You know what streaks are. They are easy to understand, not too expensive to implement, unless you are building inside a corporation, and they usually work well for bringing people back.

But while building Leaflo, I decided there will be no streaks in the app.

First, a mental health app should not create pressure.

Leaflo is an app for situations when a person feels tired, anxious, overwhelmed, scattered, or emotionally stuck. In moments like that, there are few things worse than being told that you have also lost your streak.

A person in a difficult state is often already dealing with guilt, self-criticism, and the feeling that they are "not coping well enough." If an app adds one more small obligation on top of that, it can stop being supportive and become another source of pressure.

A mental health product should reduce the load, not create a new one.

The second problem with streaks is that they quietly replace the meaning of the action.

The user opens the app not because they need to understand what is going on inside, but because they do not want to lose the streak. From the outside, it looks like retention. But inside, the scenario changes from "I feel bad and want to understand what is happening" to "I need to open the app so I do not break the streak."

The goal is not to make a person mechanically open the app every day.

The goal is to give them a safe and non-judgmental way to return to themselves when they actually need it. A missed day should not be interpreted as a failure.

Returning matters more than continuity.