Sunnyside: Mindful Drinking

What it does

Sunnyside is an app designed to help people practice mindful drinking. It's not strictly for sobriety, but rather for building healthier habits around alcohol consumption. The core function is a daily drink tracker that helps users stay within personalized weekly targets. The app supplements this with human coaching via text, educational resources, and a supportive community forum.

Where it shines

Sunnyside's strength lies in its comprehensive, psychology-backed approach. The onboarding is a masterclass in building value before asking for a commitment. It uses a detailed quiz not just to collect data, but to collaboratively build a plan and project tangible future benefits, like money saved and calories avoided (02:12). The app also creates a strong sense of support through its deeply integrated community. Unlike many apps where community is an afterthought, Sunnyside has a dedicated onboarding flow for it (05:01), encouraging users to engage from day one. Finally, the 'Challenges' feature (07:07) offers a structured way to re-engage and deepen commitment, providing a fresh start for users who need it.

UX highlights

Collaborative Onboarding: The quiz feels less like a form and more like a consultation. By reflecting user input back in summaries (01:46), it builds trust and makes the resulting plan feel truly personal.
Tangible Goal Setting: The app translates abstract goals like 'drink less' into concrete numbers, showing the user their starting point (13 drinks) and their first milestone (10 drinks) (03:07).
Clean Tracking UI: The main tracking screen is simple and effective. Plus and minus buttons for each day make logging drinks quick and easy, while color-coding shows if the user is on, under, or over their target (04:48).
Multi-layered Support: Users can get help in several ways. They can text a human coach with pre-set prompts (07:39), browse a library of resources (07:52), or post in the community for peer support (05:57).
Integrated Onboarding for Features: Key features like the Community and Challenges have their own brief, focused onboarding flows, ensuring users understand their value without being overwhelmed at the start.

Monetization & growth

Sunnyside uses a hard paywall with a free trial, presented after the user has completed the lengthy personalization quiz. At 03:21, the app offers a single annual plan, breaking down the cost to a monthly figure ($8.33/month) to make it seem more affordable. The entire onboarding flow is designed to build up the perceived value to justify this single, high-commitment plan. There's also a strong social growth loop where users can invite friends to join challenges with them (07:22), turning personal goals into a shared activity.

Who it’s for

This app is for individuals who are 'sober curious' or want to reduce their alcohol intake without necessarily quitting entirely. The target user is likely health-conscious, aware of their habits, and looking for a structured, supportive system to make a change. The emphasis on coaching, community, and gradual progress suggests it's for people seeking a long-term lifestyle adjustment rather than a quick fix.

Notes & opportunities

The app is very comprehensive, but the onboarding is long and requires a high level of initial commitment, including providing an email and phone number before seeing the price. This could lead to drop-off for users who are just exploring. While the tracking UI is simple, adding different drink types (wine, beer, cocktail) could offer more granular insights. The community feed (06:18) is text-heavy and could benefit from more visual elements or post types to increase engagement.