A couple of months ago, I was in a summer slump.

I just couldn’t find an outlet for my feelings of hopelessness and lack of motivation. I couldn’t afford therapy either. That’s when I spotted an ad for Sayana on Instagram, which markets itself as “the emotional self-care guide”. It was colorfully designed, with a drawing of a smiling, short-haired girl in a hoodie. Soft and approachable. So I decided to give it a try.

Sayana is your AI therapist. The whole app is set up to make you feel calm and at ease, from the drawings to the sweet tinkling music. In the free version, each day you log in and talk to Sayana. She’s programmed to talk to you like a real therapist.

At first, it was exciting in its novelty. Sayana’s responses seem realistic enough, like she was listening, understanding, and giving substantive responses. But over time, the questions and the advice seemed really repetitive. For instance, she asks a lot and often about how my emotions are tied with parts of my body. That doesn’t really make any sense to me, and doesn’t jive with how I’m feeling.

The advice is sometimes pretty interesting, and easy enough to implement. It definitely rings of cognitive behavioral practices. There’s just isn’t enough around the advice to remind me or motivate me to implement it.

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I also put Sayana through the “ideal app” test I mention in an earlier post.

Well-researched? Nope.

I couldn’t find much about who created Sayana, but the nonprofit PsyberGuide reports that there is “no direct scientific research on the effectiveness of Sayana.”

Transparent? Yep.

The privacy policy was surprisingly short and easy to read. It tells users what information they collect, how it’s used, and where it will go. I also like this feature:

Access and data portability: You may request details of the personal information that we hold about you. You may request a copy of the personal information we hold about you. Where possible, we will provide this information in CSV format or other easily readable machine format. You may request that we erase the personal information we hold about you at any time. You may also request that we transfer this personal information to another third party.

Keeps me coming back? Nope.

Overall, the interactions started to feel superficial, not to mention short. You get a week’s worth of “original” sessions before you have to pay $9.99 a month. Sure, that’s way cheaper than therapy, but I wasn’t satisfied with the taste I got to want more.

My experience with the free version left a lot to be desired. I didn’t come away feeling better or more attuned with my feelings. And really, I would have been better off just journaling my feelings everyday. So, Sayana is an app that snagged a skilled graphic designer, but little else.