Fitbit founders launch Luffu Link, a $250 screenless health and safety band

Unlike the fitness trackers they created at Fitbit, Luffu Link does not focus on counting steps. Instead, it combines health tracking with safety and communication features. The band can track activity, sleep, and heart rate, while allowing users to record symptoms, medications, meals, mood, and reminders by voice. It also has GPS and LTE, enabling users to share their location and contact trusted people even when their phone is not nearby. A double press can send a check-in to selected family members, and the wearer can request help through the device. LTE service is included without a separate carrier plan. Luffu says the band can last up to five days on a charge and will be available in Halo Gold, Onyx Black, and Sterling Blue.

Park and Friedman founded Fitbit in 2007 before it was acquired by Google in 2019. This time, the co-founders are taking a different approach to health technology. Luffu’s idea came partly from their experiences as caregivers and from observing that most health technology is designed for individuals, even though health and care often involve an entire family.

Luffu Link is just the first device of Luffu’s larger plan. The company’s phone app is designed to bring a family’s health and safety information together in one place, with AI helping to organize the data, identify patterns, and surface important changes. Luffu says families will control what information is shared and with whom. The company also says Link only records voice when the wearer presses and holds its main button. The Luffu app is currently in public beta and is expected to become broadly available in the US later this year.

Meanwhile, Luffu is also developing a home device to help families coordinate care across multiple households. No details are available about this device for now, but the company has promised that more details will arrive later this year.