Whoop is moving beyond wearables to test your blood, integrating the results with its AI-powered app — and its latest evolution is smarter than ever | Tech Radar

Overview

News, deals, reviews, guides and more on the newest computing gadgets

Start exploring exclusive deals, expert advice and more

Details

Unlock and manage exclusive Techradar member rewards.

Whoop is moving beyond wearables to test your blood, integrating the results with its AI-powered app — and its latest evolution is smarter than ever

Specialized Panels is a blood test which 'allows Whoop AI to deliver even more personalized, relevant insights' about your body.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Unlock instant access to exclusive member features.

Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards.

Whoop is rolling out a new version of its Advanced Labs blood-testing program, Specialized Panels

Once tested, you get the results in-app, and Whoop’s AI can use it to provide better health insights

For a while now, Whoop members in the US have had the option to pay an additional fee on top of their annual subscription for Whoop’s Advanced Labs feature.

Whether you’ve got a Whoop 5.0, a Whoop MG or an old-school Whoop 4.0, you can head to the nearest Quest Diagnostics lab, get a blood test for up to 59 biomarkers, and see the results in the Whoop app. Whoop can then add this data to its smorgasbord of collected sleep, heart rate, training and recovery data to provide more personalized health insights.

Whoop has revealed the next stage of this program, Specialized Panels. For a one-time fee of $299, users can get a blood test drawn with Quest Diagnostics providing between 75 and 89 biomarkers spread across one of five ‘panels’: heart health, performance, metabolic function, women’s and men’s health.

Walmart's Presidents' Day sale gives you an incredibly cheap way to get a Whoop band — and a 12-month subscription

Amazfit Helio Strap vs Polar Loop vs Whoop 5.0: Which should you buy?

Whoop calls its new clothing range a 'technical garment system' and I honestly don't know what else I expected

Just like Advanced Labs, the blood test provides information on cardiometabolic risks, vitamin deficiencies, hormones and so on. That information gets turned into ‘clear, actionable insights’, as Whoop’s in-app AI can grab the info and use it in conjunction with all the other data your Whoop band collects. However, these Specialized Panels allow users to drill-down on areas of particular concern. Whoop says ‘this marks a shift from broad, comprehensive testing toward more focused, goal-based insights’.

Whoop’s one of only a handful of health tech companies that have started incorporating blood tests. Oura, makers of the best smart rings, has a Health Panels feature covering 50 biomarkers which costs $99.

Blood testing and tech: Is there anything to worry about?

Blood tests can show all sorts of things, from levels of the stress hormone cortisol, to testosterone or oestrogen levels, to hemoglobin which helps transport oxygen to your muscles and brain. Low hemoglobin levels, for example, can cause tiredness because not enough oxygen is getting to the body parts that need it, and Whoop will factor this in when analyzing your stress, strain and recovery times.

It’s all very clever, but there’s a hidden worry to this: handing your blood over to big tech, and AI integration, and what they might do with such sensitive information.

Whoop’s Head of Healthcare Product, Alex Vannoi, told me via email that: “Specialized Panels are built on the same rigorous foundation as the rest of our platform. We use end-to-end encryption, strict access controls, and continuous monitoring to safeguard data, and only collect what’s necessary to deliver the service.

“When we work with trusted clinical partners, information is shared in a highly controlled way and used solely for its intended purpose.” Whoop also doesn’t train its AI on personally identifiable data.

Tennis stars ordered to remove Whoop trackers at Australian Open

This cheeky Whoop hack is saving some owners hundreds on subscriptions

'Oura’s long‑term vision is to help shift health systems' — Oura's chief medical officer tells us how it's using smart rings to shape US legislation

Could your blood be used for advertising? It all sounds very Cyberpunk. While blood test results could be considered ‘protected health information’ under US law, the sharing process between Whoop and Quest Diagnostics, outside of a clinical setting, makes it a grayer area. Certainly Whoop seems to treat your data well, but do its partners?

I've emailed Quest Diagnostics to ask whether Whoop user’s data could be shared with third parties for marketing purposes, and I'll update this article if and when I receive a response.

Follow Tech Radar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!

And of course you can also follow Tech Radar on Tik Tok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us on Whats App too.

Matt is Tech Radar's expert on all things fitness, wellness and wearable tech.

A former staffer at Men's Health, he holds a Master's Degree in journalism from Cardiff and has written for brands like Runner's World, Women's Health, Men's Fitness, Live Science and Fit&Well on everything fitness tech, exercise, nutrition and mental wellbeing.

Matt's a keen runner, ex-kickboxer, not averse to the odd yoga flow, and insists everyone should stretch every morning. When he’s not training or writing about health and fitness, he can be found reading doorstop-thick fantasy books with lots of fictional maps in them.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

1 Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream director says development started in 2017 after discussing a 'special attachment' to the series with the producer, but had already 'squeezed all we could' out of the 3DS title

2 The Sony WH-CH520 Headphones offer 'simply superb value' at just $38 on Amazon

3 Turtle Beach reveals the successor to the Stealth Pro, one of our favorite premium gaming headsets, featuring Cross Play 2.0 multiplatform switching and Dolby Atmos

4'This is not a traditional coding error': Experts flag potentially critical security issues at the heart of Anthropic's MCP, exposes 150 million downloads and thousands of servers to complete takeover

5 Elon Musk reveals Tesla’s powerful new AI5 chip — but don't expect it to improve Full Self-Driving anytime soon

Tech Radar is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Key Takeaways

• News, deals, reviews, guides and more on the newest computing gadgets

• Start exploring exclusive deals, expert advice and more

• Unlock and manage exclusive Techradar member rewards

• Whoop is moving beyond wearables to test your blood, integrating the results with its AI-powered app — and its latest evolution is smarter than ever

• Specialized Panels is a blood test which 'allows Whoop AI to deliver even more personalized, relevant insights' about your body