Snap unveils in-app mental health portal ‘Here For You’ in UAE

Snap has unveiled its in-app mental health portal, ‘Here for You,’ in collaboration with the UAE Digital Wellness Council, to improve the digital wellbeing of people and communities in general.

‘Here for You’ is a Snapchat platform that offers proactive support to Snapchatters who are going through a mental health or emotional crisis, or who want to learn more about these issues and how they may help friends who are going through them.

Amal Al Blooshi, Director of UAE Digital Wellbeing at the Ministry of Community Development, said: “We are pleased to be partnering with Snap Inc. to launch ‘Here for You’ in the UAE, a technical precedent step that promotes the wellbeing of the community members in virtual space and positive digital wellbeing behaviour. The step comes in line with our goals of enhancing digital wellbeing among individuals and the community and encouraging the purposeful use of technology. Through this partnership, we are bringing a resourceful tool that helps Snapchatters in pinpointing some mental health issues they might be facing and consequently addressing them to lead positive lives.”

According to Amal Al Blooshi, the Here For You portal’s launch collaboration will centre on three episodes given by the UAE Digital Wellbeing Council, which will address issues such as encouraging healthy digital citizen values, online privacy tools, and bullying prevention.

Jake Thomas, Head of UAE Market at Snap Inc., said: “We’re honored to be partnering with the UAE Digital Wellbeing Council. Snapchatters appreciate our commitment to privacy and how it allows people to be themselves, without the pressure of being judged by others. ‘Here For You’ was designed to empower our community with resources to help themselves, as well as friends and loved ones. Given that Snapchat reaches over 60% of 13-24-year-olds, and one in three 18-34-year-olds in the UAE, we believe that the most impactful way we can provide support and education for young people is in-app.”

When Snapchatters search common mental health terms like anxiety, depression, or stress on Snapchat, ‘Here for You’ will promote UAE Digital Wellbeing Council resources, which are designed to be easily shared with close friends and family to help support one another through the highs and lows.

Snapchat was built from the ground up to give Snapchatters the freedom to express themselves genuinely. That’s why we didn’t include public vanity metrics like public comments or friend counts, as well as an unmoderated newsfeed, on the platform. We’ve always been inspired by the importance of true friendships in defining one’s health and happiness, especially among young people. We believe Snapchat has a unique chance to make a difference as a platform for close friends, and we’ve designed a set of in-app services and features to help our community.

Snapchatters can access Here For You by following these steps:

• Open the Snapchat mobile app in its most recent version.
• Unless you’re a new user who needs to sign up first, you should be able to see the Camera.
•  Tap the Search button (magnifying glass icon) at the top of the screen. Begin typing in the Search form now.
• To find and subscribe to the feature, type “Here For You,” or type words connected to mental health problems, and Here For You will appear.

Snapchatters can also scan the below Snapcode to access ‘Here For You’: