The short answer is no—Whoop is not considered a smartwatch in the traditional sense. While both devices are worn on the wrist and track health metrics, they serve fundamentally different purposes and offer distinctly different features. Understanding the difference between Whoop and smartwatches is crucial for anyone deciding which wearable technology best fits their lifestyle and fitness goals.
What Defines a Smartwatch?
To understand why Whoop isn't classified as a smartwatch, we first need to establish what makes a device a “smartwatch.” Most smartwatches have a backlit LCD or OLED electronic visual display and are powered by a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, often featuring apps, a mobile operating system, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, and the ability to function as portable media players.
A smartwatch is defined as a wristwatch that includes computerized functionality such as the ability to display text messages or notifications and is usually designed to work with a smartphone. Smartwatches come equipped with a touchscreen display, enabling users to interact with the device through taps, swipes, and gestures.
Key characteristics that define smartwatches include:
Visual Display: The most obvious feature—a screen that shows time, notifications, apps, and various information at a glance. This can range from basic monochrome displays to vibrant AMOLED screens.
Notification System: Smartwatches mirror your smartphone notifications, allowing you to read texts, emails, and app alerts directly from your wrist without pulling out your phone.
App Ecosystem: Like smartphones, smartwatches support third-party applications for everything from weather updates to games, productivity tools, and social media.
Interactive Interface: Touch screens, rotating bezels, or digital crowns allow users to navigate menus, respond to messages, and control various functions.
Phone Integration: Most smartwatches can be used to make phone calls and send and receive text messages, though they require a smartphone to function as the data is first received by the phone, then sent to the watch.
What Is Whoop?
Whoop takes a completely different approach to wearable technology. The Whoop doesn't look like a watch—it has no watch face, no lights, and no indicators to say it's on; everything is run through the Whoop App. Instead of being a miniature smartphone on your wrist, Whoop is a specialized fitness and recovery tracker designed for one purpose: optimizing athletic performance and overall health.
The WHOOP 4.0 focuses on tracking recovery and optimizing performance by monitoring key health metrics like heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), sleep, and strain, giving users insights into how well they are recovering and adapting to daily workouts.
Core Features of Whoop
Screenless Design: The most striking difference between Whoop and smartwatches is the complete absence of a screen. This design choice is intentional—it encourages users to focus on their health data retrospectively rather than constantly checking their wrist.
Recovery-Focused Metrics: The Whoop is focused on three main metrics—sleep, strain, and recovery—all of which are calculated based on continuous measurements of heart rate, movement, and skin temperature. Every morning, you receive a recovery score that tells you whether you should push hard in training or take it easy.
Continuous Monitoring: Unlike smartwatches that you might charge overnight, Whoop is designed to be worn 24/7. WHOOP 5.0 lasts 14+ days on a single charge, and can be worn on multiple locations across the body for 24/7 insights .
Subscription Model: Whoop operates on a membership basis rather than a one-time purchase. The device itself costs $359, and it requires a subscription to work properly; the Whoop app costs $199 per year for the basic package, and if you want full access to features like ECG and blood pressure insights, you have to pay $359 per year.
Advanced Health Tracking: With five LEDs and four photodiodes built-in, WHOOP samples data more often than most competitors, and compared to the gold standard ECG for heart rate and heart rate variability metrics, WHOOP was found to have over 99% accuracy.
Key Differences Between Whoop and Smartwatches
Display and Interface
The most obvious difference is the display—or lack thereof. Smartwatches feature prominent screens that you interact with throughout the day. You can glance at your Apple Watch or Samsung Galaxy Watch to check the time, read a message, or launch an app. The lack of screen on Whoop removes any temptation to glance at your wrist halfway through a workout to check your heart's still pounding, or be interrupted mid-meeting by incessant notifications.
Primary Purpose
The Apple Watch offers a general health-tracking experience with features like ECG monitoring, step tracking, and meditation prompts, but lacks the depth of recovery metrics WHOOP has; it's an all-in-one gadget for fitness tracking and smart features like calls and texts, whereas WHOOP zeroes in on holistic wellness and performance optimization.
Smartwatches are designed to be smartphone companions—convenient devices that keep you connected while reducing the need to constantly pull out your phone. They're multifunctional tools that handle communications, productivity, entertainment, and health tracking.
Whoop, on the other hand, is a specialized performance optimization tool. It's designed for serious athletes, fitness enthusiasts, and health-conscious individuals who want to understand their body's readiness for physical exertion and recovery needs.
Notification Handling
Smartwatches excel at keeping you connected. They buzz with incoming calls, texts, emails, social media notifications, and app alerts. You can respond to messages, answer calls, and even use voice assistants—all from your wrist.
Whoop deliberately avoids all of this. There are no notifications, no calls, no texts. The device focuses entirely on collecting biometric data in the background, which you review later in the app when convenient.
Battery Life Philosophy
Most smartwatches require daily or every-other-day charging. The Apple Watch Series 10, for example, typically lasts about 18 hours with moderate use. Samsung Galaxy Watches might stretch to two or three days.
The Whoop MG promises up to two weeks of battery life—and that is indeed true. This extended battery life is possible because there's no power-hungry display or constant notifications. The device's near limitless battery life is a major upgrade on previous models and one of its greatest strengths over the fitness wearable competition.
Data Philosophy
Smartwatches present data in real-time. You can check your current heart rate, see your step count climbing throughout the day, and monitor active calories burned during a workout. The emphasis is on immediate feedback and instant gratification.
