The science behind the Jones App

One of the most common quitting mistakes is focusing only on physical nicotine withdrawal and overlooking the psychological side of dependency. Many assume that once the nicotine leaves their system, they’ll be “free”—but without addressing habits, triggers and emotions, relapse becomes much more likely. This is why we built the Jones App.

Unlike your average nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), Jones approaches quitting holistically—this means pairing clinically-proven NRT mints with behavioral support through the Jones app and SMS coach. Whether you’re using NRT or not, behavioral support increases your odds of success on your quitting journey. Plus, the Jones app makes quitting more fun, less scary, and more rewarding.

“I just wanted to share a little about this journey, I got on this app in January, I quit and stayed off the vape for 3 months, then I had some really hard circumstances and I went back to it for several months and stopped getting on this app for a while. two weeks ago I decided I really wanted to make this long term. I identified my triggers, found different ways to cope and it

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What is behavioral support for quitting vaping or smoking?

In the context of quitting vaping or smoking, behavioral support refers to strategies and tools that help you change your habits, manage cravings, and build healthier comping mechanisms. At Jones this includes:

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)-based exercises

Coach Jones and the Jones App both provide you with prompts and templates that help you identify the triggers that cause you to reach for nicotine, find your deeper motivation for quitting, reframe your thoughts about vaping, and develop healthier coping mechanisms.

Mindfulness & Habit-Building

The Jones app helps you to be more mindful about your nicotine use and how you’re feeling on your quitting journey. Each day that you check-in on the app, you’re taking time to notice how you’re feeling and how much nicotine you’re consuming (or not consuming!)—this helps to build and reinforce your new habits and keep you moving toward your quitting goals.

Community & Social Support

The Jones Quitter Community has been referred to as “the cutest corner of the internet”. The community helps you to stay accountable, celebrate your wins, find support and remind you that you’re not alone!

Positive Psychology

Jones is judgment-free for a reason. Research shows that encouragement and positivity are more effective at reinforcing new habits. Streaks, challenges with prizes, and kudos from community help you feel encouraged throughout your quitting journey.

Why is behavioral support important when you're trying to quit nicotine?

Incorporating behavioral support strategies into your quitting journey is important because quitting nicotine is 50% physiological and 50% psychological. That is, only half of quitting is the process of weening your body off of nicotine as a chemical, and the other half is re-building all of your habits around nicotine use—like what situations and environments trigger you. When you vape or smoke regularly, your brain links nicotine to certain triggers like stress, boredom, social situations, or routines like having coffee. Even after physical withdrawal fades, these triggers can still activate cravings because your brain remembers that vaping once provided relief or pleasure.

Behavioral support is backed by years of research and helps you quit by bringing awareness to these habit-based cravings and providing you with the tools to handle them. For example, a double-blind, randomized clinical trial with 2,588 young adult vapers showed that text-based motivation and behavioral support increased quit rates by nearly 40%. Another extensive review of 83 studies with nearly 30,000 participants showed that behavioral support like advice, counseling, and peer groups increased quit rates in those using NRT by an additional 20%.

set a quit date & track your progress. Button to download the jones app. Hand holding phone open to Jones home screen.

What is CBT and how does it help you quit?

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is touted as “the current gold standard of psychotherapy” ( Frontiers in Psychiatry 2018 ). In short, CBT is a structured, evidence-based psychological approach that helps you recognize and change negative thought patterns and behaviors. It’s widely used for addiction treatment because it targets the underlying triggers and habits that keep you stuck in your dependency. The key elements CBT for quitting vaping or smoking are:

Building Long-term Motivation

The first step in your quitting journey is identifying your “Big Why”—the deeper reason why you want to quit. You can find your big why by asking yourself why you want to quit, then asking yourself “why is that” 2-3 more times until you get to the root of your motivation. CBT shifts your focus from the short-term discomfort of cravings to long-term benefits, reinforcing your motivation to quit and stick with it.

