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Introduction: Smoking is a worldwide public health problem, being one of the major risk factors responsible for preventable death. Its acceptability among young people is increasing, especially after the arrival of electronic cigarettes, which have become more accepted than conventional cigarettes. Knowing this and that electronic technologies are useful in the context of combating smoking and providing information about the damage caused by smoking, it is essential to study how this topic has been discussed in virtual support networks. Goals: Identify and understand the difficulties faced by smokers who seek support for quitting the habit on the QuitNow! app's social network. Methods: Netnographic study carried out in March 2023. There were analysed and observed, fou four days, comments published by QuitNow! participants, who reported several aspects related to the difficulties and factors that impact the act of quitting smoking. Results: There were analyzed 447 messages published in the QuitNow! application discussion forum, and 31 of them were related to difficulties in quitting smoking, with an average of 8 (6.93%) daily messages on this subject. The comments were divided into two themes for carrying out the qualitative analysis, most of them related to physical dependence on cigarettes (n=19) and psychological and behavioral dependence (n=12). Conclusions: Technologies play a fundamental role in helping to quit smoking, but the participants of the investigated social network did not identify an effective method for patient care in moments of craving, often accompanied by anxiety and depression. The knowledge obtained in this investigation can help health professionals to design and implement broader communication and health strategies and public policies, in the sense of presenting technological or non-technological alternatives to support smoking cessation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tobacco use is a public health problem. Electronic technologies support health education, patient follow-up, and smoking cessation. The TabCess application prototype was conceived and developed from 2019 to 2020. This work is justified by the need to improve the tool. To describe the design, development, and improvement process of the TabCess application to support smoking cessation. This qualitative, descriptive, applied two-stage research was conducted at a Brazilian university from January 2021 to March 2022, first with the prototype analysis by IT professionals and then improving the prototype by developing the application's test version. Qualitative research permeates this entire study since field diaries, technology assessment forms, and weekly discussion reports were submitted to content analysis in thematic modality, elucidating the topics that addressed the needs for adjustments and improvements. In the first stage, the analysis of the screens and tools of the prototype resulted in elaborating the work plan for the inclusion of new sessions evidenced by the analysis themes (registration of goals, application use report, patient's daily report, benefits and harms of tobacco use, passive smoking, educational videos, and coping with cravings). The IT team implemented new screens and environments in the second stage, creating the test version. The IT team and the health team involved in the project ran the usability tests. The new tool was approved for the validation test with experts (pulmonologists, psychologists, and speech therapists), which will be described in another work. TabCess will support those seeking smoking cessation and strengthen anti-smoking strategies. It will be a subsidy for health professionals who work in services and public policies geared toward smoking cessation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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