Mettle: Mental Health for Men app

Mettle is a well-being app with a focus on helping men improve sleep, reduce anxiety, relieve stress, boost motivation and develop better life habits. The app is co-founded by TV personality Bear Grylls, who appears within some of the material. The app also incorporates ideas and expertise from other personalities Paul McKenna and Dr Alex George. These are usually presented in the form of short guided audios or videos, which share an idea or a process to work through.

• The tools (interventions) that are promoted include: Meditation, mindfulness, breathwork, ‘mind-hacking’ (restructuring thinking), hypnosis and daily motivation (inspiring thoughts or ideas).
• When first using the app the you complete a short questionnaire, which calculates a current 'mental fitness' percentage based on 5 areas – happiness, calm/relaxed, energy, growth and sleep.
• Goals can then be set, personlising the interventions recommended and each day new challenges/tools are available to follow. These only take a few minutes to complete and are designed to fit within your daily routine, so are realistic to complete.
• Notifications are recommended so you can be reminded to complete daily interventions that are linked to your goals.
• Progress is monitored with a ‘reward-like’ system to help reinforce achievements.
• There is also an AI chat-bot to check-in with daily, which suggests some additional ‘tools’ to follow, depending on the answers provided by the user.
• The content of the app is grounded in evidence-based research and consistent with ideas shared in cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and mndfulness based therapy. approaches.

For the complete app description go to the app website(external link), Google Play(external link), App Store(external link) or, for a more detailed review, see reviews below.

Clinical review

Reviewer: David Bloore, Clinical Psychologist, Private Practice
Date of review: February 2025
Platform: Android
Version: 2.2.8 (updated 7th Jan 2025)
Comments: This app is potentially a useful tool for men who are wanting to make positive lifestyle changes in a range of different areas of life. It is especially helpful for men who are self-motivated and willing to use the recommended tools regularly and consistently. The app is easy to navigate and provides access to some helpful interventions, such as meditation, mindfulness, breathwork, ‘mind-hacking’ (restructuring thinking), hypnosis and daily motivation (inspiring thoughts or ideas) which, if practiced consistently, will likely offer some positive benefit. I do not think this app will be as helpful for users who have moderate to severe mental health challenges and would recommend other apps/programs which focus more specifically on the disorder they are experiencing. The content of the app is grounded in evidence-based research and consistent with ideas shared in cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and mindfulness based therapy. approaches.
Safety concerns: None.
New Zealand relevance: Yes, although some of the personalities on the app may be less well known than a UK audience.