Many a time, a message can be the ultimate cause of stress. You can’t control what type of messages others send you, but you can now be warned if you are about to open a message which has negative content. Yes, through an app. Stress @ work is the name and it uses color coding to help you manage stress.

The app was developed at the University of Portsmouth, and the basic purpose is to predict the tone of incoming messages and warn the user before he reads them so that they are not caught off guard by angry or hostile words.

The app sorts negative content in the messages we receive from Facebook, Twitter, IM and also regular SMS. Positive content is color coded green, red is for negative and blue is for neutral.

Senior lecturer Mohamed Gaber pointed out that negative content can upset mood and increase stress level, just as good news and encouraging emails can cheer you up. He emphasized the importance of the attempts made by the user to take an action in order to not get stressed, especially if this may affect the individual’s performance at work and/or their behavior at home.

Now you might be thinking, the kind of messages that can cause stress varies from person to person. Keeping that in mind, the app has been designed so that users can further tailor it to their own personal specifications by designating messages positive or negative. So the app will work better as it learns more from you.

Stress @ Work will be available for Android by the end of this month and the developers expect to bring this app to other platforms within the next academic year.