Apple Is Reportedly Developing a Screenless Fitness Tracker

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The parade of screenless fitness trackers continues. This year alone, Google released the Fitbit Air, Garmin launched its Cirq Smart Band, and Amazfit came out with the Helio Strap Pro. Now, Apple is reportedly working on its own screenless fitness tracker, one similar to the Whoop wristband. Screenless fitness trackers collect health data via sensors and beam it straight to your smartphone app using Bluetooth.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Guman, Apple has been investigating screenless wearable technology for months and is currently working on prototypes featuring a thin fabric band and a computing module with sensors. The company’s Vision hardware team, those behind the Vision Pro headset, worked on this project, according to Gurman’s sources.

However, the company reportedly hasn’t decided whether to launch the product, despite interest from Executive Chair Tim Cook and Senior Vice President of Services and Health Eddy Cue.

A representative for Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Where Apple Health is headed

This news comes after Apple’s recent announcement of its redesigned Health app and its new features, which will be available to the public later this year. Two of those features, readiness score and Health Age, function much like Whoop’s recovery score and Healthspan. The readiness and recovery scores tell users how prepared their bodies are to take on the day ahead, while Health Age and Healthspan display one’s biological age, or how the user is aging on a cellular level, when compared to their actual chronological age.

The Oura Ring also offers a readiness score and Cardiovascular Age to estimate how your heart is aging.

Screenless wearable benefits

A screenless wearable makes sense as a next step for Apple. Aside from giving people one less screen to stare at, these wearables don’t have screens draining their battery life. They’re often less bulky, making them more comfortable to wear while sleeping and more discreet, which is ideal for people who don’t want their wearable to be the first thing someone notices about them.

While the Apple Watch has a host of features beyond health and fitness, a screenless wearable dedicated to a user’s wellness would also tap into the market of people who want a wearable solely for tracking their workouts and vital signs.

But one thing is for sure: If Apple were to release a screenless fitness tracker, Siri AI, the AI assistant currently in beta, and Apple Intelligence, the company’s AI platform, will likely feature prominently. In the revamped Health app, for instance, Apple Intelligence analyzes health metrics and provides timely summaries and suggestions. This would work well for a screenless wearable, especially if users can talk to Siri to log their health information and ask questions, as with the Luna Band.

According to Gurman, if Apple were to move forward with a screenless fitness tracker, it wouldn’t be released before 2028.

Put a ring on it

Personally, I’d like to see Apple focus more on an Apple Ring and less on a screenless wrist-based wearable. As someone who has tested both smart rings and wristbands, I prefer the former because they’re inconspicuous and more comfortable for sleep, which is important for capturing the sleep data that powers other features.

But I’m not a fan of how these devices tend to require recurring subscriptions, whereas the Apple Watch and the company’s Health app don’t require them. If there’s a world in which Apple’s future fitness tracker, whether a ring or wristband, is both screenless and subscription-less, that would be the best of all.

Anna Gragert

Senior Editor, Health and Home

Anna Gragert (she/her/hers) was previously the lifestyle editor at HelloGiggles, the deputy editor at So Yummy and the senior lifestyle editor at Hunker. Over the past 12 years, Anna has also written for the LA Times, Elle, Bust Magazine, Dazed, Apartment Therapy, Well+Good and more. At CNET, she's a senior editor on the Healthy Home team, and her coverage includes health, wellness tech, meal kits and home and kitchen tech with a focus on the technology that aims to help us live our healthiest, happiest lives. See full bio

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