Apple Watch Series 12's Faster Heart-Rate Sampling and Readiness App Could Win Back WHOOP Users, 9to5Mac Writer Says

In an opinion piece published on September 19, the writer said he had turned to the WHOOP as a longtime Apple Watch user looking for a cleaner way to track health data than the Apple Watch was offering at the time. He attributed part of the shift back to the new Apple Health app, which he said presents health statistics in a much cleaner interface and makes the data easier to understand. Poor data presentation, he wrote, was the main problem that pushed him away from the Apple Watch.

The other factor is how often the device collects heart-rate data. According to the piece, the Apple Watch Series 12 now samples heart rate once every five seconds, compared with once every five minutes on previous models. That remains less frequent than the WHOOP's once-per-second sampling, but the writer said a five-second interval is acceptable for anyone who is not an athlete.

The Series 12 also introduces a Readiness app on the watch, which produces a health score from 1 to 10 based on heart-rate variability and other factors. The writer compared it to the recovery score the WHOOP calculates, which he said he likes to track because the Apple Watch's existing sleep score was not always useful. He said the sleep score tends to be high after a long sleep regardless of whether other sleep factors were poor.

The writer noted that he has been a WHOOP user for roughly the past six months but never abandoned the Apple Watch, largely because its screen offers utility that keeps him from reaching for his phone. He stopped short of declaring the Series 12 a definitive change for health tracking, saying only time will tell, and asked readers whether they plan to upgrade for the new features or keep their current Apple Watch.