The landscape of digital mental health trends has shifted dramatically over the past few years. While consumer downloads and investor enthusiasm for digital mental health apps have recently declined, virtual mental health care delivered through telehealth platforms is maintaining momentum and even growing. Understanding this nuanced trend requires looking beyond raw numbers and considering the changing needs of patients, the evolution of providers’ offerings, and investor perspectives on where real opportunity lies.
A Pandemic-Driven Boom in Digital Mental Health Apps
When COVID-19 swept across the globe in early 2020, it disrupted traditional healthcare delivery and dramatically increased demand for mental health support. During this period, digital mental health apps saw unprecedented growth—a key part of the broader digital mental health trends at the time. From meditation and stress management tools to sleep aids and mood trackers, consumers turned to apps as an accessible, immediate source of relief amid social isolation and anxiety.
Shivan Bhavnani, founder of the Global Institute of Mental & Brain Health Investment (GIMBHI), explains that the category of “mental health apps” is broad and includes a range of solutions such as meditation apps, stress relief programs, and sleep trackers. Many of these apps address subclinical mental health issues or general wellness, rather than severe mental illness. During the early pandemic months, they filled a critical gap: many traditional mental health providers had not yet implemented telehealth services, making apps the most readily available form of virtual support.
“At the start of the pandemic, many providers didn’t have a telehealth solution set up,” Bhavnani told Behavioral Health Business. “This led patients to seek virtual alternatives.” This was a defining moment within digital mental health trends where technology bridged a vital care gap.
Telehealth Infrastructure Catches Up — And Mental Health Care Goes Virtual
As the pandemic progressed, providers rapidly adapted. Telehealth capabilities were integrated into many mental health practices, allowing licensed clinicians to deliver therapy and psychiatric care virtually. This shift transformed how mental health care was accessed and helped normalize virtual care—a major evolution in digital mental health trends.
Today, mental health remains the only medical specialty where virtual health appointments are consistently increasing. According to a 2022 ZocDoc report, 87% of mental health bookings in May were virtual, a slight increase from 85% the previous year. This trend contrasts sharply with the steep decline in mental health app downloads, which have fallen more than 30% since early 2021, according to Apptopia.
Bhavnani finds this divergence particularly telling. “It seems like people are turning to actual care, to manage any kind of mental illness that they have,” he said. While app downloads drop, telehealth visits rise — a clear indication that patients increasingly want live interaction with mental health professionals rather than self-guided digital tools alone. This shift is an important part of ongoing digital mental health trends.
Why the Decline in Mental Health App Downloads?
There are several reasons behind the slowdown in mental health app downloads. Many apps target mild or subclinical issues—like stress, sleep troubles, or mindfulness—which were especially relevant during the height of pandemic lockdowns and social isolation. Now, as shelter-in-place orders ease and people return to more normal social lives, the demand for these particular apps may be diminishing.
Bhavnani notes, “Stress apps, meditation apps, maybe things that are targeting more sub-clinical issues would start to drop, because, while we’re still dealing with COVID-19, shelter-in-place measures and a lot of the lockdowns are over, which is basically reducing the problems of social isolation that happened during 2020 and 2021.”
Moreover, many apps are not designed or equipped to treat serious mental health disorders. Conditions like depression, anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia typically require clinical evaluation, ongoing therapy, and sometimes medication management—all of which are outside the scope of most apps. This limits their long-term appeal to patients seeking effective, personalized care. This reality shapes the current phase of digital mental health trends, where self-help tools face challenges in sustained engagement.
Investors Reassess Digital Behavioral Health Opportunities
The cooling consumer interest is mirrored by investors pulling back from mental health app startups. In 2021, mental, behavioral, and brain health startups raised an impressive $6.2 billion in funding, fueled by urgent pandemic-related demand. However, early 2022 saw a 60% decline in investments into digital behavioral health apps, according to CBI Insights.
Additionally, behavioral health startups accounted for 12% of all digital health deals in Q4 2021 but dropped to just 8% in Q1 2022. This shift reflects a broader recalibration among investors seeking sustainable, clinically impactful digital health solutions—a shift marking the evolution of digital mental health trends.
Bhavnani suggests that the initial surge of investment was a response to real need rather than hype. “In general, I think there was some euphoria, especially on the investment front, about mental health. There was a lot of capital flowing in,” he said. But he also points out that behavioral health apps made up only a modest percentage of the overall digital health market.
As investors better understand which solutions demonstrate clinical efficacy and engagement, their focus is moving toward platforms that combine technology with direct clinical care, like tele-behavioral health services, representing a maturing wave in digital mental health trends.
The Future of Digital Mental Health: Hybrid Care Models and Beyond
This evolving landscape suggests that digital mental health’s future will likely center on hybrid care models. Apps and digital tools will continue to play a supportive role—helping users track mood, practice mindfulness, or access psychoeducation—while licensed clinicians deliver the core therapeutic interventions through telehealth platforms.
The increasing acceptance of virtual care for mental health opens doors for integrated approaches where apps enhance the treatment experience but do not replace the clinician. For example, digital tools can help clinicians monitor symptoms between sessions, engage patients in evidence-based activities, and facilitate medication adherence.
With tele-behavioral health showing sustained growth, health systems, providers, and investors are prioritizing solutions that enable effective clinical care at scale, not just consumer-facing apps targeting wellness.
In Summary
The decline in downloads and investment in digital mental health apps signals a maturation of the market. What began as a necessary stopgap during the early pandemic is now giving way to more clinically oriented virtual care delivery. While self-guided apps still have a role—especially for milder concerns—the growing preference for telehealth appointments with licensed providers points to a future where technology supports, rather than replaces, real human care.
As Bhavnani puts it, “People are turning to actual care to manage mental illness, and that is reflected in the continued rise of virtual mental health visits.”
Digital mental health is not disappearing. It’s evolving — moving from the hype of mass app downloads toward meaningful, scalable virtual care that meets the complex needs of patients and providers alike. This evolution is one of the most important current digital mental health trends shaping how care will be delivered for years to come.
