Whoop just launched a social network

Detailed summary

Whoop is launching a social network that lets members share their sleep, recovery, and workout data, but the bigger bet is on becoming more of a personal health brand, with CEO Will Ahmed hinting at acquisitions to come.

Whoop, the maker of screen-less fitness bands, is launching a social network on Thursday that lets its members follow friends and family and share their health data.

The network, called Whoop Humans, will be rolled out in the Whoop app to members at every membership tier at no extra cost. Members can follow anyone on Whoop and choose what to share, from sleep and recovery to workouts and achievements. Followers can react and comment; members can also attach photos and commentary to their data. It’s all opt-in, CEO Will Ahmed tells us.

Whoop already has a social feature, Teams, which a little more than half its customers use, according to the company. But Teams is built around groups and leaderboards, and everyone in a group sees everyone else’s information. Humans is meant to be more intimate. Members decide who follows them and who sees what, so a trainer can track a set of clients without the clients seeing one another’s data, for example.

I found myself questioning how much a spouse wants to know about the other’s sleep score when Ahmed mentioned this particular scenario, so I asked him how else beta members used these newer social features. He said the company learned that people were more engaged when someone reported a low recovery score than a nearly perfect one, suggesting that the new feature may be particularly helpful for understanding when someone is struggling and might need attention.

Indeed, the bigger story here is where Whoop continues to be headed, which is into medical wellness. Like its most direct rival, Oura, the company is pushing faster and more aggressively into the wellness opportunity that an aging population presents.

He added that he expects families to be big users of Humans. (You can imagine adult children checking in on aging parents.)

But the company’s efforts to be thought of as the “brand for personal health” raises questions, naturally, about privacy.

Ahmed also said Whoop doesn’t sell member data.

He was candid about dealmaking.

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