Amazon Moves Into Wearables With Halo

Seattle—Amazon’s new gadget is giving the retail titan a foothold in the fitness wearables space.

The Amazon Halo is a mix between a smartwatch and a fitness tracker, minus the screen or notifications.

A small band worn around the wrist uses sensors to collect health data, like temperature and heart rate, and sends it to the Halo app.

For access to all of the features, customers will need to purchase a Halo membership.

An early access promotional price of $64.99 gets customers the band and six months of a Halo membership. It would otherwise be $99.99.

After the initial period, the membership renews automatically for $3.99 per month.

Those without a membership have access to the basics, including step counts, sleep time and heart rate. Using the app, customers can get insight into their activity, sleep cycle, weight and body fat percentage.

The “Tone” feature analyzes the energy and positivity in your voice using machine learning, offering tips to improve communication with others.

For example, a stressful work call leads to negative communication with family members, showing the impact of stress on your emotional state, Amazon explained.

The “Labs” feature provides workouts and fitness challenges to help customers reach their health goals.

Some of these workouts and challenges are created by Amazon, while others are from partners including the American Heart Association, Mayo Clinic, Headspace and Orangetheory Fitness.

The water resistant band is available in sizes small, medium, and large and in three color variations: a black fabric band with an onyx-color sensor capsule, a blush fabric band with a rose gold-color sensor capsule, and a silver band with a silver-color sensor capsule.

Additional fabric bands are available in six colors, including Denim, Hummingbird, Mint Edge, Olive, Unicorn, and Volcano. The early access price for the fabric bands is $19.99.

Silicone sport bands are also available, in nine colors: Ash, Black, Dark Mint, Domino, Lavender, Pink Slate, Seafoam, Sunset and White. The early access price for the fabric bands is $15.99.

The Halo’s battery fully charges in less than 90 minutes and lasts up to seven days.

With privacy concerns mounting, Amazon said it has implemented multiple layers of privacy and security to keep personal data safe and within the customer’s control.

Health data is encrypted, both in transit and in the cloud, and customers can download or delete it at any time using the app.

Body scan images are only seen by the customer and are automatically deleted from the cloud after processing.

Tone