Whoop takes a retrospective approach. The reams of biometric data the 5.0 band collects via its optical heart rate sensor, accelerometer, and gyroscope can be viewed at leisure on Whoop's accompanying mobile app, which is handy to identify gaps and plug glaring holes in your wellbeing arsenal. The focus is on understanding patterns over time and using that data to make better training and lifestyle decisions.
The Latest Whoop Models: 5.0 and MG
Whoop has recently expanded its lineup with two new models that blur the lines slightly—but still don't quite make it a smartwatch.
Whoop 5.0
The Whoop 5.0 and Whoop MG are virtually identical and look very similar to the Whoop 4.0, but they are both 7% smaller and thinner. WHOOP 5.0 delivers more tech in a smaller package with sensors that capture data points every second, all with 10x more power efficiency.
The 5.0 model introduces new features that bring it closer to comprehensive health monitoring:
Healthspan Tracking: Developed in collaboration with Dr. Eric Verdin of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, the Healthspan feature distills nine key biomarkers—including time spent in specific heart rate zones, sleep consistency, VO2 max, and lean body mass—to calculate your physiological Whoop Age and track your Pace of Aging.
Blood Pressure Insights: Users can log traditional cuff readings in-app to calibrate their baseline and unlock Blood Pressure Insights.
Enhanced AI Coaching: The Whoop Coach provides personalized recommendations based on your recovery, strain, and sleep data.
Whoop MG (Medical Grade)
WHOOP MG is designed to deliver medical-grade insights like heart screening capabilities with ECG capabilities available exclusively on WHOOP MG, offering medical-grade, clinically-accurate ECG readings you can do from the comfort of home.
The Whoop MG is best suited for serious athletes and data geeks who are laser-focused on maximizing their exercise performance and recovery; for beginners, it can be a feature overkill.
Even with these advanced features, the MG model maintains Whoop's core philosophy: no screen, no notifications, just comprehensive health and performance data.
Who Should Choose Whoop vs. a Smartwatch?
Choose Whoop If:
You're a Serious Athlete: If your primary goal is optimizing training, understanding recovery, and preventing overtraining, Whoop's specialized focus makes it invaluable. Professional athletes across the NBA, NFL, and Olympic sports use Whoop for exactly this reason.
You Want Uninterrupted Focus: The sensor is designed for all-day wear, and can capture metrics at all hours, whether washing dishes, completing an intense HIIT workout, or sleeping. Without a screen or notifications, you can focus on life without constant digital interruptions.
Recovery Is Your Priority: If you're training seriously and need to know when to push hard and when to back off, Whoop's recovery scores provide actionable guidance that most smartwatches can't match in depth or accuracy.
You Value Data Over Connectivity: WHOOP provides insight specific to your workouts, health, physiology, and individual situation, calibrating over the first 30 days to understand your unique baseline and then tailoring personalized recommendations specifically to your physiology.
Choose a Smartwatch If:
You Want an All-in-One Device: If you need notifications, apps, music control, contactless payments, and fitness tracking all in one device, a smartwatch is the clear choice.
You Prefer Visual Feedback: If you like checking your stats in real-time during workouts or glancing at your wrist to see progress throughout the day, you need a screen.
You're a Casual Fitness Enthusiast: For general fitness tracking, step counting, and basic health monitoring, a smartwatch provides more than enough functionality without requiring the deep dive into recovery science that Whoop demands.
Budget Considerations: While high-end smartwatches can be expensive, there are excellent options at various price points. Whoop's ongoing subscription cost can add up significantly over time.
The Hybrid Category: Fitness Trackers
It's worth noting that both Whoop and smartwatches exist in the broader category of wearable fitness technology, but they represent opposite ends of the spectrum. In between, you'll find devices like the Oura Ring, Fitbit trackers, and Garmin fitness watches that blend elements of both.
The Oura Ring offers an alternative approach with similar goals to Whoop, focusing on sleep and recovery without a screen. Meanwhile, Garmin's fitness watches offer robust training features with screens but less emphasis on style and smartphone integration than typical smartwatches.
The Verdict
So, is Whoop considered a smartwatch? Definitively no. While Whoop is an incredibly sophisticated piece of wearable technology, it lacks the defining characteristics of a smartwatch: a display, notification system, app ecosystem, and smartphone integration for communication purposes.
Whoop is better categorized as a specialized fitness and recovery tracker or performance optimization wearable. It represents a different philosophy in wearable technology—one that prioritizes deep health insights and uninterrupted focus over connectivity and convenience.
Whoop is clearly addressing a core challenge for wearables: the need to drive sustainable behavioral change, staking its claim for the future by moving decisively into territory aimed at enhancing not only fitness but also overall long-term health.
The choice between Whoop and a smartwatch isn't about which is “better”—it's about which aligns with your priorities. If you want a device that keeps you connected while providing basic fitness data, choose a smartwatch. If you're serious about optimizing your training, understanding your body's recovery needs, and making data-driven decisions about your health, Whoop offers insights that no smartwatch can match.
For some users, the ideal solution might even be both: a smartwatch for daily connectivity and convenience, with Whoop running silently in the background, collecting the deep physiological data that informs long-term health and performance decisions. But make no mistake—Whoop and smartwatches serve fundamentally different purposes, and understanding that distinction is key to making the right choice for your needs.
