Whenever I talk to people who work in the quantified self—fitness and health trackers—there’s a murmur about how little attention is paid to literally half the population. For menstruating people, cycle tracking is a critical indicator of health, but too often it’s a metric that somehow seems to slip between the cracks.
The media started preview of the cycle tracking function in select markets in September 2023 when the ScanWatch 2 launches. The company just launched the feature globally, on-watch for its ScanWatch 2 and ScanWatch Light hybrid smartwatches and for all Withings users in the app. The company lags significantly behind rival Apple, which introduced a comparable feature four years earlier.
At its core, the cycle tracker feature allows users to record the stages of their menstrual cycle, including symptoms, flow and period dates, as well as record moods and emotions and get a view of where they are in the cycle. their cycle. Once the app knows your typical cycle, it predicts future period dates, helping users create personal routines that align with their monthly needs and optimize sleep, activity and nutrition.
What took you so long?
TechCrunch spoke with Etienne Trégaro, product manager responsible for, among other things, the company’s watches.
“Being able to track your menstrual cycle was one of the top feature requests from our community. That’s why it’s important for us to provide this capability in the new ScanWatch,” Trégaro told TechCrunch.
I’m not surprised that this was one of the most requested features. What surprised me is why it took so long to get the Withings up and running — and why it’s a fully manual operation. The implementation of the feature relies on people entering data manually, rather than, say, using biometrics like heart rate, temperature or something else to track cycles more automatically. (Incidentally, it is possible to use temperature monitoring as a server for cycle monitoring, but you have to be very precise with the measurement).
As I write this, women’s health is front and center on the Withings website. Image Credits: Facsimile of the Withings home page.
“We have been very focused on health in general, with new biomarkers and innovative ways to monitor health. Choosing which feature to develop next is difficult. So [cycle tracking] it’s been a while – you might say slow – but we first want to be able to track activity, heart rate and other metrics. We measure things that competitors don’t, like temperature 24/7. No one is doing it on the market yet. Except for us,” says Trégaro. “So now we felt our team was ready to release this feature. I’ve learned a lot, too, doing the development of this feature. As a man, of course, to be honest, and working with female colleagues and professionals to understand the importance of launching such a tool was really key.”
I was slightly surprised that the company couldn’t find a product manager who had experience tracking their cycles before, but I was curious what Trégaro learned along the way.
“One of the biggest realizations was that about 25% of women in the world actually have irregular cycles. So it’s a lot. Also, something I learned is that from a doctor’s perspective, [cycle tracking is] one of the most important metrics to track in terms of overall health — as important as blood pressure for women, for example,” explains Trégaro.
Building functionality
Withings has been at the forefront of health technology for a while. building high-quality, attractive gear you’d love to have in your home or on your wrist, from smart scales to advanced wristwatches. Each product release is met with anticipation and excitement as they consistently deliver on form and function. Persistent rumors that Apple wants to buy Withings refuse to die down, but no one on either side is willing to confirm or deny them.
Trégaro explains that menstrual cycle tracking represents a major leap forward in personalized health monitoring. For too long, the tech world’s approach to health has been somewhat generic, focusing on step counting, heart rate monitoring, and sleep tracking. As important as these metrics are, they provide an incomplete picture of a person’s health. By integrating menstrual cycle tracking, Withings recognizes the complex and delicate nature of health — and adds more features to help you track, measure and predict.
It may be late (ironic, really, in the world of cycle tracking), but the introduction shows Withings’ continued commitment to listening to its community and understanding the diverse needs of its users. To its credit, in a market filled with gadgets vying for attention, Withings has managed to carve out a niche for itself by focusing on essential innovation.
The market that Withings is going after with cycle tracking is extremely large. App stores are filled with tracking apps and some analysts predict that the money spent on monitoring the cycle alone is already $750 million and will double by 2032.
Addressing this need required Withings to embark on an extensive development process that involved both adapting existing hardware and creating new algorithms. Trégaro and his team spent months researching and developing, working closely with healthcare professionals to ensure accuracy and reliability.
Trégaro explains that Withings’ goal wasn’t just to add another feature—the team wanted to seamlessly integrate menstrual cycle tracking into our users’ health monitoring routines, providing them with valuable information that could inform their daily lives.
In the US in particular, period tracking is in the spotlight for not-so-important reasons related to abortion-related legislation.
It’s reassuring, then, that Withings has emphasized its commitment to privacy and security. With sensitive health data at stake, Withings says it has implemented strong measures to protect user information — though the company has also opened the door to syncing your data with platforms like Apple Health.
It’s worth highlighting the differences between Withings’ and Apple’s approaches. While the Apple Watch is the mini-iPhone that does everything on your wrist, Withing watches take a different look.
“We have our powers [over Apple Watch]. We have a market-leading battery life of up to 30 days on our watches, compared to one or two days on the Apple Watch,” smiles Trégaro. “And we have a beautiful design — almost like a real wristwatch. This allows us to have that battery life because we have a smaller screen. We focus on continuous measurement of health.”
