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The digitization of society has led to interactions with non-living entities, such as digital companions, aimed at supporting mental well-being. This literature review surveys the latest developments in digital companions for mental health, employing a hybrid search strategy that identified 67 relevant articles from 2014 to 2022. We identified that by the nature of the digital companions\u2019 purposes, it is important to consider person profiles for: a) to generate both person-oriented and empathetic responses from these virtual companions, b) to keep track of the person\u2019s conversations, activities, therapy, and progress, and c) to allow portability and compatibility between digital companions. We established a taxonomy for digital companions in the scope of mental well-being. We also identified open challenges in the scope of digital companions related to ethical, technical, and socio-technical points of view. We provided documentation about what these issues mean, and discuss possible alternatives to approach them.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3233\/jifs-219336","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,26]],"date-time":"2024-03-26T12:02:33Z","timestamp":1711454553000},"page":"218-228","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Digital Companions for Well-being: Challenges and Opportunities"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"50","author":[{"given":"Juan Carlos","family":"Nieves","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Ume\u00e5 University","place":["Sweden"]}]},{"given":"Mauricio","family":"Osorio","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of the Americas Puebla","place":["Mexico"]}]},{"given":"David","family":"Rojas-Velazquez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Utrecht University","place":["The Netherlands"]}]},{"given":"Yazm\u00edn","family":"Magallanes","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of the Americas Puebla","place":["Mexico"]}]},{"given":"Andreas","family":"Br\u00e4nnstr\u00f6m","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Ume\u00e5 University","place":["Sweden"]}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,25]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_2_2_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Aaron Ahuvia Neil Thin Dan Haybron Robert Biswas-Diener Mathieu Ricard and Jean Timsit Happiness: An interactionist perspective International Journal of Wellbeing5(1) (2015).","DOI":"10.5502\/ijw.v5i1.1"},{"key":"e_1_3_2_3_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/S2045796015001092"},{"key":"e_1_3_2_4_1","unstructured":"Paul Anand Happiness well-being and human development: The case for subjective measures. 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