – a free app utilising CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) and ACT (Acceptance Commitment Therapy) methods to help you cope with depression, anxiety, anger and stress
- Relax Melodies – select sounds and melodies to help you sleep
- Mindshift – an app to help teens cope with everyday anxieties, it teaches relaxation, suggests activities to help you shift and face it
- Moodtrack Diary – to monitor and track your emotional health
- CALM – a simple mindfulness meditation app
But one Gen Z outlier had an astonishing 98,665 unread mail alerts.
Email app Outlook also ranked high, with an average of 204 unopened notifications.
Next came the second-hand resale website Vinted, followed by Pinterest and Youtube.
How to slash phone stress
Liam had some tips for managing your phone stress, if the amount of notifications is just getting overwhelming.
“If you are suffering from notification anxiety, distraction, or overload, turn your notifications off – even if it’s just on Thursdays or for more disruptive apps like WhatsApp.”
“The focus setting really has been a saving grace for many who are overwhelmed by phone anxiety,” he added.
“Users can set time frames for when they do not want to receive notifications, for example opting for work mode which can prevent alerts between working hours or sleep mode where you can stop notifications coming through when you are setting down the night.
“Using these features and setting time aside in the day to check notifications, rather than being constantly contactable, can help keep a more positive balance.”
He also had some tips for those of us who just can’t seem to get on top of multiplying emails.
“Email is an extremely popular form of communication with great perks. However, if people are subscribed to too many sites or newsletters, they may be inundated with mail.
“For individuals like our Gen Z participant, who had nearly 100,000 unread emails, decluttering your inbox can feel impossible.
Signs and symptoms of stress and tips to manage it
STRESS can cause both emotional and physical symptoms.
We may:
- Be irritable, angry or tearful
- Feel worried, anxious, hopeless or scared
- Struggle to make decisions, have racing thoughts or feel overwhelmed
The physical symptoms of stress include:
- stomach problems, stress headaches and other odd pains including muscle pain
- skin reactions, like stress rashes and hives
- feeling dizzy, sick or faint
Sometimes, stress causes high blood pressure and chest pains – but these symptoms should stop when your stress goes. If you have any symptoms that you are worried about, or feel you have more severe stress, see a GP.
Tips for managing stress
- Try talking about your feelings to a friend, family member or health professional. You could also contact Samaritans, call: 116 123 or email: jo@samaritans.org if you need someone to talk to
- Be more more active – exercise won’t make your stress disappear, but it can reduce some of the emotional intensity that you’re feeling and clear your thoughts
- Use easy time-management techniques to help you take control
- Do some calming breathing exercises
- Plan ahead for stressful days or events – planning long journeys or making a list of things to remember can really help
- Have some “me time” – set aside a couple nights a week for socialising, relaxation or exercise
Source: NHS
“As such, the best approach would be to start a new mail account for more formal, serious matters like bills, work, etc.
“The prior email account can still be utilised to find discount codes or enact other less formal communications.
“However, having an organised, formal account is a way to ensure that you limit what communication is coming in and, as such, prevent the disorganisation that can lead to anxiety.”
“To stay on top of phone admin, turn off notifications and make new norms.
“There is an expectation for us to respond instantly to social media messages. However, this is unrealistic.
“Take the time to slow down the speed of your messages, lowering both your input and output.”