“If they know they're going to see bad metrics, they're not going to open your app and they're going to churn. It doesn't mean that we shouldn't give people accurate information — I'm just saying don't make that the only thing your users see if your goal is to retain them.”

Shaming users for bad health metrics guarantees churn — redirect attention rather than confronting failure

Paloni argues that health apps built around goal completion and metric tracking systematically churn their users: someone who had a terrible night's sleep or skipped the gym will avoid opening an app that will surface those failures as the first experience. Welltory's design principle is to shift user attention toward other data points alongside the bad metrics. The framing is not about hiding truth but about sequencing: a tired user at the end of a hard day cannot be recovered by confrontation, but can be retained by offering something useful alongside the bad news.