Apple is working on a screenless fitness tracker aimed at competing with Whoop, according to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman, potentially giving the company a new wearable that sits alongside the Apple Watch.
The project is still in what Apple calls a technology investigation phase, so there’s no guarantee it will ever ship. Gurman says Apple has already spent months researching the idea and is now building prototype hardware, with Tim Cook and Eddy Cue reportedly backing the effort.
The prototypes are said to be thin fabric bands with sensors packed into a small computing module. With no display and fewer controls, the idea would be to complement the Apple Watch rather than replace it, giving people a way to track health and fitness around the clock without another screen or constant notifications on their wrist. If Apple goes ahead with it, Gurman says it wouldn’t launch before 2028.
Screenless fitness trackers have been getting more attention lately. Google’s Fitbit Air sells for $129 CAD and keeps its core experience available for free, while Whoop’s 5.0 and MG bands have pushed further into health tracking with FDA-cleared ECG and blood pressure estimates.
Whoop also leans heavily on a yearly (expensive) subscription for its coaching and analysis features, and it isn’t cheap. That model has even pushed some developers to build alternatives, including a free app that opens up Whoop 5.0 data without requiring the subscription.
Apple has clearly been moving in the same direction with recovery and readiness tracking. Its recent heart study used the Whoop 5 as a comparison point, while the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 launched with a Readiness app that gives users a daily score from 0 to 10. The Series 12 already measures heart rate variability every five minutes, so taking the screen away from that setup isn’t a huge leap.
Still, this is very much an experiment for now. Apple previously looked at a smart ring before deciding not to move forward, and Gurman says the design team is also considering other wearable ideas, including a round watch face. For now, the Whoop rival is just a prototype, but it shows Apple is at least thinking seriously about health tracking beyond the traditional Apple Watch.
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