reviewing kooth’s new app “soluna”
Hi everyone, Jamie Cramb here. I am back (Happy New Year), this is my first blog back right after the Christmas holidays and my first blog of 2026.
Today’s blog is going to be about Kooth: an online mental health and wellbeing service for young people. They are developing a new app that we got to have a look at called “Soluna”. Also, I know I am already getting side tracked but I really like the name, it sounds fresh. Anyways… the Creative Stirling Volunteer Group and I got to check out Kooth’s new prototype and have our thoughts on the new app: what are the pros/cons, what we like about the app, what could be done differently, and what could be improved. Sarah and Kerry have joined us to run the session, and I am writing this before the presentation begins. I am pretty excited for this review and giving thoughts on a new app for young people to use. Now you can go down a bit and read my review! Here are my thoughts on Soluna.
After Presentation
So, now let’s start with the good. To start off, I love the space theme they are going with for Soluna, it gives off a peaceful environment and leaves you in comforting thoughts. Here’s another plus, I like how they have topic options you can select based on what you need help/advice on, like relationships and anxiety. I think that’s a great feature to have, so you can find information to suit your needs, and the person you are talking to knows what you’re seeking support with (or at least that’s how I think it could work).
There will also be a tutorial to run you through Soluna when you first download the app, helping you get the hang of the app and it’s features. There is also going to be 1-5 minute messaging sessions. I kind of liked the star board section you can create scribbles or create something out of stars, but (why I said kind of) is that it goes away after a few seconds. I wish there would be an option too keep it so that it doesn’t go away.
A thing I didn’t really like was the bubble part. Nothing really wrong with it, it’s just a tap the screen let go make a bubble to release a troubling thought in your mind. I just wished that you could write in the bubble on what you are worried, so you could see it float away. Maybe a bit of a missed opportunity, which is why it’s great we got to share our feedback and ideas.
Here’s a positive- there’s a chart of high energy or low energy, and unpleasant or pleasant thoughts/feelings, where you can check in on how you are feeling and below it will ask what is contributing towards those feelings. For example, school, work, family and much more. There’s a rabbit (or should a say space bunny) character who seems to be some sort of guide while you’re using Soluna, but he doesn’t really do much… and I feel that he doesn’t really need to be there.
The app age rating will be around 10 till 26, and for people asking whether it would be suitable for their age, in my opinion, yeah! Especially those coming into adulthood. While I have critiqued it a bit during my review, this still during its early stages and I can see they have worked hard on the app. It’s great they are running sessions with young people to get their feedback and make improvements based on their opinions. Overall, I think Soluna is a great thing for young people and good way to help improve the mental health and wellbeing of young people. Having somewhere you can go to check in on your mood, get tips and support every so often to make sure you’re doing ok.
It was great to be involved in the group session. We were all excited to see the app and were very interested in all the things the app had to offer. Everyone involved was taking notes about the pros and cons about Soluna, so here are some points I found good from the volunteers:
Thoughts of personal information/genders/preferred names
Sign-posting to support organisations
Dyslexia friendly (colours/text)
Easily accessible
Nice relaxing colour scheme
Like I said, they are really working hard on this and are looking to use young people’s views to improve Soluna and make it even better. I hope that everything goes well. I really like Soluna, and I would recommend it when it comes out (hopefully soon), and I for one will definitely be downloading it.
Thanks for reading!
Jamie.