If you are curious about using virtual reality for meditation apps, this post can provide answers to the main questions you may have: the essential features of a VR mindfulness app, VR meditation app development process, and even a possible cost of building a VR meditation app.

 

As a VR and AR development company, Onix can tell you how to increase your app’s revenue by implementing VR. Onix has developed both VR and non-VR meditation apps, specifically, InnerVR which enjoys great ratings and reviews on Meta Store. With this example, Onix can show how a successful VR meditation app should be built.

 

InnerVR is a meditation and relaxation game for Oculus Quest 2. It combines guided mindfulness sessions in beautiful virtual worlds with activities that help players relax and unwind. 

 

If you decide to build a VR meditation app like this with Onix, it may cost around $245,000 and take more than 7,015 man-hours for Beta. 

 

Further in this article, you can learn what makes this amount. 

A screenshot of the InnerVR meditation app developed by Onix

 

If you have any questions about virtual reality meditation app development or are looking for experts for your project, please don’t hesitate to contact Onix!

The Key Components of a VR Meditation App

Virtual reality meditation app development begins with the understanding of its structure.

 

A VR meditation system comprises two levels: the scenarios/curriculum and the virtual environment. 

 

A scenario determines what users can do in virtual reality and what can happen there. For example, InnerVR Beta, built by Onix, offers several types of meditations built around topics like “Body Meditations” or “Morning Move.”

 

During interactive meditations, players use their controller and feel haptics, for instance, when they create a Sound Bath in a virtual Japanese garden or catch fish during the Tropical Beach mindfulness practice.

A screenshot of the Tropical Beach meditation in InnerVR built by Onix

 

In a meditation learning app (you can learn about VR meditation app use cases at the end of this article), the curriculum is a series of lessons on the technical and philosophical foundations of meditation. Curriculum elements may include:

 

• Review of a previous lesson, motivations, and the benefits of practice
• Explanations of new techniques or building on previously learned techniques
• Animations and images to reinforce concepts
• Tooltips or voice instructions
• A virtual teacher with presence and personality
• Short talks on meditation concepts and personal practice
• Simulated group meditation and dialogue with virtual teacher and peers
• Task-level assignments between VR meditation sessions

 

A virtual environment, in which the scenarios or lessons unfold, generally comprises:

 

1. a visual experience
2. an audio experience
3. interactivity

 

Virtual simulation elements may include, but not be limited to:

 

Menu

Users need a menu or interface to choose their desired meditation type, environment, theme, mood, music genre, session duration, difficulty level, and other ways of personalizing their experience.

 

They should also be able to adjust the volume, brightness, or graphics quality. The interface may also display the user’s meditation statistics, levels, and other indicators that motivate users to maintain their mindfulness habits.

A screenshot of InnerVR’s menu created by Onix’s VR specialists

 

Spaces

In the chosen virtual environment, a user can look around by moving their head and using controllers or hand gestures to interact with it. They can either follow the instructions or do their own thing. Below you can see some of the virtual worlds developed by Onix for InnerVR.

 

 

A video of the InnerVR meditation VR app built by Onix

  

Visual learning aids

Diagrams and visual aids can model users’ behavior and provide clarity. For example, illustrations of meditation posture display the correct positioning of the legs, back, neck, and hands. Numbers facilitate breath-counting techniques and guide users as they learn to meditate independently. An hourglass may subtly help users track time. 

 

Interactions

The virtual environment should engage users with interactive elements, such as “mindful objects” they can manipulate to practice mindful observation, which should generate visual, auditory, or tactile feedback.

 

It’s helpful to have users evaluate their mood at the beginning and their experience and state of mind at the end of each meditation session. This would enable the app to offer personalized sessions next time and track the user’s dynamics.

An example of interaction – lighting lanterns during a meditation in InnerVR made by Onix

 

Growth and progress tracking

The app may visualize the user’s progress through meditation sessions or from lesson to lesson. It can use surveys, biofeedback, and gamification to quantify the user’s progress. These means provide users with positive reinforcement for their practice without judging their experience or relying on real-time metrics to track their progress.

