I generally love my Whoop band, but there's no question that the company's subscription-only model isn't for everyone. A few weeks ago, a hobbyist created an app that can connect to your old Whoop 4.0 strap. I loved the idea, since an independent app sounds like a great way to keep your data private and to make use of an otherwise obsolete piece of hardware. But as I worked through the steps of compiling and testing the freshly posted code, I noticed more apps like it popping up on Reddit and Github.
“In cases that violate our IP, trademarks, or terms of use, we have reached out to individuals to take down their apps,” a Whoop spokesperson said to me in a statement. The developers that I’ve spoken to, for their part, believe that what they’re doing is legal and ethical.
But before I get into why I’m excited about the independent projects, I’d like to include Whoop’s entire statement to me, so you can see where they’re coming from:
“We support third-party app development with our developer APIs and have even created an easy-to-use developer platform. However, not all third-party apps or independent tools are created, reviewed, or authorized by WHOOP.”
The promise of independent Whoop apps
Whoop’s app is good, in my opinion; it goes well beyond basic tracking, and I still think it’s worth the money if you’re a devoted athlete or you really like to nerd out about how well your body is handling the stress you put it under.
That’s the idea behind apps like Noop, Goose, Wearable, and more. These newer apps aren’t the only ones compatible with Whoop hardware, but they appeared recently and they quickly overtook several older, long-simmering projects that had been working on the same question: How can an independent app read data from a Whoop device? Because if a free app can read the device’s data over Bluetooth, you could use the hardware for your own purposes without the Whoop app or subscription service.
How a non-Whoop app can talk to a Whoop band (and why it’s taken so long to get here)
Screenshots from the Noop app Credit: Beth Skwarecki/NoopAs several developers told me, a Whoop device, fresh out of the box, communicates certain things over Bluetooth. If a computer or phone communicates back in the right way, the two devices can become paired and bonded, and send data and commands back and forth. To have a functional Whoop-like app, the phone has to know how to hold up its end of the conversation.
A few weeks ago, developer Johnathan Middleton posted on the Whoop subreddit that he had managed, with the aid of Claude Code, to decode more of the Whoop 4.0 communication protocol than had previously been known. He posted the code for an iPhone app and a server that you can run on your own computer to process the data. The project was on the software repository Github under the name "my-whoop," which has since changed to "Wearable." It is still available here, but to use it, you’ll need to know how to compile and sideload an iPhone app—not a beginner-friendly process.
Middleton announced his project on the Whoop subreddit on May 30. On June 2, another developer announced a project called Goose, which is meant to work with the newer 5.0/MG bands. On June 7, yet another developer posted the first of many announcements about a project called Noop that builds off both Wearable and Goose to communicate with both types of bands.
On June 17, I noted that Noop’s code was gone from Github (the platform that hosts code for pretty much all these projects). Noop’s developer said that he hadn’t heard anything from Whoop directly, but that Github took it down. He appealed the decision and the repository was reinstated. In the meantime, he set up a mirror of the code here.
Goose was supposed to launch its app over TestFlight (a beta testing platform for iPhone apps) on June 13, but never did. I have not been able to get in touch with the developer. The code is still available on Github, but archived as read-only, suggesting that the project is dead.
How you run an unofficial Whoop app
Bigger developers will often distribute an app for testing through a platform called TestFlight. You may have used this if you’ve ever beta-tested an iPhone app. Eventually, of course, such a developer might aim to have the app available on the real App Store. But if you just want to tinker with some code you downloaded, you need to be able to compile the app with Xcode, then sideload it (that is, transfer it locally, usually over a USB cable). To do that, well, let’s just say there were a lot of steps I had to figure out. I managed to build Wearable and load it onto my iPhone; later, when I was testing Noop, I found an unsigned .ipa (app) file that another hobbyist had created from Noop’s code, and I installed it via Sideloadly, which shortcut the process a bit—although that’s still risky, because it isn't easily confirmed that the .ipa contains the app I think it does.
The process is simpler on Android, but again, risky. Someone can give you an .apk file, which is already compiled and ready to install. Installing is as simple as clicking a link to the .apk from your Android phone, and tapping a button to say that, yes, you know you probably shouldn’t install this, but you want to anyway.
But do these apps work?
Screenshots from Wearable as I was trying to connect to the device Credit: Beth Skwarecki / WearableThat’s not unusual when you’re trying out code that’s still under development. Maybe I screwed up somehow, or maybe the apps are just buggy. It would take more methodical testing on my part to narrow down why I’m getting the problems I am. I’ve seen posts on Reddit from people who had more success than I did in getting Wearable and Noop working; Middleton showed me his phone with Wearable working smoothly.
I’m looking forward to that. Reverse engineering, as these projects are called, is generally legal as long as the developer is not directly copying the company’s work or violating its terms of service. But most hobbyist developers aren’t prepared to fight legal battles even if they would theoretically win them, so takedown requests can often be enough to chill development. Aside from Noop, the projects I mentioned haven’t seen active development in at least the past week or so. I haven’t seen any new copycat apps on the subreddit, either. Feels pretty chilly to me.
Why I don’t think this is the end of alternative Whoop apps
Whoop surely knows this. The company is no longer pinning its business model to a single device (or app subscription), but has been branching out into the healthcare space. They now offer blood tests, which are pricey and repeatable. Earlier this year, Whoop joined Medicare’s ACCESS program. The Mayo Clinic and medical device company Abbott have both invested in Whoop, according to Forbes. The Whoop device and app may be the company's best-known products, but they're not the only way the company plans to make money.
Those are the questions I’m pondering. I’d love to have a reliable, free alternative to the Whoop app, or even to the Google Health app. Wearable devices are incredibly personal—they know every time your heart beats—and I don’t love that the only way to use these devices, in most cases, is to share that personal data with a large corporation. I think we should have independent apps, especially ones that work with abandoned tech. Here’s hoping they stick around, and keep improving.
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