HappyFace
Free AppAbout HappyFace
HappyFace is a simple game that uses Cognitive Bias Modification to reduce social anxiety and improve personal well being.
The benefits of Cognitive Bias Modification (CBM) were featured on the BBC Horizon programme 'The Truth About Personality', first broadcast in July 2013. The programme investigated the differences between optimistic and pessimistic people. In a 35 year study in Idaho, involving over 1000 people, it was found that those with an Optimistic outlook lived on average 7.5 years longer, enjoyed life more and were less anxious. Excerpts from the programme are available on YouTube.
You will be presented with a series of grids showing peoples faces. One of these faces is happy, smiling and positive. The remaining faces each depict a negative emotion such as anger, frustration, anxiety etc. Your task is to examine the faces and to click on the happy face as quickly as possible. The faster you locate the happy faces the higher your score will be. Currently the game time lasts 1 minute before your score is displayed.
Two to three minutes practice per day over a six week period has been shown to dramatically improve a person's cognitive bias towards a positive outlook. By learning to react faster to the happy faces you are effectively retraining your brain to pick up on more positive information instead of exercising the right side of the brain which is more associated with survival reflexes such as 'fight and flight'.
HappyFace enables you to monitor your progress in two ways. Selecting 'Show Progress' displays a graph of your highest score for each day you have played the game. Selecting 'Show Duration' will show a graph of the number of minutes you have practised each day.
HappyFace works well from Android 2.2 onwards on mobile phones and tablets.
The benefits of Cognitive Bias Modification (CBM) were featured on the BBC Horizon programme 'The Truth About Personality', first broadcast in July 2013. The programme investigated the differences between optimistic and pessimistic people. In a 35 year study in Idaho, involving over 1000 people, it was found that those with an Optimistic outlook lived on average 7.5 years longer, enjoyed life more and were less anxious. Excerpts from the programme are available on YouTube.
You will be presented with a series of grids showing peoples faces. One of these faces is happy, smiling and positive. The remaining faces each depict a negative emotion such as anger, frustration, anxiety etc. Your task is to examine the faces and to click on the happy face as quickly as possible. The faster you locate the happy faces the higher your score will be. Currently the game time lasts 1 minute before your score is displayed.
Two to three minutes practice per day over a six week period has been shown to dramatically improve a person's cognitive bias towards a positive outlook. By learning to react faster to the happy faces you are effectively retraining your brain to pick up on more positive information instead of exercising the right side of the brain which is more associated with survival reflexes such as 'fight and flight'.
HappyFace enables you to monitor your progress in two ways. Selecting 'Show Progress' displays a graph of your highest score for each day you have played the game. Selecting 'Show Duration' will show a graph of the number of minutes you have practised each day.
HappyFace works well from Android 2.2 onwards on mobile phones and tablets.
All Application Badges
Free
downl.
downl.
Android
2.2+
2.2+
Bug
buster
buster
Android app
App History & Updates
What's Changed
1.01 fixed crash bug with formatting of score in different countries
1.01 fixed crash bug with formatting of score in different countries
More downloads HappyFace reached 10 000 - 50 000 downloads
More downloads HappyFace reached 5 000 - 10 000 downloads
More downloads HappyFace reached 1 000 - 5 000 downloads
What are users saying about HappyFace
Q
by Q####:
by Q####:
If you double tap the Happy face very fast each time it will register as two correct picks. Doing this throughout gives you a unbeatable score otherwise. I have memorized ALL the faces and my hand flicks out to the correct picture before I'm even conscious of it. PLEASE ADD MUCH MUCH MORE PICTURES! Thank You for a good app!
Q
by Q####:
by Q####:
Every time you click a face it makes various annoying noises that you can't turn off. Don't download you'll end up deleting it
Q
by Q####:
by Q####:
I guess it might be able to program you to search for happy faces, but I think it's more effective with memorizing these specific faces. Could've included a way to add more faces.
A
by A####:
by A####:
Great app. It would be nice to see this open sourced and uploaded to GitHub. Would be happy to work on it and bring its look in keeping with Material Design.
Q
by Q####:
by Q####:
Good app, but please let me turn sound off or down
B
by B####:
by B####:
Totally agree re the noises. What is the ker-ching one for anyway?
R
by R####:
by R####:
Every time you click a face it makes various annoying noises that you can't turn off. Don't download you'll end up deleting it
R
by R####:
by R####:
Fun app. Could do with the ability to change the photos.
O
by O####:
by O####:
It needs a better set of photos. Most of the happy faces are with fake smiles.
L
by L####:
by L####:
I appreciate that is free and it does the job. Nicer with more faces. But still good.
Z
by Z####:
by Z####:
Once you've reached a score of about 100 you notice that you have learned to identify the specific faces and not the general pattern of a happy face which kind of defeats the purpose. In the beginning when you haven't learned to identify all the faces it probably does a decent job though, the question is if it is enough (probably not).
Z
by Z####:
by Z####:
Good app, but please let me turn sound off or down
Z
by Z####:
by Z####:
Enjoyable. Good for positive energy
C
by C####:
by C####:
Never crashes and I like that you can see a graph of your progress, however it seems impossible to turn the popping and cheering noises off without adjusting my whole phone's media volume - would be good to have an option for this, as I find the noises very off putting!
C
by C####:
by C####:
Plz improve it. Graph is not traced after practice
F
by F####:
by F####:
My only wish is , I would like to be able to turn off the in-app sounds, which I find annoying.
Z
by Z####:
by Z####:
Excellent app. My daughter loves playing it.
M
by M####:
by M####:
Was recommended this by a friend. Haven't watched the horizon program yet but will try to soon. Good app
M
by M####:
by M####:
Nice little app.
U
by U####:
by U####:
Good wholesome fun :)
M
by M####:
by M####:
After watching the BBC programme I was intrigued and while I'm on the fence as to whether it works or not, I found the app does a decent enough job, is free and more importantly unlike some of the other apps that do the same thing is not just a front for the full paid version.
by U####:
Something I noticed is that some of the happy faces aren't that happy, actually. They may have social smiles, but they aren't all Dushene smiles - i.e. Involving the eyes as well as the mouth. And some of the neutral smiles are actually pretty happy looking. There is such a difference between a genuine smile and a social smile-for-the-camera kind of smile.