 

For example, InnerVR made by Onix counts Mindful Energy generated by players. (Biofeedback refers to electrical monitoring of body functions like heart rate variability, diaphragm expansion, blood pressure, etc., received from wearable biosensors or a computer.) 

 

Virtual instructor or guide

The simplest way is to pre-record a teacher’s narration of a guided session or a whole curriculum, much like in the Calm meditation app. A voice personified with an animated body, face, identity, and backstory creates a more realistic and personable learning experience.

 

In InnerVR, which was made by Onix, this role is filled by Mortimer – a cute alien who welcomes new users, explains how they can travel to InnerVR worlds and complete meditations, and runs them through a daily feelings check-in.

An example of a virtual instructor – InnerVR’s Mortimer created by Onix’s 3D artists

 

Social support

Peers can be a source of motivation, community, and support when learning and practicing meditation.

 

Virtual experiences may include characters that accompany the user on their journey, “group meditations” with other simulated meditators, scripted dialogue between virtual learners and teachers addressing common challenges, and other interactions with simulated characters. It’s also possible to enable real-time communication.

 

Read also: Meetings in Virtual Reality: the Future of Work & Collaboration

 

Gamification elements

Gamification features may include rewards earned through performing breathing exercises and other tasks, multi-day challenges to build mindfulness skills, digital gifts that encourage users to stick with their meditation routine, and more.

An example of gamified actions in InnerVR made by Onix

 

Read also: How to Make a VR Game

 

Other auxiliary features of a VR meditation app for users may include:

 

• Login/Signup enabling users to create a new account or log into their existing account using their email or social media profiles
• User profile, where users can add personal information like gender, age, preferences, current mental state, upload their photo, etc.
• Multi-user interactive experiences 
• Scheduling and reminders allow users to set a time for mediation and receive scheduled notifications through a companion app
• In-app payments for unlocking content or other digital goods
• Customer support enables users to raise their concerns

 

Along with virtual reality, your product may leverage additional technologies:

 

• A connected mobile app can facilitate content selection, online payments, meditation scheduling, reminders, mood and progress tracking, online networking, and more. Push notifications can remind users about scheduled meditation sessions, assignments, achievements, or benefits of regular meditation.

 

Moreover, the app may guide meditation and relaxation sessions, breathing exercises, and other mindfulness activities in place of VR sessions, e.g., when a VR headset is out of reach.

 

• Artificial intelligence (AI) can help personalize and enhance meditation experiences by recommending content most likely to match the user’s current mood, goals, or preferences or popular with similar users.

 

• A custom VR meditation app can integrate various biofeedback devices to monitor metrics like heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), breathing rate and patterns, brain states, and galvanic skin response, providing actionable feedback on the user’s nervous system. For instance, an in-app indicator can guide users to an optimal breathing rate.

 

The system can also issue alerts for sudden changes to their state and quantify their meditation skill development. However, biometric devices can be costly and require specific expertise. This makes biofeedback-driven systems more suitable for healthcare facilities.

 

 

The system must also include a panel for administrators to manage the VR meditation app. The admin functionalities should include the following:

 

• Multiple logins for the admins to log in through their IDs
• Content management system enabling admins to view, add, and delete recorded guided meditation sessions, audio tracks, and videos, manage meditation categories, determine free and paid content, limit, and grant access to content to users, etc.  
• Session tracking with indicators of the number of sessions viewed, user engagement, users’ preferences, and similar information that can help you improve the user experience
• Management of users, notifications, etc.
• Management of subscriptions, pricing, in-app purchases, etc.
• Dashboard, reports, and analytics to understand user behavior, sales, purchasing patterns, users’ pain points, opportunities, etc.
• Survey editor and ability to send customer surveys and view and analyze customer responses

 

Now, let’s take a look at the major stages of VR meditation app development.

 

VR Meditation App Development in 5 Steps

Developers and entrepreneurs may proceed through the following project phases.

 

1. Research and analysis.

This step, also called the project discovery phase, is about understanding your business goals, the end-users' needs, the market, and the competition.

