Whoop is adding a social layer to its screenless fitness bands, rolling out a member network called Whoop Humans that lets users follow one another and share health metrics, workouts and achievements inside the company’s app.
The feature became available Thursday to members at every subscription tier at no additional cost. Users can post photo-and-caption updates the company calls Moments, comment on and react to other members’ posts, and control which data points — recovery, strain, sleep, heart-rate variability and resting heart rate among them — are visible to whom. Activities flagged as sensitive are excluded from sharing by default, posts can be kept private, and a “Stealth Mode” hides health and performance figures for a stretch of time without altering a user’s underlying settings.
Whoop is marketing the product as a counterweight to feeds crowded with automated accounts and synthetic content. CEO Will Ahmed described it as “the most verifiably human network ever launched,” adding that “every account represents a real person with a verified heartbeat.”
Humans replaces the group-centric structure of the company’s existing Teams feature, which Whoop says slightly more than half of its customers use. In Teams, everyone in a group sees everyone else’s information. The new network is built around one-to-one follow relationships, so a coach could monitor a set of clients without those clients viewing one another’s data. The older Teams tool will remain available, according to the company.
Ahmed said beta testing turned up a counterintuitive pattern: members engaged more when someone posted a poor recovery score than a near-perfect one, suggesting the network may help flag when a person is struggling and could use support.
The launch fits a broader pivot toward medical wellness at Whoop, which has already added FDA-cleared ECG and atrial fibrillation detection, blood pressure insights, blood testing and medical-record uploads. Ahmed said the company has seen “huge growth” among customers over 60 in the past 18 months, without providing figures, and that Whoop was among the first companies admitted to a Medicare program that reimburses qualifying wearables able to demonstrate improved health outcomes. It now counts Medicare members among its users.
Privacy remains the obvious question for a company positioning itself as a personal-health brand. Beyond the sharing controls, Ahmed said health alerts and medical information are never shared, members can remove followers, and reported comments or photos are reviewed. Whoop’s minimum age is 13 globally, higher in some countries, meaning teenagers can share data subject to consent and privacy settings; asked whether a parent could follow a teen’s metrics, Ahmed pointed to the privacy controls rather than answering directly. He also said the company does not sell member data. “Our product is not you; it’s the membership,” he said, adding that Whoop does not license data to third parties.
On dealmaking, Ahmed said he expects further consolidation across AI, clinical-services and wearable companies after rival Oura agreed this week to pay $625 million for Counsel Health, an on-demand physician service. He said Whoop’s direct relationship with members leaves it “in a position to be an acquirer,” without naming targets.
He was less forthcoming on finances, declining to disclose revenue or confirm profitability. He did say Whoop employs about 1,200 people, that membership on its software platform has grown more than 70% annually for three consecutive years, and that it expects close to 4 million members by year-end. On a stock listing, he would say only that the company “will certainly IPO in the future.” Oura shelved a listing of up to $2.2 billion in September, citing market uncertainty.
Whoop is also widening distribution. Its devices will be sold in roughly 500 Ulta Beauty locations starting next March, with a goal of eventually reaching more than 1,000 stores. Ahmed said Whoop’s female audience has more than doubled from a year earlier. The company faces fresh competition from Google’s Fitbit Air band and reportedly from Apple, which is developing a Whoop-style band. Ahmed largely dismissed those threats, suggesting that shipping a product does not guarantee success and that Whoop’s task is to stay true to the “aspiring” customers it serves.