Meet the people making apps & games to improve your health

in our latest #WeArePlay Stories, we meet the founders creating apps and games that are making health and wellness fun and easy for everyone on Google Play. From getting the jump on heavy sleepers in the morning, to turning mental health into an intense adventure game.

Here are a few of our favorites:

Jai, Founder of Delightroom

Seoul, South Korea

With over 90 million downloads, Jay’s app Alarmy helps heavy sleepers wake up with smart, challenge-based alarms.

While studying computer science, Jai’s biggest challenge was not debugging code, but waking up for his morning classes. This struggle sparked an idea: What if there was an app that could help anyone get out of bed? Jai created an original version and demonstrated it at a technology event, where it immediately attracted attention. That prototype developed AlarmyAn app that uses creative missions to motivate people, like solving math problems, doing squats or taking photos so that they feel fully awake. Now available in over 30 languages ​​and 170 countries, Jay and his team are expanding beyond alarms, adding sleep tracking and wellness features to help even more people start their day on the right note.

Ellie and HazelCo-Founder of Mind Monsters Games

Cambridge, UK

Ellie and Hazel’s game, Betwixt, makes mental wellness more fun by using an interactive story to reduce anxiety.

While working in London’s tech sector and later writing about psychology, Ellie noticed a pattern: many people turned to video games to reduce stress, but struggled to connect with traditional meditation. Then the idea of ​​combining the two came to his mind. While writing a book on mental health, he met Hazel – a therapist, former world champion boxer and sports lover – and together they created the book. betweenAn interactive fantasy adventure that guides players on a journey of self-discovery. By blending storytelling with evidence-based techniques, the game helps reduce anxiety and promote well-being. Now, with three new projects in development, Ellie and Hazel are attempting to turn sports into a mental health tool.

Kevin and Robin, co-founders of MapMyFitness

Boulder (CO), US

Kevin and Robin’s app, MapMyFitness, helps a global community of runners and cyclists map their routes and track their training.

Growing up in the Middle East, the Philippines, and Africa, Kevin developed a fascination with maps. In San Diego, while training for his second marathon, he created a simple MapMyRun website to map his routes. When other runners joined in, former professional cyclist Robin arrived with the vision of helping cyclists find and share maps. both of them founded together mapmyfitness MapMyRide was launched in 2007 and soon after combining Kevin’s technical expertise and Robin’s athletic knowledge. Today, the MapMy suite powers millions of walkers, runners and riders with adaptive training plans, guided workouts, live safety tracking, and community challenges – all in support of their mission to “bring everyone out.”

find more #WeArePlay Stories from founders around the world.