 

 

Suppose you are going to create a VR meditation application for a particular organization. In that case, you need to formulate the business problem or problems and how VR-powered meditation can solve them.  

 

In the case of a commercial VR meditation app development, you need to determine the target audience. For example, you may segment people battling the adverse effects of stress, such as healthcare professionals, college students, or teenagers, or target all of them.

 

In any case, it will be beneficial to know the future users’ characteristics like age, gender, location, income level, education, etc. For instance, the organization’s available budget or consumers’ preferences may determine the choice of the platform for your VR-based meditation app development. 

 

Whether an internal project or a commercial product, it’s necessary to learn

 

• the future app users’ goals, expectations, and preferences in using VR meditation apps 
• whether they want to relax, energize, learn, or have fun
• what type of virtual environments they prefer (realistic, fantasy, nature, geometry, etc.)
• whether they need guided or unguided meditation
• what session length is preferable/optimal 
• how they would customize their VR experiences

 

… and more. Surveys, interviews, and observation of users’ interactions with existing software will be extremely helpful. If your VR meditation app is also intended for instructors, you need to obtain the same information from them.

 

In any case, we recommend engaging meditation instructors and even mental health practitioners as early as the discovery stage. Mental health apps designed with clinician involvement are reportedly twice as efficient as apps created without such assistance.

 

It’s best to recruit meditation experts with years of teaching and expertise covering many meditation methods through referrals from local meditation classes, yoga studios, and monasteries.

An example of a meditation space, part of InnerVR, designed by Onix

 

Such experts will help you

 

• understand users’ expectations throughout the meditation learning journey
• identify affective and physical needs to address
• create a curriculum, if applicable
• identify meditation success criteria and benchmarks
• design effective virtual environments for your product 

 

Next, explore leading VR meditation products and find those that meet most of the above requirements or that you would like to emulate.

 

Analyze each one’s features, the number and quality of the virtual environments and meditations, the volume of the storage space it requires, its advantages over competitors, any disadvantages and defects, etc. Read reviews and ratings, publications, research, etc.

Analyze each competitor’s business model and monetization methods, evaluate the free and paid features and content, and compare prices.

 

VR meditation app developers can choose from several monetization methods:

 

• One-time payment. For instance, the ZenVR app can be downloaded for $39.99. Unfortunately, consumers may be reluctant to pay up-front for a product they haven’t tried. Moreover, you will miss out on recurring revenue from subscriptions and in-app purchases.

 

• Subscription model. For instance, TRIPP offers a popular demo session for free to engage users, after which membership plans ($9.99 per month or $39.99 per year) unlock the full catalog of content. 

 

• Freemium upsell. You can also enable users to access a free version of the app with several standard meditation themes for a limited time. A basic subscription plan will grant access to more themes and options, and users will need to buy credits to unlock premium content and services.

 

To summarize your research and analysis, you need to describe the future application and list its functionalities, content types, individual VR meditation scenarios and environments, user success criteria, etc., in a single document. It’s typically called a project specification and is an invaluable asset at subsequent stages of your VR meditation app development.

 

 

 

2.Technical team assembly and decisions.

You can complete your VR meditation app development in-house, hire freelancers or an external dedicated team, or outsource the project to an offshore VR and AR development company like Onix for greater savings.

 

Your minimal app development team is likely to include:

 

• 3D tech artist
• VR developer
• Project manager

 

Learn more: How to hire developers for VR and AR projects

 

 

Tech specialists will select the programming languages and tools to build your VR meditation applications and estimate the timeline and cost of your VR meditation app development.

 

For example, Onix’s developers highly recommend Unity. If you intend to run your experience on Oculus Quest headsets, Unity’s integrated XR plugin management with Oculus VR plugin support will be another good choice. Unity also facilitates quick prototype development.

 

Read also: Onix at the Global Game Jam: Creating a Game with Unity in a Week

 

Experienced software developers will likely advise you to start small, with a minimum viable product (MVP) or even a proof of concept (PoC) to validate your mindfulness program ideas and evaluate real users’ responses to your future product. It means developing an interface and 1-2 virtual spaces where the 3D artists and VR developers can realize your ideas.

