Andrew Orr
Withings has a new smart scale called Body Comp, which in conjunction with a new subscription service called Health+, fully integrates into Apple's Health app.
The Withings Body Comp scale, announced on Thursday, uses sensors, algorithms, and electronics to give people a higher level of insight into their health. The company says these measurements are typically only done in hospital clinics.
The scale measures and analyzes three main biomarkers, all associated with general and chronic health conditions.
Withings says this is the first scale that measure these factors in one consumer device.
- Full body composition: weight, muscle mass, fat mass, water percentage, bone mass, BMI, and visceral fat.
- Cardiovascular assessment: Standing heart rage and vascular age.
- Nerve health assessment: A Nerve Health Score is derived from electrochemical skin conductance.
Vascular Age is based on Pulse Wave Velocity (PWV). This is a measurement of arterial stiffness for heart health and was developed by cardiologists.
Nerve Health is determined by monitoring sweat glands in feet. A low score means that is reduced sweat gland innvervation and can be a sign of small nerve fiber degeneration.
Health+, along with the Withings Health Mate app, can offer an view of a person's health overall. By logging food, mood, and sleep, people can track metrics and have Health+ provide daily plans of workouts, suggested recipes, exercise plans, and more.
It also includes educational content curated and written by doctors. A library of six-week modules help people build healthy habits across their lives. Health+ will note every milestone and reward users with collectible badges.
Body Comp and Health+ will be available through Withings starting October 4, 2022 as a bundle. The scale will cost $209.95 and includes a 12-month subscription to Health+.
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4 Comments
I have a prior version, it imports weight & body fat % to HealthKit, which is nice. However the body fat reading is very inaccurate, and not at all consistent read to read. It’s only vaguely useful, as a general trend line over time.
“Cardiovascular assessment: Standing heart rage”
lol mine does not measure my standing rage-level, thankfully.
I have an earlier version of the scale and while it has been reasonably accurate the thing that has always bothered me is the requirement for a subscription. The app also wants you to give it access to your health information so that it can upload everything else to their servers, where it is nicely protected by whatever security measures and privacy policy they decide to implement -- or not. (Yes, I have cut that off so it doesn't have access to that, but still...)
I returned my old one after I read the privacy policy. :s They have full rights to take any data they collect, so it makes sense the new one “does more” so they have more data to sell.