New Smart Bands Are Coming, and Whoop Is Scared

I reported smart bracelets as one of the technology trends of 2026from what I saw, it is therefore interesting to follow the deployment of the FitbitAir and the buzz around the (yet unconfirmed) Garmin Cirqa. Crywhich has long been the undisputed leader in this field, now has fierce competition. Here’s what I see happening and what we should expect in the future.

Fitness trackers have reached the end of their evolution and their universe is restarting

To explain how we got here, I’m going to give you a little history lesson on the topic: What do we expect from a fitness tracker? Fitbit has been working on this issue for over 15 years, starting with simple digital pedometers that hangs in your pocket. As cutting-edge technology became more affordable, Fitbits gained more lights, buttons, screens, and heart rate sensors—the more you can pack into a device, the better. This evolution continued until some Fitbits became full-fledged smartwatches. To be honest, until the last year or so, I would have told you that there was no longer a meaningful distinction between “smartwatches” and “fitness trackers”: they were merged into the same product category.

Along with this evolution, smartwatches and fitness watches also gained features, then stagnated while trackers caught up. Garmins started out as bulky GPS devices that you could strap to your wrist; The Apple Watch was an extension of your smartphone capable of measuring heart rate. Over time, these categories merged into a single format in the form of a watch that had a AMOLED a screen, a heart rate sensor and as many software features as companies could figure out how to integrate. “Do I want an Apple Watch or a Garmin? » It’s a reasonable question to ask, since the overlap between fitness watches and smartwatches is an almost circular Venn diagram, but not quite circular.

But smartwatches, fitness watches, and fitness trackers have all arrived at roughly the same place: They have as many features as people want. In fact, they have more features people want. THE fastest marathon runner in the world seems to be perfectly satisfied with a old Garmin it was the low end when it launched five years ago.

Tech companies can no longer grow by catering to people who haven’t heard of smartwatches; almost everyone who would like one already has one. Businesses also have a hard time convincing people to upgrade devices they already own because newer models don’t have great features that older ones lack.

These days, upgrades are mostly about packing high-end features into low-end watches, which isn’t a strategy that can work for long. This brings us nice advantages like the flashlight The Garmin Forerunner 970but the result is that hardware manufacturers like Garmin are raising the prices of their hardware and wondering how to make money with something more profitable and sustainable, like subscriptions. (Garmin also seems to be looking for ideas on subscription features, but that’s another story.)

Nowadays, anyone can sideload an app on their phone, so devices no longer need to be standalone. As a technology company, if all the features of your fitness tracker are in the app and your customers aren’t excited about the new hardware, you might as well go back to basics and offer a simple sensor on a strap. This is what we are seeing now.

How Smart Bands Found Their New Niche

“Smart bracelet” hasn’t been a technology category for long. Until recently, there was only one major product in this area: the Whoop band. Whoop’s hardware has never been so sophisticated: just a heart rate sensor on a strap. Both the clasp and charger were (and are) cleverly designed, and the emphasis is on everything but internal electronic components. You get a device “for free”: it’s the app that keeps you engaged and the app that makes you feel like you’re getting $239/year of value out of it.

My opinion on Whoop 4.0 (no longer the current model) is worth reading if you want to see how this has played out over time. In the two years I’ve had this band in my possession, its app has gained a ton of new features. Whoop is aimed at athletes who want to monitor their recovery and optimize their sleep schedules, and the app has consistently provided a treasure trove of data as well as tools to highlight what’s most important to focus on.

But not everyone wants to pay those subscription fees, or think of themselves as athletes hyper-optimizing their routine. For years, people were popping up on tech forums asking if there was a way to get a similar device without paying a Whoop subscription, but none came to fruition.

But last year that started to change. I don’t know if there’s a reason for this timing, other than the fact that companies previously preferred to focus on escalating the features I talked about above. If it turns out that there was a legal challenge or a technological problem, I would like to know. In any case, we had the Polar loop ($199), and the Amazfit Helio Strap ($99), two very basic devices that feed data into mundane applications. from Garmin Indexed Sleep Band ($169) somehow managed to be equal more more basic than these, not even a follow-up exercise, although it seems to have the internals to do so.

All three come from companies that already had their own apps paired with smartwatches. Creating a smart bracelet doesn’t require any new software features, and manufacturing should be fairly simple for a company used to making watches. Instead of building a watch with a sensor, you simply stick the sensor directly onto a wristband and send it out into the world. With that in mind, both the Polar and Garmin bands seemed overpriced. Amazfit’s pricing made a lot more sense, and from what I can tell, demand seems to have outstripped supply. Good luck finding an Amazfit Helio bracelet anywhere.

The Fitbit Air finally puts it all together, and Whoop is right to be afraid

Google just announced its own smart bracelet, the Fitbit Air, and I feel like we’re seeing a rare moment where Google reads the room and delivers exactly what people need. I say this with great uncertainty, though: it all depends on how reliable the Health Coach is in powering the new app. My tests of an earlier version of the Coach were not promising.

But if the Fitbit Air and its new app deliver on Google’s promises, then we have a smart bracelet at the same price ($99) as the Amazfit Helio Strap, with a much wider customer base and better name recognition, And a comprehensive app that provides analytics and coaching just like Whoop does.

I’m not saying Google Health will be enough as good as the Whoop app, but if it’s almost as good and you only have to pay $99 once, instead of $239 every year, almost everyone except die-hard athletes would probably prefer the Fitbit.

And this is where we arrive at the next stage of evolution. Similar to the trend I’ve seen in smart ringsSmart bracelet makers are realizing that hardware isn’t a cash cow and people don’t want to pay a subscription. The money must come from elsewhere.

Whoop is already branding itself as a healthcare company. You can book blood tests via the Whoop appand whoop just announcement (a little defensively, just after Fitbit Air’s announcement) that it will offer video consultations with healthcare professionals as a paid add-on service. Healthcare is a big business, as American companies have virtually endless opportunities to take money to fill the gaps in our rotten healthcare system.

What I would buy in 2026

So for now – or soon – we have a few viable options for smart bracelets. The ones I prefer are:

• The reigning champion, Cry. It still does a lot of things other groups don’t (like tracking recovery after strength training). If you want the best, I would always go with Whoop. Get the Peak plan ($239/year), because the more expensive Life plan ($359/year) doesn’t offer any extras worth it.

• The new FitbitAirwith the huge caveat that I haven’t tried it yet, and hardly anyone else has either. It’s the most affordable smart band (tied with the $99 Amazfit Helio Strap) and works with a full app. It also works with Pixel Watches, so you can have a smart bracelet and a smart watch that transmit data to the same app for analysis together.

• THE Amazfit Helio Strapif you can get it. It’s also $99 and can work with any Amazfit watch. It’s not as comprehensive as the two I named above, but it’s a good basic choice.

I would like not recommend it Polar loop. It’s overpriced for what you get, and any of the three above will give you a better experience. I would not recommend it Garmin Index sleep band either, unless you’re a Garmin user who just wants something comfortable to sleep in and doesn’t care about the extra cost.

The Luna band announced at CES hasn’t come to fruition yet, we don’t know the cost, and there are no smartwatches on the US market that work with the Luna app. Garmin’s Cirqa band – if it’s real and a smart Whoop-style band – probably won’t dethrone any of my top picks. But I guess we’ll have to wait and see.