 

This way, you will be able to build and test your VR meditation app quickly and at minimum cost instead of developing a whole curriculum-based application only to find out that users dislike your approach to aesthetics or exercises suggested by your consultants.

 

 

 

3. Prototype design and development.

The design process for the VR prototype should be informed by a preliminary understanding of the target audience’s needs and educator approaches.

 

Using the specifications, the team can start by drawing a simple sketch of the best meditation experience you envisioned.

 

For example, our client Jimmy Gambier, the Founder and CEO of InnerVR, had started with a peaceful scene in a valley village. He began to develop the VR environment independently, but performance, lighting issues, and bugs soon became a problem.

 

Mr. Gambier then requested Onix team to take a look and optimize the project. An audit revealed more severe issues, after which the client agreed to develop the system from scratch.

 

Eventually, eight more environments (“Worlds”) were added, and currently, the app enjoys great reviews on the Meta Quest store.

An example of an InnerVR environment – a Japanese Zen garden – designed by Onix

 

Technically, the creation of an environment, such as a landscape, implies the following:

 

• Importing the necessary assets

 

• Creating the terrain, e.g., a plain, mountains, etc.

 

• Adding textures, such as sand, grass, rocks, trees, etc.

 

• Adding water, sky, and lighting

 

• Post-processing to increase the visual quality of the scene, adding color grading and other features

 

• Integrating the graphics into a VR project

 

• Adding sound effects, music, or narration

 

• Adding interactivity

 

 

Even when creating the prototype, remember that it will be the consumers’ first impression of your product. Thus, VR meditation app design best practices should apply. For instance:

 

• The user interface, which may require controllers or voice commands to operate, must be intuitive and convenient.

 

• The design of meditation and learning environments should leverage users’ prior notions about meditation, conceptual frameworks, and metacognition.

 

• The first meditation in VR may be a novel enough experience, especially for meditation beginners. Anticipate their physical, cognitive, and emotional needs and provide suggestions and encouragement to alleviate them.

 

• The design of a dedicated space may exploit popular notions around meditation and cues from spaces typically devoted to meditation, such as Zen rooms or temples. Objects associated with meditation, such as candles, artwork, or calm natural surroundings simulate real-world signals of safety, anchor the user, and help them settle into a meditative mindset.

 

• Keep novelty in the environment low for new meditation learners. More everyday elements and settings can help ease the transition from real life to VR and back.

 

• It’s best to limit the meditation session time to 15-30 minutes.

 

• Dynamic elements make VR experiences more realistic and immersive.

 

• Sounds like soft rainfall, rustling leaves, or chirping birds enhance presence and trigger positive emotions and memories, inducing relaxation and contentment.

 

• Users are also likely to appreciate the variety of the changing weather even within one meditation session’s environment.

 

• Still, it’s best to minimize distractions of visually rich environments and avoid distracting associations with users’ daily lives and stressors.

 

• Use visual and audio cues to guide meditations and implement instruction strategies. For instance, visual aids like breath counting numbers promote engagement and focus.

 

• While visualized metrics help regulate the physiological elements of meditation, their mere presence may cause users to focus on them as indicators of success and start judging their mindfulness practice.

 

• Dimming the “lights” in the virtual space (but not turning them off) creates a relaxing atmosphere, eases eye strain, and allows users to maintain their presence in a dedicated space with open eyes.

An example of a darker meditation space designed by Onix for InnerVR 

 

4. Prototype testing and evaluation.

At this step, your task is to expose the VR meditation application prototype to potential users, experts, and stakeholders to evaluate its strengths, shortcomings, and market potential.

 

Before user testing, the technical team should debug the software, run it on multiple calibrated and adjusted VR headsets (if needed), and optimize performance for a smooth VR experience so that the first users can concentrate on the proper meditation in VR instead of technical issues.

 

At this stage, 15-30 individuals will suffice to test the app’s first version. Before testing, you need to evaluate the users’ levels of stress, sadness, anger, or other indicators you focus on. 

