Quirk is an open source cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) app for iOS and Android. Unlike most apps, it's accessible enough to be used for your day-to-day problems like imposter syndrome, interview anxiety, breakups, fears of flying and more.
Hey Product Hunt 👋
About 8 months ago, I launched Quirk's 1.0 here. At the time, I was in a "cluster" of panic attacks; I was having them about once or twice a day.
I built Quirk because I recently discovered Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, but mostly I built Quirk because I was desperate. No "treatment" I had tried before was working and I just wasn't sure what to do. I'd had attacks for so long that I was pretty sure I was unfixable.
Fortunately, it turned out that CBT worked for me. Like a lot. Quirk was smooth enough that I actually ended up doing the exercise; and in the past 6 months I've had maybe 4 attacks. And that's the best I've ever done in my whole life. So, I quit my job and am working on Quirk full-time now.
If you're not familiar, CBT trains you to recognize when your brain is thinking illogical, "automatic negative thoughts". CBT asks you to buy into the idea that **your thoughts cause your moods,** and not the other way around. It has you record and then *challenge* those thoughts in the moment, a bit like a mindfulness practice. It's evidence backed and extremely effective at treating many mental health disorders including depression, anxiety, and panic.
In 2.0, we've entirely redesigned Quirk. Today's Quirk is one big feedback system. You record thoughts; then you record how you're doing. 50% of people feel better immediately after recording. The other 50% are asked to "follow-up" again. So the worse you're doing, the more Quirk tries to help you. This helps you break out of the "rough patches" that I was going through when I made Quirk. On top of that, we've added a ton of requests from the community, like better in-app explanations, smoother thought recording, a pin-code lock, and an Android version.
Quirk's goal is to make universally accessible, on-demand CBT. It's extremely likely that CBT can help you in your life right now, even if you don't have a severe disorder. You might find it useful if you:
- have imposter syndrome at work
- are anxious before or during interviews
- going through a difficult period, like a break-up
- just want to make better decisions
If you haven't already, give Quirk a try and let me know what you think. If your feedback is too personal to share here, feel free to send me an email: "ejc @ quirk.fyi"
And thanks folks, I wouldn't be here without you.
-Evan
Maker of Quirk
@flaqueeau@babettebureau Evan is still in bed but I know this comment is going to make him super happy. This project means a lot to him on a really personally level, thanks for supporting us. :)
Judging by the reviews, you handled the transition to the new business model poorly. Not judging your decision to earn money for all the hard work, but given the nature of the app one would’ve expected this to be done with more empathy. In retrospect, is there anything you would have done differently?
@vandanic So when we switched over from free to paid we grandfathered in everyone and gave them a "forever free" version! Now there's 2 people working on Quirk full time so ~80 hours a week going to make it better. Evan is still in bed but I'll let him reply more once he's up too.
Oh and the reviews on Android were actually from a technical failure on our part... Our free trial page wasn't working for a couple weeks and we didn't exactly realize it. We had a ton of people bouncing and wondering why they couldn't get a free trial and had to pay. The issue is now fixed but uh, we're working on rebuilding that ranking.
@vandanic@kevint_o_m_a_s Haha thank you it's been a fun challenge.. But it's WAY better than what we originally thought though "oh my god we're terrible this is never going to work".
@jonclemons At the moment, we're not huge fans of a "freemium" model.
Our experience is "freemium" apps have a bad free product that's really only there to hound you to pay money. We'd rather just make one good paid product and then have a free trial so you can try the whole thing.
@jonclemons would it help if it said, "You won't automatically be charged at the end of the trial?" Or is having any formal "begin trial, enter credentials" blocker there at all an issue.
I imagine a true test of value might be... give user 7 days but without any blocker besides a lightweight "heads up this is a trial", then at 7 days, see if user values app enough to retain. Gotcha of course (besides technical practicality) -- that can backfire for users, as they may be less intentful about the trial given their lack of commitment. The commitment up front forces (and filters for) a more serious mindset. So in that way, I wonder if the current way is best 🤔
@flaqueeau congrats!
Quirk 2.0
Quirk 2.0
Quirk 2.0
WAPM
Quirk 2.0
Koncept
Quirk 2.0
Quirk 2.0
Koncept
Quirk 2.0
Quirk 2.0