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Frequently Asked Questions

UpBeing Support
  • Updated

Frequently Asked Questions

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What is UpBeing?

UpBeing is currently a desktop-friendly web application that seeks to help you improve your life.

Our name, UpBeing, refers to this goal: to up your baseline wellbeing.

Instead of spending hours journaling or tracking your every action, UpBeing passively accepts data from your calendars, wearables, and other technologies that you already use. Our AI then automatically determines the cause and effect relationships between what you do and how you feel, so you can do more of what feels good and less of what doesn’t.

Is UpBeing based on science?

UpBeing is based on several key tenets of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), and incorporates learnings from different fields of research. The most important concept that we’ve built into UpBeing is the idea of behavioural activation. Behavioural activation basically refers to feedback loops. Positive behaviours result in positive moods, which in turn result in more positive behaviours and positive moods. Of course, this also applies to negative states too, so the app is designed to limit negative spirals while encouraging positive ones.

Principles of Emotional Intelligence, Positive Psychology, and Acceptance Commitment Therapy can be found within various features of the app.

UpBeing also works with leading researchers to proactively seek out and conduct research projects in fields such as Applied Psychology, I/O Psychology, Behavioural Economics, Human Factors Engineering, Social Psychology, Cognitive Science, Neuroscience, AI and Deep Learning, among others. This research allows us to stay on the cutting edge, advance critical research that aligns with our mission, and prove that UpBeing has a positive impact on our users’ wellbeing.

Our co-founder, Sean Kortschot, received his PhD in Human Factors Engineering (HFE) from the University of Toronto. Human Factors Engineering is a form of engineering that explicitly considers human psychology and physiology in its designs.

How is UpBeing different from my (other app, wearable, journal)?

Other apps or traditional journals typically require a lot of manual input. Wearables are automatic, but they just tell you what you did; they don’t provide personalized insights that empower you to make meaningful improvements to your wellbeing.

UpBeing provides the best of both worlds, automatically. By passively collecting data that already exists on you, aggregating it, and making relational insights, UpBeing gives you actionable insights that you can use every day.

Do I need a wearable for UpBeing to work?

No, just an e-calendar and check-in data is enough. A wearable can help you get more meaningful insights, but it’s not necessary.

What results can I see from regular use?

By using UpBeing regularly, you can expect to gain a deeper understanding into the hidden patterns in your life that bring you up and down. Using this understanding, we will deliver recommendations on how to change your behaviours to help you get the most out of life.

What data does UpBeing gather?

The only data we gather directly are your responses to check-ins. Check-ins are a way for you to understand and label your emotional state at a given time.

Everything else (such as calendar or wearable data) is collected externally, and you can explicitly opt in to share it with us via connections. In order to see exactly what data each connection provides to UpBeing, you can look at the Scopes section of each individual connection.

What is a check-in?

Check-ins are a way for you to reflect on, understand, and label your emotional state at any given time. Some of our check-ins are designed to prime you for work, while another is designed to help you wind down from a stressful day. Checking-in takes as little as 10 seconds, and ideally will become an important part of your wellbeing routine.

We pair your check-in data with the other data sources you integrate (like calendars or wearables) to make relational insights, uncover the hidden relationships between what you do and how you feel, and ultimately help you improve your life.

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What are you doing with AI/ML?

We are using machine learning to help give you insights that will improve your wellbeing, and train our Emotion Detection and Recognition artificial intelligence. At the moment, our models require your input via check-in data to correlate actions and moods. Long term, when our AI is trained, you won’t need to input anything at all. We’ll be able to accurately predict how your actions are influencing your moods automatically, and then suggest how you can begin to improve your life.

What is Emotion Detection and Recognition?

Emotion Detection and Recognition, or EDR, is the use of technology to determine (and potentially act on) your emotional state. This can be done through the analysis of facial expressions, voice or speech recognition, eye-tracking, biosensing, and more.

UpBeing’s goal is to use machine learning and AI to determine your emotional state from data that is already collected on you, such as calendar or wearable data.

What machine learning models do you use?

UpBeing uses a variety of machine learning methods for understanding how your behaviours and feelings relate to one another. If you're interested in learning about some of the methods in more detail, refer to the links below:

What are you tracking me for? Isn’t tracking bad?

Traditionally, behavioural science on your personal data has been used to sell you more stuff on the internet, or algorithmically addict you to your device. We think this is bad. UpBeing uses the same behavioural science and data, we’re just repurposing it to help you make sense of it and feel better. Rather than having user attention as the key output variable, UpBeing’s output variable is user wellbeing. That’s why the only thing we’re adding data-wise is the check-ins.

In order to do this, the external data (which is already collected on you) that you connect with the app is paired with your check-in data so that our Emotion Detection and Recognition model can find the hidden connections between your behaviours and your moods. Eventually, you won’t need to check in at all to get the same insights.

Isn’t using your phone/wearables/tech/social media proven to be bad for you anyway?

A lot of the existing Emotion Detection and Recognition technology is used to sell you ads or addict you to applications.