 

Observe the users’ interactions with the VR prototype and collect user data from the application and biosensors (if applicable). After that, ask users to complete surveys and evaluate their mental state. Surveys and interviews should help you learn at least

 

• whether users have learned a specific meditation technique
• what factors facilitated or hindered their meditation
• the role of structured instruction, virtual instructor, or peers
• users’ overall perceptions of the VR experience

One of InnerVR’s virtual spaces (“Worlds”) developed by Onix

 

When it comes to evaluating biofeedback-based meditation, HRV, and diaphragm expansion are some of the most straightforward indicators of a user’s physical condition. A lower HRV suggests a need for further recovery and relaxation, while a higher HRV signals a relaxed physiological state.

 

Discuss the users’ responses and overall experiences with them and with meditation experts and stakeholders. Any concerns voiced by them should help you improve the final product.

 

5. Product improvement, final testing, and publication.

Based on the prototype testing results and collected feedback, the team should complete the VR meditation app with improved and new scenarios, environments, interactions, functionalities, and other elements that can make the product more user-friendly, useful, and competitive.

 

Users generally dislike super-consistent and serious experiences. It’s best to introduce various meditation methods for different needs to help users develop personal preferences.

 

For a consumer VR relaxation app, it primarily means building more virtual spaces, each with special activities, features, background music, and ambient noise, for users to choose or attend in a specific order. For instance, for InnerVR, Onix’s specialists created eight more Worlds:

 

• a spaceship, the game’s starting location where users access the Main Menu, meet Mortimer, and later track their meditation progress
• a tropical beach with day-light and night-setting scenarios
• a mountain lake village on a summer night
• a mountain village
• four Japanese locations, including a garden and a traditional house

A screenshot of one of InnerVR’s Japanese locations designed by Onix

 

For this project, Onix

 

• created the Stretch library for move meditations

 

• used Amplify, an asset for creating shaders in Unity, to make most of the materials, e.g., the wind effect for the beach scene

 

• utilized Bakery, an asset for baking lightmaps in Unity, to bake lighting throughout the Worlds

 

• used a tool made by our 3D TechArtist that enables developers to create sprites from models right in the Unity scene, with the scene’s lighting, making it hard to tell if there is an object in front of the viewer or just a sprite with that object’s image

 

Optimization was the primary challenge. The client wanted some scenes to comprise plenty of objects. However, rendering large numbers of objects is problematic since InnerVR is essentially a VR application based on mobile hardware.

An example of a relaxing meditation environment designed by Onix for InnerVR

 

A meditation learning application will require the implementation of an entire curriculum. Here are a few tips:

 

• When designing learner-oriented environments, leverage expert strategies to approach and pace meditation skill acquisition and product evaluation. 

 

• The intensity of instructions and guidance should gradually decrease throughout a curriculum as the learners gain experience and confidence. The lesson topics may start from the basics of posture, breath, and attention, gradually introduce new techniques, and allow users to learn their preferred methods.

 

• As the lessons progress, the duration of the meditation sessions may increase, and the instructor’s intervention decrease.

 

Different VR meditation app use cases also require different tests and evaluation criteria. A meditation learning application must be tested in its entirety over a period that allows completing one meditation session per day.

 

Questionnaires following each lesson may include items about the quality of the users’ experience, their perceptions of the design of specific VR experiences, etc. Final user surveys and structured interviews should focus on

 

• whether users have learned, developed, and maintained a regular meditation practice

 

• how they reflect on their meditation learning journeys 

 

• early challenges to adopting meditation practice and how they overcame them

 

• what factors facilitated or hindered their meditation practice

 

• their preferences regarding lesson content and design features

 

• the role of structured instruction, virtual instructor, or peers

 

• the impact of the mindfulness practice

 

You may measure changes in the users’ levels of mindfulness and stress, e.g., using the Mindfulness Awareness Attention Scale (MAAS), Cognitive and Affective Mindfulness Scale-Revised (CAMS-R), or the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS).

 

Paired samples t-tests may help determine whether mindfulness scores on the MAAS and CAMS-R increased and if scores on the PSS decreased after completing your meditation curriculum.

 

VR-assisted treatments can be efficient if they are data-based, scientifically credible, and peer-reviewed. Businesses that aim to enter the market of mental health VR applications need to comply with regulations and conduct clinical studies of the product, such as:

 

• External validation. Mental health apps should be validated by an external body transparently and involve broad audiences of end-users and medical specialists.

 

• Statistical proof of the app’s ability to improve users’ mental health. You must give consumers test-based numbers and scientifically proven statistics.

 

VR experiences shouldn’t adversely affect the users’ emotional state, let alone cause seizures. Although you may observe no such cases during tests, you must still develop instructions and warnings for users to consider before purchasing and using your product. For example:

 

• Some VR experiences may not be suitable for children, pregnant women, and people with a history of seizures or other medical conditions.

 

• Negative emotional experiences are possible in patients with psychosis or PTSD.

 

• Users should better clear any obstacles or hazards around them or use a guardian system to mark their boundaries in the physical world during meditations in VR.

 

• For some meditation techniques, people should rest in a chair, couch, or bed rather than stand up.

 

• Warn the users that while they may become dependent on your VR meditation application, using it (like any other) for too long or too often can cause eye strain, headaches, nausea, dizziness, and other discomforts.

 

• If applicable, warn consumers that your product cannot substitute professional treatment.

 

Before the InnerVR Beta release on the Oculus App Lab store, Onix’s team optimized it to the app store’s standards and prepared the textual and visual content for InnerVR’s page.

 

Suppose you offer early adopters a free trial or a demo version. In that case, you also need to determine the trial length or the selection of content and features that will be available for free before you publish the app on the appropriate app store or your website.

 

 

You will also need to run thoughtful marketing campaigns to raise awareness regarding technology and mindfulness.

 

Once you have a considerable pool of users, analyze user activities, customer reviews, and ratings. These should be taken seriously for future implementation. Surveys will also help reveal issues and most-demanded features so you can improve future iterations of the product or modify it to target new audiences and geographies.

 

How Much Can Virtual Reality Meditation App Development Cost?

The cost of developing a VR meditation app depends on many factors, such as:

 

• the application’s complexity and the number of features
• for which platforms it is being developed
• the quality of the visual content
• the choice of technologies and app integrations, e.g., with biofeedback devices
• whether any lab testing, certifications, and compliance with HIPAA or other applicable regulations are required, etc. 

 

They determine the number of man/hours necessary to complete a project. For example, the development of InnerVR Beta developed by Onix took 7,015 man-hours.

 

Another crucial factor is VR developers’ salaries or hourly rates, which differ from country to country and from agency to agency. 

 

By outsourcing the development to countries with a lower cost of living, such as Eastern Europe or South East Asia, you can negotiate lower rates and save up to half the budget you’d need in the US, Western Europe, or Australia.

Source: Accelerance 

 

For example, 7,000 hours multiplied by Onix’s present rate of $35/hour provides an approximate price tag for a VR meditation app like InnerVR: $245,000.

 

VR Meditation App Use Cases 

Currently, we can distinguish four major areas of virtual reality meditation app development:

 

• Consumer apps for mindfulness practice at home
• VR-assisted meditation learning
• Corporate stress relief programs
• Medical applications

 

Let’s take a look at each type’s specifics, should you decide to create VR meditation applications for those particular purposes. 

 

Relaxation at home

An increasing number of people suffering from stress and anxiety-related problems are going to try and use mobile solutions like Headspace or Calm app and VR experiences for self-guided therapy.

 

VR games that organically incorporate meditation practice can go a long way in attracting and motivating consumers and forming healthy habits.

 

For example, InnerVR built by Onix offers various activities in beautiful virtual settings: lighting a lantern, producing sound waves through Sound Bath activities, or feeding a deer to help players relax and connect with their inner selves. Guided audio and visual meditations are accompanied by soothing music to help users reflect within and get ready for sleep.

