The screen-less Whoop fitness tracker now has step counting, which may come as a surprise to those unfamiliar with the product. Even though step counting has been a core feature of the majority of wearable health trackers since its inception, Whoop has never had a built-in metric. After years of waiting, Whoop members can now see how many steps they walk in a day using their tracker.
Whoop founder and CEO Will Ahmed wrote on X (formerly Twitter) about why the company made the sudden change in direction. He began by mentioning how studies have shown that walking 8,200 steps or more every day reduces the risk of various chronic diseases and obesity, and he’s not even talking about how it works, even if you pay $30 a month. He adds two more reasons for people to use the service. Access the Whoop app and its data.
Whoop 4.0 lying on a wooden railing.
“Our members really wanted it,” Ahmed wrote, before adding, “I’m tired of hearing about people wearing another device in addition to a hoop just to count their steps. It’s the worst experience,” he added. That’s a sign that the squeaky wheel will eventually get grease. Or it should fail and annoy the founders also do the trick. By the way, the Whoop fitness tracker was first introduced nine years ago.
Details of this feature are disclosed on the company’s website. The Whoop app displays your daily step count and collates it over weekly, monthly, and six-month periods. It notifies you of big step milestones and also allows you to set daily step goals. Your step count will show up on your Whoop dashboard, but don’t expect it to work exactly like tracking other activities with a fitness band.
Whoop uses an unusual but very useful metric called strain to show you the intensity of your training and how different activities affect your body, but it also shows you how much your heart rate increases for 1 hour. It will give you a warning unless you walk too fast. Steps are unlikely to count as a burden even after a meaningful amount of time has passed. Whoop doesn’t say when your step count will show up on your fitness tracker, but Ahmed said the feature is available now, so check the app’s dashboard on your home screen to see it. It says to check if it works.