We don’t think technology is inherently evil, but it’s pretty well known that device usage (or over-usage) can result in negative mental health outcomes. But how does it affect you specifically? Or what about a particular app? What if there was a way to optimize your usage so that you get the benefits without the negatives?

UpBeing seeks to help each individual understand how their behaviour uniquely affects them. Using UpBeing will allow you to deeply understand the degree to which a particular behaviour either negatively or positively affects you so you can act accordingly.

Fundamentally, we believe there is a way to use technology responsibly and a critical optimal level for all of your behaviour. We help you find that optimal place.

Is my data safe with you?

Yes. UpBeing stores all data on encrypted servers. Personally identifiable information is stripped away from the data wherever possible. And we’ll never sell your data to advertisers.

It is important for us that you know exactly how your privacy and confidentiality is treated. For more information, please see our Privacy Policy.

Where can I find your Terms of Service and Privacy Policy?

Click below to read our:

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How much does it cost?

The private beta of UpBeing is currently free!

When we roll out to a bigger group of users we will begin charging a monthly fee. However, while we recognize that UpBeing is valuable, we also believe access to wellbeing tools and resources should be free and equitable. As such, we will allow any user who needs it to get free access to UpBeing via a bursary program. You may also choose to pay what you can.

How long before I see results?

If you authenticate more than one data source, we can begin identifying patterns in your data as soon as you sign up for the app!

However, we need a little more data to begin associating those patterns with your mood. The dashboard will begin populating when it has a reasonable level of confidence in its findings, which can be in as little as 3 to 4 days. The more you use the app, the quicker and more accurate the results will be!

How often should I use UpBeing?

The more you check in with UpBeing, the better your insights will be. To get reliable results, we encourage at least 3 check-ins per day. This can be done with just the quick reflections that measure your current emotion in just 10 seconds. However, if you want to check-in more frequently, your results will be even better!

Check-ins are also a great way to label your feelings and reflect on your current emotional state, so building a routine around this should not just be easy, but beneficial on its own.

What e-calendars do you support?

We support all e-calendars, with out of the box integrations with Google and Outlook. You can integrate as many calendars from as many accounts as you like. You can then label them by Calendar Type and easily differentiate between work, school, personal, and other calendars.

If you have a different e-calendar provider or are blocked from integrating your calendar for any reason, you can do a one-time manual integration via an .ics link.

You can also use an .ics link to integrate things like the Toronto Maple Leaf’s schedule with your data. Something like this would make sense if sports are an important part of your life and could be impacting your mood.

What wearables do you support?

We support a host of wearables which we integrate through Terra. You can review Terra’s list of integrations here.

We support everything on that list except the Apple Watch. We’re working on integrating with Apple, though, so stay tuned!

How does UpBeing help me change my life and feel better?

UpBeing seeks to facilitate behavioural optimization. We show you the behaviours that make you feel good and try to encourage them, and we show you the behaviours that make you feel bad and try to help you avoid them.

Sometimes it’s hard to figure out what we’re doing that is causing a certain outcome. Are you irritated because of a chronic lack of sleep, or is it the new manager at work? Does working out in the morning make you feel better than working out in the afternoon?

With some minor input from you, UpBeing is able to make these connections for you, automatically and accurately.

How is me using UpBeing helping the world, in addition to helping myself?

“Right now, the goals of technology are not aligned with our goals as humans. We need technology that empowers us to make the life choices we want to make.” - Tristan Harris

The technology that is currently used to sell us ads and algorithmically addict us to our devices can be repurposed, this time for our express benefit. That is what UpBeing is trying to do.

By using UpBeing, you will be part of the shift towards technology for good.

UpBeing is intended to improve your day to day life. Long term, we hope to imbue empathy and the goal of human wellbeing into all technology.

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Does UpBeing replace my therapy practice?

No, but UpBeing can be a powerful tool to help aid in your wellness journey.

Journaling and mood tracking are often a part of therapy. Doing so can help you understand your patterns and break those that don’t serve you. Unfortunately, it can be hard to keep up with meticulous journaling, especially if you are already unwell.

UpBeing takes the hassle out of this process. Using UpBeing regularly will provide you with an in-depth report which you can then bring to your care provider. Armed with this data, your provider can better determine next steps and track your progress in a more empirical way! Think of UpBeing as a tool that makes your therapy practice more impactful and directed.

Is UpBeing a clinical solution?

No, although we’re working towards this in the long run.

For the time being, UpBeing is a behaviour and mood tracking solution that surfaces the correlations that exist in your wellbeing data. You can take these insights to your clinician for help, or implement our suggestions and see how your wellbeing changes over time.

What if I’m in a crisis? Should I use UpBeing?

UpBeing can help you with long term care, but not when you’re in acute crisis.

In case of emergency, please call 911.

Thinking of suicide? There is help.
In Canada, please call 1-833-456-4566 toll free, 24/7
Text at 45645

You can also visit Talk Suicide Canada.

 

Still need help?
Contact us at support@upbeing.ai

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