 

Read also: Virtual Reality in Entertainment: How VR Is Changing the Industry

 

As players complete meditation sessions, they unlock more worlds and activities. This sustains their interest and helps build a habitual meditation practice.

A screenshot of one of InnerVR’s Japanese locations designed by Onix

 

Users can play the game sitting, standing, or moving around using touch controllers. Move meditations enable players to stretch and move their bodies. 

 

Learn more: How to Implement VR and AR in Fitness in 2024 – Benefits and Use Cases

 

Meditation learning

VR technology is actively applied in education and training, e.g., surgeons training or ship operation simulations.

 

 

Teachers can also use VR experiences to teach deliberate, focused meditation in engaging ways. VR can facilitate education about meditation foundations and impart breathing, attention, and relaxation skills that learners can use beyond Zen rooms.

 

VR has the potential for remote meditation learning as well. Not everyone can attend class with a qualified meditation instructor, let alone spend a fortnight in a remote monastery. New learners often don’t know what they are doing, not sure how they should breathe, or what they should focus on.

 

Even a virtual teacher and visualizations of basic concepts like posture and breath can be immensely helpful.

 

Corporate stress relief programs

Businesses, institutions, and organizations can develop a custom VR meditation app for their employees or members to use on-premises to relax and recharge when needed or to learn and adopt meditation practices, eventually becoming independent of the technology in their daily work.

 

Learn more: Corporate Wellness Software Development Guide

 

Medical applications

Clinical psychologists actively research mindfulness-based interventions. Patients on waiting lists for medical treatment may also turn to mobile healthcare apps and VR experiences as alternative sources of support. Like remote learning apps, healthcare-oriented VR apps can facilitate therapeutic meditation at a user’s own pace anytime and anywhere.

 

Medical app providers employ scientists to work on their VR-based products. These apps use tried-and-tested mediation techniques and may facilitate the treatment of substance abuse disorders, anxiety, pain, and depression and improve the quality of life for cancer patients.

 

 

Biofeedback technologies enable real-time feedback that can be displayed through an in-app interface or companion apps. This allows a more precise evaluation of a user’s initial condition, tracking their progress, improving their meditation experience, and motivating them to continue for better results. Biofeedback-based VR meditation facilitates concentration and emotion regulation and can make meditation easier to learn.

 

Now let’s take a look at some reasons to invest in applications of virtual reality for mental health promotion.

 

Read also: Mental Health App Development: Features, Tech Stack & Cost

 

Reasons for Virtual Reality Meditation App Development in 2024

As poor mental health causes increasing productivity loss and medical expenses worldwide and the lack of access to qualified mental health practitioners persists, healthcare systems and organizations become increasingly interested in technology that can alleviate, at least, less severe mental issues like temporary mental disturbance, overthinking, and work pressure. 

 

Simultaneously, meditation, yoga, Qigong, and other mindfulness activities become increasingly popular as stress relief and anxiety management tools.

 

The demand for meditation apps in the digital health market is surging, with countries like the US and Australia leading the way in adoption and usage. Revenue in the meditation apps market is projected to reach USD 5.11 billion in 2024; the US is expected to generate the highest revenue – USD 1.033 billion. Growing at a CAGR of 8.5%, the global market should hit $7 billion by 2028.

 

This promises opportunities and investments into VR meditation app development as well. The market abounds in mobile and web applications that assist people with their mental health needs. For example:

 

• Mood-tracking apps help users understand and manage their emotional well-being.

 

• Mobile meditation apps have proven effective at reducing anxiety and improving the quality of sleep.

 

• Yoga mobile apps help users practice yoga and meditation anytime and anywhere.

 

• Online patient communities help individuals get emotional support and cope with anxiety and other issues related to their conditions.

 

However, these solutions have apparent limitations when it comes to practicing meditation properly. For example, a small mobile screen and tiny earphones are handy but can’t possibly remove all real-world distractions.

 

That’s where VR technology comes into play. Once a user dons a VR headset, the virtual reality instantly seizes their attention completely. VR technology’s unique capability to create a sense of presence and immersion in various scenery and scenarios unthinkable in real life solves the problems of unfavorable conditions in real life, trouble focusing attention, or lack of motivation.