Identifying Triggers

During the first week of your quitting journey, you’re prompted to recognize when, where, and why you reach for nicotine (e.g., stress, boredom, social situations). This helps to build awareness around the habit loops that keep the addiction going.

Reframing Thought Patterns

CBT helps you to reframe common beliefs and misconceptions that lead to cravings. For example, while you’re dependent on your vape, you may believe: “I need nicotine to relax” or “One hit won’t hurt”. CBT helps reframe these beliefs into: “Nicotine actually increases my stress in the long run.” or “One hit will reset my progress and make quitting harder.”

Developing Healthy Coping Strategies

Through habit-replacement exercises, CBT helps you to build healthier coping mechanisms. When you identify the triggers that cause you to vape, you can prepare yourself for difficult moments by pre-committing to a more productive response. Try using this template: When [specific trigger], I will [new action] instead of vaping. Some effective new strategies are deep breathing, exercise, or taking NRT.

Preventing Relapse

By taking the time to understand your habits and behaviors around vaping or smoking, you equip yourself with the tools to navigate difficult situations like social events or stress at work. You can identify a craving when it’s happening and lean on the tools you’ve already built instead of reacting impulsively.

To keep things simple, the Jones app and Coach Jones integrate all of these strategies for you! Your journey starts with a quiz to help you identify your motivations and triggers, and offers you a quit plan to stay on track. Each day, Coach Jones texts you questions, tips, and exercises to walk you through the key elements of CBT. You can also check out the Jones Quitter Guide for a summary of all of the questions and exercises.

What is positive psychology and how does it help you quit?

Leverage Strengths & Motivations

It’s easier to stay engaged when you focus on your goals for quitting, like saving money or improving your health. At Jones, we encourage self-efficacy—where we help you to see yourself as capable of change and commit to taking the steps to get there—with features like setting a quit date that you’ll commit to, and having you actively acknowledge that you believe you will quit.

Build Positive Habits & Reward Progress

As you build out your new habit templates, the final step is to celebrate each win, no matter how small. This is proven to reinforce the new habit and keep your momentum. Further, you can unlock milestones and see your progress in the Jones app to give you that extra boost.

Shift Your Focus from “Loss” to “Gain”

Many quitters feel they’re giving something up. Positive psychology reframes quitting as a step toward a better life—more energy, confidence and freedom from addiction.

Wellbeing Through Gratitude & Mindfulness

Instead of just avoiding stress-related triggers, practicing gratitude and reflecting on how far you’ve come can reduce stress and cravings (e.g., journaling about what’s improving since quitting).

Social Support & Purpose

Engaging with supportive communities like the Quitter Community in the Jones App makes quitting easier and more rewarding.

Jones is built on celebrating progress, not perfection. Rather than scaring you into quitting or punishing you for slip ups, our approach is one of understanding and incremental growth. Whether you’re unlocking milestones in the Jones App for another day or week nicotine free, or getting a supportive text from Coach Jones, each element of the Jones method is infused with positive psychology because we know what it’s like to quit and we know that nobody’s perfect—plus positivity is proven to work.

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How to use the Jones App for the most effective quit

We’ve done all of the research so you don’t have to. Jones was built with the support of our Chief Medical Advisor, Dr. David Kan, who is a distinguished fellow of addiction at UCSF, and the past president of the California Society of Addiction Medicine.

The most effective way to quit with the Jones app is simply to use it everyday, and use it with honesty and openness. After trying other quitting apps where you lost your streak for a slip up, we felt that there needed to be room for imperfection, which is why you can keep your streak even if you vape or smoke—what matters on your journey is making progress and sticking with it. All you need to do to get the benefits of the science outlined in this blog is check in everyday, be honest with yourself about your progress, and contribute to the community with positivity and gratitude.

Step 1: Download the Jones app and answer the quiz candidly.
Step 2: Opt-in to daily texts from Coach Jones for CBT tips and motivation sent directly via text.
Step 3: Consider if NRT is right for you. If it is, order your nicotine mints and follow your quit plan.
Step 4: Complete your daily check-in each day. Record your thoughts. Share with the community.
Step 5: Stick with it!