Acceptability of a Phone App-Based Motivational Interviewing Intervention for Young Men’s Health Alexis Guzman 1 & Sara E. Landers 1 & Meredith Nechitilo 1 & Samantha Garbers 2 & Marina Catallozzi 1 & Melanie A. Gold 1 & David L. Bell 1 & Susan L. Rosenthal 1 Received: 31 October 2019 /Revised: 30 January 2020 /Accepted: 17 March 2020 # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 Abstract Motivational interviewing (MI), an effective communication style for facilitating behavior change, paired with a smartphone app is a unique approach to engage young men in health promotion. We assessed young men’ s experiences with a pilot intervention using a smartphone app paired with phone-based MI coaching by trained community health coaches. App activities included goal setting, health behavior tracking, and educational materials. The app and coaching addressed sexual health or fitness. Fourteen black and/or Hispanic men, ages 15–19 years, were interviewed about their experiences. Interviews were transcribed and coded using framework analysis. Participants found the app activities and coaching acceptable and felt comfortable discussing health behaviors. They reported gaining knowledge about sexual health and fitness, which some shared with others. Most preferred phone rather than in-person or video coaching due to it feeling “safer,” travel barriers, ease of rescheduling sessions, and increased privacy regarding sensitive subjects. Some found phone coaching preferable to a healthcare visit. Obstacles to partic- ipation included phone replacement, parental monitoring, and restriction of phone privileges. Over time, participants felt posi- tively about their relationship with their coach but sometimes viewed them as having medical expertise beyond their training. Smartphone app-based MI with community health coaches has great potential for use with young men for a variety of health issues. However, it has unique obstacles: phone accessibility may restrict participant’ s ability to engage fully and perceptions of a coach’ s expertise should be regularly clarified. Future studies should continue assessing acceptability and rigorously evaluate effectiveness and scalability. Keywords Smartphone . mHealth . Motivational interviewing . Male health . Hard-to-reach populations Introduction Facilitating health behavior change requires approaches that are engaging and able to reach the intended audience. Technology such as smartphone applications (apps) has great potential for reaching traditionally hard-to-reach populations, including adolescent and young adult males (Daher et al. 2017; Eleuteri et al. 2018; Guse et al. 2012; Shrestha et al. 2019). Approximately 95% of American teens in 2018 had access to a smartphone, and 45% of them said they were online constantly (Anderson and Jiang 2018). In recent years, there have been an increasing number of health-related apps for smartphone users, which allow easy and rapid access to information. Phone apps have been used in health interven- tions to promote behavior change in areas such as nutrition and fitness, chronic disease management, medication adher- ence, substance use, and family planning (Zhao et al. 2016). However, as these technologies are adopted for health-related purposes in clinical or research settings, it is important to understand the best ways to use them and assess their acceptability. Adolescent and young adult males often have inconsistent health care seeking behaviors, and when they seek care, they rarely discuss sexual and reproductive health with their health care providers (Donaldson et al. 2013; Wheeler et al. 2018), increasing their vulnerability to poor health outcomes. While improving health outcomes through the promotion of behav- ior change can be challenging, motivational interviewing (MI) * Susan L. Rosenthal slr2154@cumc.columbia.edu 1 Department of Pediatrics, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, NewYork Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY, USA 2 Department of Population and Family Health, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA Journal of Technology in Behavioral Science https://doi.org/10.1007/s41347-020-00135-w