WHOOP just added a social network to its app, called, WHOOP Humans.

You can now follow friends and family, see the data they choose to share and react to it. So yes, your training partner can now see your 34% recovery and leave a fire emoji on it.

What’s Happening

WHOOP Humans is a follow-based feed inside the WHOOP app. Members can share Sleep, Recovery, Strain, activities and achievements, and the people who follow them can react and comment.

There’s also a new feature called Moments, which lets you attach photos from workouts, milestones and other life stuff to your data. You can share Moments or keep them private.

WHOOP’s pitch is that this is a social network with no bots. Every account is tied to a wearable, so every post traces back to a real person’s data.

“In a world that’s becoming increasingly artificial, we’re building something deeply human,” said WHOOP founder and CEO Will Ahmed. “This is the most verifiably human network ever launched.”

How It’s Different From Teams

WHOOP already has a social feature. Teams is built around groups and leaderboards, and WHOOP says 57% of members already belong to at least one. Teams isn’t going anywhere.

Humans is more personal. Instead of a group where everybody sees everybody, you follow specific people and they follow you back, or don’t. WHOOP’s example: a friend sees your Recovery is low and checks in. A coach following a handful of athletes without those athletes seeing each other’s data is another obvious use.

Privacy Controls

This is the part I’d actually read before turning it on. WHOOP says everything is opt-in, and the controls include:

• Picking which metrics you share, including Recovery, Strain, Sleep, HRV and resting heart rate
• Managing and removing followers
• Stealth Mode, which temporarily hides your shared data without changing your settings
• Sensitive activities, which aren’t shared by default
• Choosing which workout types and achievements show up
• Private Moments

WHOOP also says it doesn’t sell or monetize members’ personal health data. The minimum age to use WHOOP is reportedly 13, and higher in some countries.

A Busy Stretch for WHOOP

WHOOP has been stacking features all year, from clinician access to now a social feed. LeBron James just signed on as a global ambassador.

WHOOP also agreed to an $11 million settlement of a class action over membership auto-renewals for California members who bought through its website. That deal still needs a California court’s approval.

My Thoughts

The real question is whether a wearable brand can pull the social side of training away from Strava. Strava owns that space today, and it keeps adding features. It’s where people post the long run, argue about segments and give kudos. WHOOP is betting the data underneath matters more than the map, and that “real person, real heartbeat” beats another feed of bots.

I’m skeptical people want to broadcast their recovery score. A PR or a big ride is fun to share. A 22% red recovery after a bad night of sleep isn’t exactly content. But the low-recovery use case is the most interesting part of this. As a coach, seeing an athlete’s sleep and recovery trends without waiting for them to tell me is useful. Seeing that a friend is clearly running on fumes and checking in is useful too. That’s less social network and more accountability, and it could actually work.

Where this lands depends on who’s on the other end. If your training group, your coach or your family is already wearing WHOOP, Humans could stick. If they’re all on Strava, I don’t see anyone moving their kudos over. I haven’t used it yet. I’ll see if anyone in my circle bites.