There are over 10,000 mental health apps available to consumers (see Methods For Navigating The Mobile Mental Health App Landscape For Clinical Use). One question raised in a recent research article—Mental Health Apps And Crisis Support: Exploring The Impact Of 988—is whether these apps are really up for the responsibility of dealing with consumer crises and suicide.

The research found that the implementation of crisis resources varied greatly among the mental health apps available for consumers to download. Some apps provided a crisis or emergency button or tab directly on their interface, and others provided a crisis resource only when prompted by an AI chatbot. Most apps (61%) did not provide any resource…