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Stress Autism Mate (SAM) app

An app to help adults with autism manage daily life stress.
It provides personalised stress-reducing tips in response to your answers to questionnaires that you complete throughout the day.

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Stress Autism Mate (SAM) app	By GGz-Centraal
	Features Diary. Tracking. Reminders. Graphs and reporting.
Country of origin	Netherlands
Clinical review	Read a clinical review below.
Security and privacy	Does the app: Collect medical information? No Require a login? Yes Have password protection? Yes Have a privacy policy? Yes Require internet access to use? No Read more about safety and security when using apps. Brochures: Tips to improve your privacy and security [PDF, 65 KB] Healthify He Puna Waiora, NZ Staying safe online(external link) Netsafe, NZ
Cost	Free
Advertisements	This app contains no ads.
How to get the app	(external link) (external link) (external link)

The Stress Autism Mate app is designed to help you manage daily stress if you have autism spectrum disorder. The core features of the app include:

Stress monitoring: The app prompts you to complete questionnaires 4 times a day at 4-hour intervals. You choose the timing of the first questionnaire and it takes 2 minutes to complete. The questionnaire starts with what activities you've done in the past 4 hours and how you felt during these activities. This is followed by 2 questions about whether you had positive thoughts and felt energised during the past 4 hours. The questionnaire ends with 10 multiple-choice questions about stress signals you've experienced in the past 4 hours.
Stress management: Based on the responses above, the app provides personalised stress-reducing tips based on your location and stress level. The personalised advice consists of stress management tips that you've pre-set: while installing the app, you're asked to select preformulated tips and/or to enter your own personal tips. Examples of general preformulated coping advice are ‘go for a walk,’ ‘do a breathing exercise’ or ‘listen to some music.’
Stress patterns: The app shows daily and weekly overviews of your stress levels and activities.
Journal: The app contains a dairy function for you to record your thoughts or feelings (optional feature)

Considering the specific communication needs for adults with autism, SAM was designed to be easily customised. You can select different sets of colours for the feedback chart (ie, traffic light colours or different shades of blue) and written text or emoticons are available for the questionnaire multi-choice options.

Note, the app is currently available in Danish, German, English, French, Dutch, Ukrainian and Turkish.

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.

PROS	CONS
✔ Easy to use and set up. ✔ Designed for adults with autism with a sensory friendly app interface. ✔ Regularly prompts you to assess your stress level and provides tips based on this. ✔ Shows insight of stress levels across the week based on questionnaire completion and lists of activities that may have made you feel good or bad. ✔ Journal included in the app to allow for recording of thoughts, feelings and any notes. ✔ Has potential to support self-coping skills for stress if used consistently.	✘ You need to know what stress tips work for you to be able to personalise the app. ✘ May potentially increase stress by prompting you with daily questionnaires about stress levels.

PROS

CONS

✔ Easy to use and set up.

✔ Designed for adults with autism with a sensory friendly app interface.

✔ Regularly prompts you to assess your stress level and provides tips based on this.

✔ Shows insight of stress levels across the week based on questionnaire completion and lists of activities that may have made you feel good or bad.

✔ Journal included in the app to allow for recording of thoughts, feelings and any notes.

✔ Has potential to support self-coping skills for stress if used consistently.

✘ You need to know what stress tips work for you to be able to personalise the app.

✘ May potentially increase stress by prompting you with daily questionnaires about stress levels.

Clinical review

Reviewer: Lauren Hill, Speech Language Therapist, Auckland
Date of review: April 2025
Platform: Apple
Version: SAM: 2.1.4193
Comments: The Stress Autism Mate app is easy to use and could be a useful tool to support you to recognise your stress level across the day and use tips to self-manage stress. The insights of stress levels over a week and activities which have been high-stress vs low-stress are useful for understanding stress patterns. If you're experiencing ongoing stress, the app would be best used alongside professional support from a GP, psychologist or other health professional.
Safety concerns: None.
New Zealand relevance: Yes

Autism apps
Autism (takiwātanga)
Consumer guide – how to choose a health app
Clinicians guide – how to choose a health app
New Zealand-based apps
NZ Health App Library

Hoeberichts, K., Roke, Y., Niks, I. et al. Use of a mhealth mobile application to reduce stress in adults with autism: a pre-post pilot study of the Stress Autism Mate (SAM)(external link) Adv Neurodev Disord 7, 268–276 (2023)

Disclaimer: The NZ Health App Library is a free consumer service to help you decide whether a health app would be suitable for you. Our review process is independent. We have no relationship with the app developers or companies and no responsibility for the service they provide. This means that if you have an issue with one of the apps we have reviewed, you will need to contact the app developer or company directly.