# How We Feel — An emotional wellbeing journal

> Science-based emotional wellbeing journal with emotion tracking and regulation strategies. (iPhone/iPad app by The How We Feel Project, Inc..)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/how-we-feel/id1562706384 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [The How We Feel Project, Inc.](https://appshunter.io/developer/1503942025)
- Category: Health & Fitness, Education
- Price: Free
- Rating: 4.90/5 from 29,179 App Store ratings · 1,500 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 17.0 · 222 MB
- Languages: American English, Latin American Spanish
- Released: 2022-04-18
- Data updated: 2026-08-28
- Monetization: free
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/how-we-feel/id1562706384/reviews.md

## What is How We Feel?

How We Feel is a free app created by scientists, designers, engineers, and therapists to help people better understand their emotions and find strategies to help them navigate their emotions in the moment. Conceived in conjunction with Yale University's Center for Emotional Intelligence and based on the work of Dr Marc Brackett, How We Feel helps people find the right word to describe how they feel while tracking their sleep, exercise, and health trends using HealthKit in order to spot patterns over time.

Founded as a science-based nonprofit, How We Feel is made possible by donations from people who are passionate about bringing mental wellbeing to the widest possible audience. Our data privacy terms are clear and easy-to-understand: all of your data is kept on your device unless you opt-in to send an anonymized version of your check-ins to be used in research to help more people.

Whether you are downloading this app in order to build better relationships, make your emotions to work for you, not against you, improve how you handle stress and anxiety or simply to feel better, How We Feel will help you identify patterns through daily HealthKit tracking and find emotional regulation strategies that will work for you. The How We Feel friends feature allows you to share how you feel with the people you trust most in real time, strengthening your most important relationships.

Filled with step-by-step video strategies you can do in as little as one minute on themes like "Change Your Thinking" to help you address negative thought patterns with cognitive strategies; "Move Your Body" to express and release emotions through movement strategies;"Be Mindful" to gain perspective and minimize the negative impact of misunderstood emotions with mindfulness strategies; "Reach Out" to build intimacy and trust, two important tools for emotional wellbeing, with social strategies.

## Key features

- Emotion identification and tracking
- Sleep, exercise, and health trend monitoring
- Science-based emotional regulation strategies
- Guided video exercises (mindfulness, movement, cognitive)
- Real-time emotion sharing with trusted friends
- Pattern identification for emotional wellbeing

## Chart rankings

- #135 in Top Free · Health & Fitness (US App Store)

## What do users think of How We Feel?

Overall sentiment: positive

**Pros**

- 👍 Easy to use and intuitive
- 🤗 Helps with emotional awareness and regulation
- 💎 Comprehensive range of emotions to choose from
- 🎨 Visually appealing and aesthetically pleasing
- 🆓 Completely free with no ads or in-app purchases
- 🧠 Provides educational videos and insights
- 🤝 Ability to share emotions with friends

**Cons**

- 🔍 Limited ability to add custom emotions
- 🔀 Difficulty expressing mixed or complex emotions
- 🕰️ Inability to log past emotions or edit timestamps
- 🐛 Occasional app crashes or bugs
- 🔒 Lack of password protection or app lock feature

**Commonly reported bugs**

- App crashes when accessing the 'Tools' section
- Exercise and sleep data incorrectly applied to past entries
- Editing past entries leads to a blank screen
- Inconsistent behavior when adding friends

**Most requested features**

- Add ability to log multiple emotions at once
- Implement a body map to identify physical sensations
- Allow users to customize emotion categories
- Provide an option to export data or sync across devices
- Add a widget for quick mood check-ins
- Integrate with health/fitness tracking apps

## Recent user reviews (10 of 1,500)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/how-we-feel/id1562706384/reviews.md

### 5/5 — great

*2026-08-26, version 1.17.8*

this app really helps, it’s making explains feeling easier

### 5/5 — Thank you ❤️

*2026-08-26, version 1.17.8*

First of all love the new graph update I love graphs 📊 second this has been so helpful and there’s no ads. I really love and appreciate it. It makes me feel so grounded and in control. Thx

### 5/5 — Awesome app

*2026-08-25, version 1.17.8*

How we feel is an app where you can write your feelings down. Is you’re feeling mad, you can write down why you are mad. This app helps me a lot. I hope it helps other people too.

