A smoking-cessation app made young smokers smoke more, not less.

Smoking kills millions of people, and adolescents and young adults report the highest smoking rates. Quitting before age 30 can prevent most of these health risks, but there are few interventions built specifically for youth. Researchers created a smartphone app called Detour to guide young people through a five-week quitting process. Detour uses multiple components over one preparation week and four post-quit weeks. The team tested the app against a digital self-help brochure to see which tool helped more people stay smoke-free. The app did not work as hoped. Participants using Detour did not have higher rates of quitting than people reading the digital brochure at any point. Surprisingly, the app group actually reported higher levels of weekly smoking than the brochure group across all check-ins. The researchers suspect that technical problems in the app and the strength of the comparison brochure might explain these results.

Why it matters

Adolescents and young adults smoke at the highest rates, yet few programs work for them. This trial tested a smartphone app designed to help them quit, expecting it to beat a simple brochure. Instead, app users reported smoking more weekly than the brochure group at every check-in, suggesting that well-meaning digital tools can backfire and need careful testing before rollout.

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