Whoop has added a social network to its fitness app, letting members follow other wearable users and share workout, sleep and recovery milestones. Called Whoop Humans, the feature launched earlier this week and is optional; the company describes it as a network where every account represents a person with a “verified heartbeat.”
Members can follow friends, family and other Whoop users, then comment on or react to posts. Whoop says the feature is intended to help people encourage one another and check in when a friend’s health data may suggest they are struggling.
“If I see a friend’s Recovery is low, I can check in and say, ‘Hey, it’s okay to take it easy today,’” Whoop member Mika Bublitz said in the company’s press release. Founder and CEO Will Ahmed called the service “the most verifiably human social network,” saying each account belongs to a real person with goals, challenges and achievements.
Whoop says more than three million members own one of its wearables, and that users open its app more than eight times a day. The company sells annual memberships priced from $199 to $359, bundled with a wrist-worn tracker that monitors sleep, heart rate and stress. Its battery lasts two weeks on a charge.
Ahmed said in an interview on the All-In Podcast last month that it took about 12 years for Whoop to reach one million members, followed by roughly 18 months to reach two million and about six months to reach three million. He said the company expects to end the year with around four million members.
A Whoop-published study in the journal Sensors last year analyzed 12 weeks of data from nearly 12,000 members. It found that people who wore the device daily recorded more than 90 additional minutes of exercise per week and about 20 extra minutes of sleep per night. Whoop competes with Google’s $100 Fitbit Air, released earlier this year, while Apple is reportedly developing a similar screenless device.
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