### 5/5 — I love it

*2026-08-23, version 1.17.8*

It makes me feel 😍🥰😗😙😚😛😝🥳🤩

### 5/5 — Amazing, life changing app

*2026-08-22, version 1.17.8*

I have never written a review for an app, but this one truly deserves it. I wasn’t expecting much after it was recommended by my therapist. I’ve used apps that are supposedly designed to help you understand your emotions, and they all seem like money grabs that give you baseline or surface level insight. however, this app is truly a gem. there seems to be a genuine interest from the creators to want to help people overcome their feelings and sentiments. the video resources are a fabulous tool, and I deeply appreciate how there are so many words to describe how one is feeling, whether it be good, bad or indifferent. so many other features that you simply must download to play with/explore. definitely a go to if you want to pour into yourself in the form of emotion regulation and understanding.

### 4/5 — Great app, better before update

*2026-08-21, version 1.17.8*

This app does what it does really well, and,before the update, is incredibly easy to navigate.

### 5/5 — This app is great.

*2026-08-21, version 1.17.8*

Even as a minor, I use this app with my mom, and it helps us to understand ourselves and each other a little better every entry.

### 5/5 — So impressed!

*2026-08-19, version 1.17.8*

I'm am thrilled to have found this app!  Such a fantastic tool to help me learn more about my emotions and tools to help regulate.

### 5/5 — I’m harassed while listening to or using your app

*2026-08-18, version 1.17.8*

Since I listened to the music it is hindered from my enjoyment now In haven’t been able to listen to it. Maybe whoever is trying to interfere my using it has psychotic issues themselves since they think it’s so funny.

### 4/5 — First ever review

*2026-08-18, version 1.17.8*

I never write reviews. Ever. For anything. This is my first and probably one of the only ones I ever do write. This app is really nice. It’s good for journaling, for exploring emotions, for building your mental health, for sleep, literally for everything that’s related to mental fitness. And somehow, they did this with no ads and no in app subscriptions. I really appreciate the team behind this app and I heavily recommend it to everyone.
It’s not a replacement for a psychiatrist but it is definitely a good addition!

## Frequently asked questions about How We Feel

### What does How We Feel do?

How We Feel is a free app designed to help users understand and manage their emotions. It provides tools to identify how you feel, track health trends like sleep and exercise, and offers science-based strategies for emotional regulation. The app aims to help users navigate emotions, reduce stress and anxiety, and improve relationships.

### What are the key features of How We Feel?

Key features include emotion identification and tracking, monitoring of sleep, exercise, and health trends via HealthKit to spot patterns, and access to step-by-step video strategies for cognitive, movement, mindfulness, and social approaches. It also allows users to share their feelings in real-time with trusted friends.

### Is How We Feel free to use?

Yes, How We Feel is a free app. It is a science-based nonprofit made possible by donations. There are no in-app purchases or advertisements.

### What kind of strategies does the app offer?

The app offers various guided video strategies, each taking about a minute to complete. These include 'Change Your Thinking' for cognitive strategies, 'Move Your Body' for emotional release through movement, 'Be Mindful' for gaining perspective, and 'Reach Out' for building intimacy and trust through social strategies.

### How does the app handle user data privacy?

The app's data privacy terms are clear and easy to understand. All your data is kept on your device unless you explicitly opt-in to send an anonymized version of your check-ins for research purposes. This research helps to advance mental wellbeing for a wider audience.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 1.17.8 — 2026-08-11

Bug fixes.

### 1.17.7 — 2026-08-10

A new way to interact with your charts and check-ins, for select users.

### 1.17.6 — 2026-06-11

Thanks to your valuable feedback, we've identified and fixed performance issues that some users experienced. We are eager to share the following updates:
 
New
- Allowing for more user feedback to be shared with the team

### 1.17.5 — 2026-05-19

Thanks to your valuable feedback, we've identified and fixed performance issues that some users experienced. We are eager to share the following updates:
 
New
- A reminder to sync your data to iCloud to save check-ins.

### 1.17.4 — 2026-05-06

Thanks to your valuable feedback, we've identified and fixed performance issues that some users experienced. We are eager to share the following updates:
 
Fixes
  
  - Fixed an issue where custom emotion descriptions were not appearing when searching for emotions
  - Small fixes made on the Friends tab

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-28.*