Whoop Launches Whoop Humans, a Social Network for Health Data

Whoop is launching a built-in social network on Thursday that lets members follow friends and family and selectively share sleep, recovery, and workout data — free at every membership tier. The network, called Whoop Humans, rolls out inside the Whoop app and it's entirely opt-in, CEO Will Ahmed told the site's reporter. "It's all opt-in," Ahmed said.

That single detail changes the product. Whoop's existing social feature, Teams, runs on groups and leaderboards, and everyone in a group sees everyone else's information. A little more than half of Whoop's customers use Teams today, the company says. Humans is built for intimacy instead: members decide who follows them and who sees what. A trainer can track a set of clients without those clients seeing each other's data, for example.

What does the engagement data show?

Beta testing produced a counterintuitive finding. People engaged more when someone reported a low recovery score than a nearly perfect one, Ahmed said. That suggests Humans could work as an early-warning system — a way to notice when a spouse, parent, or friend is struggling and might need attention.

The direction is deliberate. Like its closest rival Oura, Whoop is pushing into the wellness opportunity an aging population presents. The company has already added FDA-cleared ECG and atrial fibrillation detection, blood pressure insights, blood testing, and medical-record uploads.

Ahmed said, without offering specifics, that Whoop has seen "huge growth" among people over 60 over the past 18 months. He added that Whoop was among the first companies accepted into a Medicare program that reimburses qualifying wearables able to show they improve health outcomes, and that it now has Medicare members. He expects families to be big users of Humans — adult children checking in on aging parents is the obvious use case.

How does Whoop handle privacy?

A "brand for personal health" built on shared data invites scrutiny, and Ahmed addressed it head-on. Members choose which metrics to share, can remove followers, and can switch on "stealth mode" to go dark for a few days without changing their settings. Activities marked sensitive aren't shared by default. Health alerts and medical information aren't shared at all. Members can report any comment or photo they find disturbing, and the company says reported content gets reviewed.

Minors are the murkier zone. Whoop's minimum age is 13 across all memberships, higher in some countries, and members that age can share data subject to consents and privacy settings. Asked whether a parent could follow a teenager's data, Ahmed didn't answer directly and pointed to the privacy controls.

On the business model, Ahmed was blunt: Whoop doesn't sell member data or license it to third parties. "Our product is not you; it's the membership," he said.

Is Whoop a buyer — and an IPO candidate?

Ahmed was candid about dealmaking. Asked about Oura's announcement this week that it will pay $625 million for Counsel Health, an on-demand physician service, he said he expects "more consolidation" among AI-focused, clinician-focused, and wearable companies, and that Whoop is always on the prowl. Its deep relationship with members, he said, puts it "in a position to be an acquirer."

He was more guarded on finances, declining to share revenue or confirm profitability. What he did disclose: about 1,200 employees, membership growth above 70% a year for three years running, and an expectation of nearly 4 million members by year-end. On an IPO — after a very big funding round earlier this year — he said only that Whoop "will certainly IPO in the future." He wouldn't comment on Oura, which shelved its own IPO of up to $2.2 billion in September citing market uncertainty.

Retail expansion and rivals

Whoop is widening its physical reach too. Its devices will be sold through Ulta stores beginning next March, starting at around 500 locations of the beauty retailer, with a target of more than a thousand stores eventually. Ahmed said Whoop's female audience has more than doubled from last year.

Competition is tightening: Google's new Fitbit Air band is here, and Apple is reportedly developing a Whoop-style band. Ahmed mostly shrugged that off — building a product doesn't guarantee success, he said. Whoop's job, in his telling, is staying true to the "aspiring" people it serves. For practitioners, the real signal is that wearables are converging on healthcare payments, retail distribution, and M&A — and Whoop just moved on all three fronts at once.