Background: There has been a surge in mental health apps over the past few years. While these have great potential to address the unmet mental health needs of the population, the recent proliferation of mental health apps in the commercial marketplace has raised several concerns, such as privacy, evidence-based, and quality. Although there is mounting research on the effectiveness of mental health apps, the majority of these are not accessible to the public and most of those available have not been researched. Despite the rapid growth of the digital health market in India, there are no comprehensive reviews of publicly available mental health apps for Indian users. Hence it becomes important to review mental health apps freely available to potential end users in terms of their scope, functions, and quality. Objective: This study aims to systematically evaluate mental health apps available to Indian users in app stores. Methods: This systematic review of mental health apps will be performed following the Target user, Evaluation focus, Connectedness and Health domain approach and the PASSR (Protocol for App Store Systematic Reviews) checklist. Fifteen key search terms covering various mental health conditions and therapies will be used on the Android and iOS stores. The identified apps will be further screened and reviewed based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The pool of eligible apps will be downloaded for detailed review. The following steps will be adopted to streamline the review process and interrater consistency. Six apps will be randomly selected from the downloaded apps, for joint discussion and review by a team of 4 primary reviewers and 2 mentors. Following this, a new set of 6 randomly selected apps will be rated independently by the primary reviewers and the differences in ratings will be jointly discussed for generating consensus. Subsequently, the primary reviewers will individually review the remaining apps in the list. Data will be extracted based on predecided parameters such as privacy policy, basic purpose, type of developer, nature of intervention strategies, and guided versus unguided nature. Additionally, the apps will be reviewed for quality using the Mobile Application Rating Scale. The data analysis and synthesis strategy will incorporate descriptive statistics based on quality evaluation using the Mobile Application Rating Scale and examining the content of the apps for generating descriptive information. Results: The initial screening of mental health apps available for Indian users on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store was initiated in October 2024. We expect to complete the detailed systematic review by April 2025. Conclusions: This study will offer a comprehensive review of mental health apps available in digital marketplaces for Indian users and has implications for end users, policy makers, developers, and mental health professionals. Trial Registration: International Platform of Registered Systematic Review and Meta-analysis Protocols INPLASY2024100035; https://inplasy.com/inplasy-2024-10-0035/
Background: The mental health app sector in India is expanding rapidly, driven by increasing smartphone usage, growing internet penetration, the popularity of digital initiatives, and heightened recognition of mental health challenges in public discourse. This growth is also influenced by both supply- and demand-side barriers to seeking professional help and the rise of mental health tech startups. While digital mental health solutions provide scalable ways to address unmet needs, concerns persist regarding app quality, privacy, and safety due to rapid market expansion, regulatory challenges, and limited empirical research. We conducted a comprehensive and systematic review of smartphone-based mental health apps accessible to Indian users through app stores. Objective: This study aims to describe apps in terms of characteristics such as the nature of their functions, involvement of mental health professionals in development, reference to an empirical basis, and inclusion of nudges to seek professional help, as well as to evaluate app quality. Methods: This systematic review of mental health apps was conducted using the TECH (Target user, Evaluation focus, Connectedness, and Health domain) approach, along with the PASSR (Protocol for App Store Systematic Reviews) checklist. Fifteen search terms covering mental health conditions and therapies were applied to both Google Play and Apple App Store. Identified apps were screened according to predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria and subsequently downloaded for detailed review. Data were extracted based on prespecified parameters. Additionally, app quality was evaluated using the Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS). Results: The initial search identified 5827 apps, of which 350 were reviewed in detail after removing duplicates and applying eligibility criteria. Common search terms such as “depression” and “anxiety” yielded nearly a quarter of relevant apps (128/495, 25.9% to 133/497, 26.8%); 62 (17.7%) of the 350 reviewed apps originated from Asia, and 131 (37.4%) focused on a single mental health condition. Multifunction apps (eg, those combining assessment and intervention) constituted the largest category (230/350, 65.7%). Privacy concerns were notable; for example, 54 (15.4%) apps did not mention a data-sharing policy. Most apps were developed by commercial organizations, and 228 (65.1%) did not report involvement of mental health professionals, while 45 (12.9%) mentioned it only cursorily. Only 38 (10.9%) apps referenced empirical research, and more than half did not indicate an empirical basis for their content. Pointers to seek professional help were present in 139 (39.7%) apps, mostly in the form of disclaimers, whereas nudges or motivational prompts to seek help appeared in slightly less than a quarter. Only 105 (30%) apps attempted to dispel mental health myths. Functionality and aesthetics ratings on the MARS were relatively high, but 50 (14.3%) apps scored 3 or lower on the information subscale. Conclusions: This study is among the first systematic evaluations of mental health apps accessible to Indian users on Google Play and Apple App Store. The findings provide insights to guide future research, app development, and policy making in the digital mental health space. Trial Registration: International Platform of Registered Systematic Review and Meta-analysis Protocols (INPLASY) INPLASY2024100035; https://inplasy.com/inplasy-2024-10-0035/