 

Read also: Traveling Reimagined: AR and VR Business Opportunities in the Travel Industry

 

As vendors continue designing lighter, more comfortable, and affordable autonomous VR headsets and devices, more people may strap them on and meditate anywhere and anytime.

 

Learn more: 5 Best Virtual Reality (VR) Platforms for Game Development

 

The understanding of meditation’s benefits for business, such as more efficient employees, is growing. Universities have also been exploring meditation and mindfulness as avenues for reducing stress and reactivity in student life while encouraging students to prioritize resilience and focus from meditation practice.

 

VR relaxation experiences may help reduce stress levels for college students before exams, first-year medical students, and even clinicians working in a high-intensity trauma service.

 

As VR technology advances, VR headsets, and biofeedback devices become more affordable and more effective, and research is ongoing, software developers can also expect a growing demand for therapeutic VR experiences quite soon.

 

Another good news for VR mindfulness app developers is that countries with higher indexes of worry, stress, physical pain, sadness, and anger largely overlap with developed and growing economies. There, both mental health awareness and purchasing power are high, and proper Internet connectivity enables seamless VR experiences.

 

The US, Canada, the UK, many Western European countries, Australia, China, and India are promising markets. The purchasing power is critical as the price of a VR headset and app subscription may be prohibitive for most consumers elsewhere. The penetration of smartphones in those countries also means that with proper marketing, your product’s reach can be huge. 

 

Thus, VR-based meditation app development can be highly beneficial for mental health consumers and other members of the public, therapists, researchers, meditation teachers, organizations, and software developers alike.

 

The Takeaway

VR meditation applications blend age-old meditation techniques with top-notch technology. Computer 3D graphics, sounds, music, narration, haptic feedback, and occasionally biofeedback data create unique experiences that can considerably enhance meditation practice.

 

For example, InnerVR, which Onix’s team helped to build, offers diverse virtual settings and activities that help users recharge daily, making mindfulness a habit.

 

As meditation attracts more and more people for reasons ranging from better self-understanding to pain relief, and increasingly powerful equipment becomes more affordable, more companies and developers will explore the potential of virtual reality for meditation app development.

 

While the global market of healthcare VR is still in its nesting stage, companies that create useful VR meditation applications before anyone else can become unicorns. If you have one on your mind, please don’t hesitate to share your vision with Onix – your reliable partner and guide in the infinite new world!

 

FAQ

 

How to hire VR meditation app developers?

Entrepreneurs seeking to hire VR developers require a combination of software programming, 3D modeling, UI/UX design, video/sound production skills, attention to innovation, and the ability to solve complex problems using the VR’s unique capabilities.

 

When looking for VR developers, it is essential to:

 

• clearly formulate your project requirements and goals
• select a reliable outstaffing or outsourcing agency
• make sure the candidates have successfully completed similar projects
• assess the candidates’ hard and soft skills
• carefully negotiate the project development stages, reporting, communication means, and work schedule

 

How can Onix help me with custom VR meditation app development?

Onix is a VR and AR (augmented reality) development company with a long track record of projects in multiple domains. For example, the InnerVR project shows that we can successfully design and build quality software on time and on budget.

 

Our experts can answer your questions, estimate the product development cost, warn you about possible pitfalls and technical challenges, and suggest solutions.

 

What is Onix's experience in creating meditation apps?

Besides the InnerVR project, Onix also develops meditation mobile and web apps. 

 

For example, Solomiya is an MVP of a mobile app designed to help users who struggle with stress, anxiety, PTSD, insomnia, and related issues after traumatizing events. The free app will provide information, strategies, activities, and other tools to help users get back to their normal selves.

 

Another meditation and mindfulness project, InnerAI, uses AI to craft sessions for each user. Its key features include AI-personalized guided meditations, adaptive content, AI-recommended meditation styles, diverse meditation guides to suit different preferences, and daily health insights to guide each user’s self-care journey.