Whoop News

Existing Whoop 4 owners get a steady stream of offers for new bands and an occasional offer for Whoop apparel, it’s all good quality stuff but I tend to focus on the less frequent developments to their platform.

On that topic, it seems that we should expect some interesting developments over the next few months. I’ve heard a few things which back up what Wareable reported earlier this week in an interview with Will Ahmed, Whoop’s CEO. However please read all the following as insights based on information in that interview and other public announcements by Whoop

The Wearable Interview

The striking one-liner is that

We recently launched the Whoop 4.0 and that’s the technology for the foreseeable future, [Will Ahmed]

This means that the year-old Whoop 4 hardware is going to be with us for at least 2 more years and perhaps as many as 4 more years. So if you’re not happy with your Whoop band then…tough! Personally, I think Whoop is a great format to wear 24×7 and that it is more than sufficiently accurate when worn correctly (wrist for sleep, bicep for workouts) and broadly on par with the competition in that respect. (Detailed Whoop 4 Accuracy Results, Here)

Going forward, Whoop will focus on its apparel, other accessories, the software ecosystem and its acquisition of PUSH. The latter could be as little as an algorithm added to Whoop 4.0 or it could be a separate wearable, probably the former as it would need to be provided to existing subscribers for free or create mass howls of annoyance at a subscription hike for a secondary Whoop wearable.

Next in the Wareable interview, Ahmed said

There’s a variety of metrics that are considered medical grade. People get them at the doctor’s office, but we’re working to bring them to a 24/7 continuous wearable, [Will Ahmed]

So clearly Whoop’s metrics will either expand in scope or get medical-grade certifications. To help that happen in a meaningful way, many of today’s wearables need to be worn 24×7 and bulky watches are just not a great format; bands are slightly better and rings are better still. So Whoop hits the sweet spot with its form factor. Ahmed echoes what I have said many times

There’s a graveyard of failed wearables companies because it’s hard to get someone to wear something  [24×7]

Ahmed then clearly outlined what will probably be the next platform change when he said,

[Whoop] Journal will be an engine for generating insights, via new features we’re releasing in the next quarter or so.

My take on that would be that we will see these insights as correlations between sensor data and subjective/textual tags, as found with HRV4Training, or there could be deeper ML/AI-based metrics that find patterns in our data. But to get this information we need to start tagging our behaviours in Whoop as, without some of that data already logged, an AI engine will have no insights to glean for a while.

FWIW: I tag my daily readings with HRV4Training and none of my subjective perceptions correlates with anything else! But we’re all different, maybe you are more at one with your body than I am with mine?

From other comments, it looks like these new app features could be incorporated into the popular Whoop Health Monitor

And Ahmed said this would be delivered by new sections of the app – ones that will go beyond the existing Sleep/Strain/Recovery menus. This will be exciting to any Whoop users who use the wearable to track daily readiness and rely on the Health Monitor feature. [@Wareable]

The only other clue that Will gives is this somewhat prophetic but mysterious one-liner.

The primary thing to say [about the forthcoming update] is it will give you more reason to wear Whoop throughout the day [Will Ahmed]

At least he confirmed there WILL be a forthcoming update!

Links to pliability and elsewhere

Elsewhere, Whoop announced an integration with smart mat company PLIABILITY (formerly Romwood).

I don’t see that being any more of an interesting integration than Whoop already offers with Strava. However, Whoop does now have a developer platform so expect 3rd party data integrations to increase in number. These can be a good way to bring new customers into the Whoop fold as Suunto & Strava found with their extensive 3rd party partnerships.

Perhaps the pliability link-up shows that Whoop’s customer base is now very much moving away from the traditional realm of team sports athletes, cross-fitters and endurance athletes looking for recovery info.

 

Export Your Raw Whoop Data

Whoop announced that you can export your ‘raw’ data from the app and, indeed, you can with these 5 straightforward steps.

1. Open the app
2. Head to the More (5th) Tab
3. Tap “Export WHOOP Data”
4. Tap “Create Export”
5. Check your email to export via computer (should arrive within 24 hours)

Out of curiosity, I did just that. However, all you get are single daily records for each piece of data rather than minute-by-minute tracks.

Price Hike

Finally, dcrainmaker spotted a 4% price hike…considerably less than some of the hikes from the hardware vendors.

 

See more

Mildly notable: Whoop is slightly raising their prices effective Oct 31st. It’ll be $1/€1 more a month on annual plans (a 4% price increase). Slightly more notable: If you’re an existing member and did the Strain discount challenge last month, that discount code expires Oct 5th. pic.twitter.com/e2ZthwhY0T

— Ray Maker (@dcrainmakerblog) October 2, 2022

Tip: Inflation is coming. Get those long-dated contracts signed now to lock in current prices.

 

Whoop Futures – Take Out

These are my best guesses…

• No new hardware for quite some time with the possible exception of a partner band covering PUSH Velocity Based Training.
• Plenty of new data integrations
• Increasingly medical grade metrics
• AI Insights based on TAGS for the journal
• Lower than inflation price rise

 

Whoop 4 Price – Join For Free with a Free Band

Join Whoop for free. Get a free band, a free joining fee and the first of 6 months’ subscription for free. That’s a lot of free. Starts at Eu/$/£18/mo here at: Whoop.com