Signal Spark

Signal Spark is one quiet website with two rooms. The box keeps the things that remind you of your worth, for a hard night. They drift around as bubbles, and when you ask, it hands one back at random. The gym is seven small mental moves: an example first, tried in private, one line to carry out with you. The way in is a bench. You sit, you speak or write, and nothing answers. Nothing you type is read, scored or reacted to.

I wanted a mental gym where I come when I need something: some words, some frame of mind, or when I'm not able to get out of a frame of mind. A normal gym shows you how well you could be. This one never shows you improving. The program is a repertoire, not a calendar. No streaks, no notifications, no score, no mascot. A single piece can be the whole visit.

I have many friends who ask me for advice about their own mental health. I don't want our agent to be the one giving it, but it should help them find their way there. I'm not trying to replace therapists. I really am not. The crisis lines, Tele-MANAS 14416 and emergency 112, sit on every screen, in the page before any script runs.

Some of the words are mine. The first thing the gym asks is which of three is true:

I'm being shitty.

The situation I'm in is shitty.

The situation is making me shitty to others.

And the bench opens with "Come sit with me."

It took 33 days from an empty repo to the version that's live now: about 88 tickets, 293 tests, 24 releases. It's invite-only, 18+, India, and free. I'm building it along with Iti Bhargava at Signal Studio, and every word in it is still a draft until it has been through clinical review.

The honest part: nothing proves it works yet, and nothing can yet. And I still don't feel like this is as human as it should be. That's the next round, one screen at a time.