Previous studies have demonstrated that smartphones are useful tools in everyday, evidence-based medical practice. This article gives an overview of the current use in psychiatry of smartphone apps aimed at patients and the general public, highlighting associated benefits and disadvantages. It also outlines how practising psychiatrists could embrace such technologies at an individual, organisational and national level.

Smartphones are equipped with features that enable the rapid assessment of up-to-date evidence-based information. Their role in medical education is gaining recognition, and more and more institutions are providing devices or applications (apps) to medical students and trainees. Recent UK research suggests that most medical students believe smartphones would be a useful addition to their clinical education and that the majority of students and junior doctors own between one and five medically related apps. This article highlights the utility of these devices in education and summarises the existing technologies adopted by other specialties. It gives a framework for how psychiatry could adopt these new technologies in education and highlights the advantages and disadvantages of using this new approach. A brief illustration of how these technologies are being applied in undergraduate and postgraduate psychiatry is included.