Table 1.

Therapeutic features available in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) apps for depression (N=31), including information on whether each feature reflects CBT practice in relation to depression.

Therapeutic features	Definitions	CBT feature	Apps, n (%)
Dealing with negative automatic thoughts	Identifying and challenging specific negative automatic thoughts about self or the world	Yes	15 (48)
Addressing negative thinking styles	Identifying and challenging thinking styles and patterns; for example, catastrophizing, all-or-nothing thinking	Yes	9 (29)
Example activities	Example of pleasurable activities to do to improve one’s mood	Yes	9 (29)
Writing and self-reflection	Diaries and journals	No	6 (19)
Tracking mood	Tracking and annotating moods	Yes	5 (16)
Self-assessment	Tests and scales to assess one’s well-being	No	5 (16)
Gratitude and affirmations	Gratitude diary, examples of affirmations, ability to add affirmations, questions encouraging positive thinking about self	No	5 (16)
Information about CBT	Articles, blog posts, and other resources explaining cognitive behavioral therapy, its components, and how it works	Yes	4 (13)
Information about depression	Articles, blog posts, videos, and other resources explaining depression, its symptoms, how it works, and how to deal with it	Yes	3 (10)
Recording thoughts and emotions	Recording information about events, and thoughts and emotions that accompany them	Yes	3 (10)
Scheduling activities	Planning activities	Yes	3 (10)
Relaxation tracks	Calming music, sounds of nature, etc	No	3 (10)
General information about well-being	Articles, blog posts, videos, and other resources about mental health in general, health tips, well-being advice, nutrition, etc	No	3 (10)
Tracking anxiety and worries	Tracking anxiety incidents, worry lists	No	3 (10)
Recording and monitoring daily activities	Recording activities, matching activities with the calendar and mood information	Yes	2 (6)
Challenges and behavioral experiments	Tasks to complete to practice (new) coping skills	Yes	2 (6)
Setting goals	Setting up specific goals to works toward	Yes	2 (6)
Peer support	Ability to join forums or social networks, ask questions, and talk to others	No	2 (6)
Suicide prevention	Links to support services, ability to prepare a crisis plan	Yes	1 (3)
Challenging beliefs	Written exercises and examples of tasks to do to address one’s beliefs about the world and self	Yes	1 (3)
Breathing exercises	Written or recorded (audio or video) instructions for breathing exercises	No	1 (3)
Mindfulness	Mindfulness meditation tracks and written exercise instructions; excludes other types of meditation	No	1 (3)
Fun content	Games, jokes, and humorous content to provide distractions and improve one’s mood	No	1 (3)
Inspirational quotes	Quotes of famous people to provide motivation and lift one’s mood	No	1 (3)
Meditation	Guided meditation, topics to contemplate; excludes mindfulness	No	1 (3)
Physical exercise and yoga	Suggestions for specific exercises or yoga sessions	No	1 (3)