Designed for the casual drinker who wants to cut down on their alcohol intake, these user-friendly sober apps and alcohol trackers are all available on Apple App Store and Google Play.
1. Less
If you want to cut back on your alcohol intake, this is a user-friendly, impartial and motivational way to set drinking limits for the casual drinker. You can select your goals (drink less, know how much you drink, aim for more drink free days, and cope with social situations), nominate how many drinks you normally consume in a week, and set the weekly limit you’d like to achieve. From here, Less allows you to track your drinking with easy to view stats that not only look at consumption, but how much money you’re saving, and the reduction in your calorie intake. It’s all done with a nifty and non-confrontational sailing narrative: “Stay within your limits for smooth sailing” says the opening message: your daily intake is reflected through weather forecasts, while your weekly intake affects the speed of your boat.
2. Better Without
This is a fairly new app, so not all the features were up and running at the time of writing. But it promises to be a handy tool to keep in your pocket. Better Without bills itself as a place for happy drinkers. What it actually is, is a product finder and review service. You can enter your drinking preferences and location, and then the app will show you the non alcoholic brand options available in your country. The “Places” function will eventually list establishments that stock the product you’re looking at.
3. Reframe
No expense spared here: neuroscience, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, premium content, and expert coaching has all been packaged up into one whizz bang wellness app. The focus here is on using a scientific approach to unlock a healthier and happier you. Features of the Reframe App include daily tasks, digital journaling, challenges to keep you motivated, mindfulness tools and a personalised progress tracker. The visuospatial and resilience games that support craving management sound pretty interesting. They say there’s a community aspect to the app too but we suspect this is more of a solo resource. If the way they position statements and questions in their Instagram posts is anything to go by, it certainly sounds like a clean and simple way to neutralise any messy emotions that alcohol might raise and turn them into practical ways to re-wire your thinking and actions.
4. Loosid
Hello Millenials. This sober community might be for you. It’s an app-based network of individuals who want to throw off this idea that sober is boring. There’s mention of addiction and recovery in some of the literature (we’re not covering resources for this purpose so if you require support for alcohol dependency please seek advice from experts, not us!), but we’ve included these guys here because it focuses on the present, not your past history. There’s chat groups, sober dating connections, video check-ins on their Instagram, and discussion about timely topics like pandemic drinking (that’s a thing). Loosid App also offers boozeless guides and encourages conversation so the cultural shift around drinking can move forward. Check out their stigma-busting 3 fingers challenge.
5. Daybreak
Ok, this app is a little more intense. It’s been developed by Hello Sunday Morning, an Australian based non-profit health service that helps all sorts of drinking types to change their relationship with alcohol. After downloading the app, there’s a series of multiple choice questions to answer about drinking habits and mood, but don’t be deterred. It actually gets you thinking about stuff that we normally ignore, leading to more conscious drinking habits. Once you’ve entered your data, you get anonymous access to a progress tracker, a care navigation system (if you need some extra motivation from experts), experiments or challenges that you can undertake to practice your resolve, and a community chat group where you can glean insights from other people’s journeys. The Daybreak App and Hello Sunday Morning were both created by an ex-club promoter who is now on a mission to encourage the world to question its approach to drinking so we can all feel better.
While you're on your phone, take a look at these awesome sober curious Instagram accounts we found.
Image courtesy of Social Cut