How an app about a cartoon bird is helping me be a better person

Three weeks ago, I hatched a baby bird named Blueberry. And what a journey it’s been since. Blueberry has grown up into a toddler and discovered that they really like Baby Shark. They also love bread and corn (but aren’t a fan of cherries). Blueberry goes on daily adventures to learn more about the world and is accompanied by their friend Oakley — a baby kernel who wants to grow into a strong tree one day. At night, Blueberry returns home so they can rest up for their next big adventure.

No, I’m not trying to pitch the next great Pixar movie. This is what I’ve been doing in an Android app called Finch.

Earlier this month, my partner stumbled across Finch, downloaded it for themselves, and asked me to join it — primarily so they could unlock an in-app reward for referring someone. So, like any good spouse would do, I downloaded the app, created an account, and my partner got their reward. Initially, I thought that’s where my time with Finch would start and end.

But fast forward a few weeks later, and Finch has become an app I interact with multiple times per day. I’m using it to build healthy habits, reflect on my thoughts, and — ultimately — make myself a better person.

At its core, Finch is a fairly simple habit tracker/routine builder. When you first download the app, the onboarding process contains a lot of the stuff you’d probably expect. You’re asked to indicate things like how long you usually sleep and whether you have difficulty waking up in the morning. There are also questions about areas you want support with and what areas of life you struggle with — with follow-up questions/prompts based on your answers.

When you’re done, you get a starter plan with suggested habits to focus on each day. After I set up the app, some of my recommended goals included flossing my teeth each day, drinking water, having a daily stretch break, and doing one thing that makes me happy.

You can also add your own goals, either based on suggestions in the app or ones you create from scratch. You can set up goals to repeat, what time you want to be notified about them, how many times per day you want to do that goal, and so on. If you’ve ever used any other habit or routine app, this should all be pretty familiar.

If that’s the case, what makes Finch so special? While the ultimate goal is the same as other apps — creating and sticking with healthy habits — how Finch presents all of this makes it different from everything else.

A significant part of the Finch onboarding process involves hatching your Finch egg to get your baby bird. You give it a color, a name, and a personality trait — such as curiosity, compassion, logic, etc.

As you complete your habits/goals, each one boosts your bird’s daily energy. Once you reach your maximum energy for the day, your bird goes on an adventure through Finchie Forest — and about six hours later — comes back with a discovery to share with you. These adventures help your baby bird grow and discover things they like/dislike.

The more you stick with your goals each day, the more adventures your bird goes on. The more adventures your bird goes on, the more it grows up and learns about the world around it. It’s a pretty simple loop, but it’s one that hooked me instantly. There’s certainly a gamification element to the whole thing (which does help), but a large part of what makes Finch so endearing and rewarding is simply how charming it is.

The bird design itself is perfect, and being able to dress it up in a variety of clothes is icing on the cake. You can customize your bird’s house with an assortment of furniture and wallpaper designs. You also get to choose a small “micropet” for your bird to adventure with — and you regularly hatch new ones as you go on more adventures. Right now, I have Oakley the Kernel and Aurora the Arctic Fox.

If you ever want to further customize your Finch bird, a handful of shop vendors let you do just that — and you earn credits to buy new things as you complete your goals. You can buy additional clothes from Mr. Prickles, new furniture from Robin, and extra bird colors from Da Finci. You can tap on your bird while they’re adventuring to hear them whistle, and if you want to give them a pet, just scratch their head or tummy at any time. There are endless layers of adorableness everywhere you look, and it never fails to put a smile on my face.

The best part about all of this is that it works. Although I’m a little under a month into my time with Finch, I’m sticking with my goals better than with other apps I’ve tried. I want to see my little Blueberry learn new things. I want to be there to help them grow up (and dress them in cute clothes, too). It may sound silly and juvenile, but it’s so rewarding to progress through the app like this. And the whole time you do, you establish good habits to make you a better and healthier person.

There’s one other key component to Finch, which may be the most important one. As much as Finch is a habit-tracking app, it’s also a self-care app. The more you use Finch to work on your habits, the more it asks you to reflect on your feelings.

When you open the Finch app throughout the day, you’re asked to indicate your outlook for the day ahead, how you feel in the afternoon, and your overall satisfaction at the end of the day. If you select a low mood for any of these prompts, Finch shows a First Aid button with recommended tasks to lift you up — such as writing down the emotions you’re feeling, repeating affirmations, or practicing anxiety breathing.

Finch also regularly provides opportunities to write reflections on your day and, if you’d like, to dig deeper into those reflections. If you mention certain topics or people, Finch saves those so you can see how they positively (or negatively) impacted you. It also offers goal suggestions based on them. For example, after writing a reflection about a nice day with my partner, Finch recommended bringing up a fond memory with them or sharing a song I think they’d like.

As someone who often forgets about putting my mental health and self-care first, little check-ins and reminders like this are greatly appreciated. It’s often enough just to have Finch ask me how I’m doing and let myself be honest about how I’m feeling — whether good or bad. It may not be the most exhaustive approach to self-care, but the regularity and ease-of-use has worked for me. Combined with some of my self-care-focused goals — such as washing my face daily or stopping to take a few deep breaths — I’m thinking about my health and well-being more than ever.

Finch won’t be for everyone. Some people may find the app too cutesy, the habit-building tools not extensive enough, or the self-care components not quite what they’re looking for. It’s often said that mental health isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach, and that’s also true of the apps and tools we use to help with that.

For me, Finch has quickly become a perfect tool for building positive habits, focusing more on my mental health, and making small changes throughout the day to ensure I’m living a good life and taking care of myself. It’s obviously up to me to stick with it, but after about a month of using the app, I’m no less motivated than I was on day one to keep things going. I’m journaling almost every day, taking time away from my computer to stretch while I work, and — even though I still hate it — I’m flossing my teeth more regularly than I have in years.

Simultaneously, I’ve been thinking about my mental health more than ever. Thanks to the combination of the healthy habits I’m working on, plus Finch’s regular mood check-ins, I’m in tune with how I’m doing and whether I’m having a good, meh, or bad day — and taking steps to better myself if I’m feeling down.

As goofy as it might be to admit, that darn little Blueberry has played no small part in why I’ve stuck with Finch the way I have. I look forward to the end of each day when Blueberry tells me about what exciting new thing they’ve discovered. I love getting them a fun new shirt or wallpaper for their house. Helping Blueberry grow up just makes me feel good, and it plays hand-in-hand with the app’s habit-building and self-care goals, too.

Finch is available as a free download for your Android phone now, and whether you want to seriously work on building new habits — or you just want to care for an adorable cartoon bird — I can’t recommend it enough.