Free 7-day trial · then $7.99/mo or $59.99/yr
An app for people whose AI therapy chatbot just disappeared
Woebot shut down on June 30, 2025, and no new chatbot is going to replicate the relationship you had with it. Mendly doesn't try. It replaces one specific habit — checking in when something's on your mind — with a single tap instead of a conversation. No AI replies to parse, no session to complete, just a log that's still there tomorrow.
The research
A randomized controlled trial found that college students who used Woebot for two weeks showed a significant reduction in depression symptoms compared to a control group reading an NIMH self-help ebook — the tool worked. Its 2025 shutdown wasn't a verdict on whether checking in regularly helps. It was a funding decision. Mendly keeps the checking-in habit alive without the chatbot underneath it.
— Fitzpatrick, Darcy and Vierhile, JMIR Mental Health, 2017
What it actually looks like
Opening your phone out of habit to check in with Woebot, then remembering it's gone.
Typing the first line of what used to be a nightly chat into Notes instead.
Trying three different chatbot apps in one week because none of them feel like your old one.
Realizing you never got around to requesting your conversation history before the export window closed.
Missing the 3am check-in more than you expected to.
Telling a friend 'I know it sounds dumb to grieve an app' before explaining why you do.
Downloading a new mental health app, opening it once, and deleting it a day later.
Wanting somewhere to put a thought and not having anywhere obvious to put it anymore.
When it tends to be worst
The first week after the shutdown
Muscle memory doesn't update on a deadline — most people report reaching for the old app out of habit for days after it's actually gone.
Late at night
If your Woebot habit was a nighttime check-in, that's exactly when its absence is most noticeable — there's no direct replacement for a specific chat routine.
Right after a hard day
The moment you'd have opened the app to process something is also the moment you're most likely to try, and abandon, a replacement within the same week.
While comparing replacement apps
Testing chatbot alternatives too soon after the loss often ends in frustration, because none of them can restore the specific conversation history you actually lost.
Quiz
What's your post-Woebot pattern?
Question 1 of 4
When do you most reach for the old app out of habit?
What people usually try first
Switching straight to another AI chatbot (Wysa, Stella, Youper)
Reasonable tools on their own terms, but jumping straight to a replacement chatbot usually means comparing it to the specific relationship and history you lost with Woebot — a new chatbot can't restore old conversation history, so the comparison rarely feels fair to it.
Going back to a plain journal or Notes app
This captures the content but not the habit-forming part. Woebot's daily check-in prompt did some of the remembering-to-show-up work for you, and a blank notes app doesn't.
Waiting to see if a similar service launches
Understandable, but it leaves the actual gap — somewhere to put a thought regularly — unfilled in the meantime, and the habit tends to fade the longer it stays on pause.
Trying several replacement apps in the same week
Comparing multiple new tools at once usually means giving each one a few minutes rather than the weeks it actually takes to know if a habit will stick.
“The thing that failed wasn't Woebot's method. It was Woebot's balance sheet — which is a good reason to pick your next check-in habit based on what it needs to keep running, not on how good the conversation feels.”
Where Mendly fits in
Mendly doesn't replace the conversation you had with Woebot — it replaces the habit underneath it: noticing a thought and doing something about it in the moment. One tap logs it. No chat to have, no session to finish, nothing that depends on a company staying funded. Add a 15-second voice note if you want the detail a conversation used to hold. Over weeks, the hourly pattern view shows when you used to reach for check-ins most — mornings, late nights, after hard calls — which is closer to what you actually got from Woebot than any new chatbot's first conversation will feel like.
Free 7-day trial · then $7.99/mo or $59.99/yr
Features
One-tap logging
One tap marks the thought — no typing, no prompts. The friction is so low it actually works mid-meeting, mid-walk, mid-spiral.
Voice notes
15 seconds to say what was actually going through your head. Optional, private, and yours.
Milestone badges
16 badges that celebrate your awareness, not your perfection. First Catch, Streaks, Early Bird, Voice Found — each one earned.
Apps like MindLift focus on reframing thoughts through guided CBT exercises — a different kind of structure than a chatbot conversation, but still a structure. If what you valued about Woebot was consistency rather than dialogue, a one-tap log is a lower-maintenance way to keep that habit alive than adopting a new app's exercise routine.
See the full comparisonCommon questions
Can I import my old Woebot conversation history into Mendly?
Is Mendly an AI chatbot like Woebot was?
How is this different from a journaling app?
What does the free trial include?
See for yourself — 7 days free.
Try Mendly on iPhone. Cancel anytime via Apple subscriptions.