Withings (pronounced "Wy-things" (en.) or "Wee-things" (fr.)) is a French

consumer electronics Consumer electronics, also known as home electronics, are electronic devices intended for everyday household use. Consumer electronics include those used for entertainment, Communication, communications, and recreation. Historically, these prod ...

company headquartered in

Issy-les-Moulineaux Issy-les-Moulineaux () is a commune in the southwestern suburban area of Paris, France, lying on the left bank of the river Seine. Its citizens are called in French. It is one of Paris's entrances and is located from Notre Dame Cathedral, whic ...

, France. It also has offices in

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, USA, and Hong Kong, and distributes its products worldwide. Withings is known for design and innovation in connected devices, such as the first

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for Wireless LAN, local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by ...

scale on the market (introduced in 2009), an

FDA The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of food ...

-cleared

blood pressure monitor A sphygmomanometer ( ), also known as a blood pressure monitor, blood pressure machine, or blood pressure gauge, is a device used to measure blood pressure, composed of an inflatable cuff to collapse and then release the artery under the cuff in ...

, a smart sleep system, and a line of automatic activity tracking watches. It also provides B2B services for healthcare providers and researchers. Withings was purchased by Finnish company

Nokia Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, originally established as a pulp mill in 1 ...

on 26 April 2016 and became a division of Nokia known as Nokia Health. The Withings brand continued to be used until June 2017, when it was replaced by the Nokia brand. In May 2018,

Éric Carreel Éric Carreel (born 28 June 1959 in Amiens), is a French engineer and serial entrepreneur. He is the founding president of Withings, Sculpteo, Invoxia and Zoov. He is a graduate of ESPCI ParisTech, holds a PhD in engineering from the Pierre ...

, Withings' founder, finalized a deal to regain control and the company became independent again, under the Withings name.

History

Early history

Withings was founded in 2008 by three executives from the technology and telecom industries:

(CEO), who was co-founder of

Inventel Inventel was a French company developing consumer electronics and communication systems, noted for Gateway (telecommunications), domestic gateways and considered one of the primary architects of Triple play (telecommunications), Triple play in Eu ...

; Cédric Hutchings; and Fred Potter. In September 2010, Withings received its first

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

funding – $3.8 million from Ventech – to fund the development of the company's next two products. In January 2011, Withings announced at the

Consumer Electronics Show CES (; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada, United States, the event typi ...

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

that its second product would be a

that connects to the

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

. It also announced it would produce a

baby monitor A baby monitor, also known as a baby alarm, is a radio system used to remotely listen to sounds made by an infant. An audio monitor consists of a transmitter unit, equipped with a microphone, placed near to the child. It transmits the sounds by ...

for use with

smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...

s and other connected devices, which was made available to purchase across Europe in November 2011 and in the United States in February 2012. Withings received a $30 million investment from Bpifrance, Idinvest Partners, 360 CapitalPartners, and Ventech in July 2013. The company integrated with Apple's HealthKit platform in October 2014. The compatibility across Withings' range of connected devices enabled the integration of personal data into the

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

Health app. At WebSummit in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, 2015, the company announced a partnership with

MyFitnessPal MyFitnessPal is a health and fitness tracking smartphone app and website. The app is available for Android and iOS devices. Overview MyFitnessPal is a smartphone application which uses gamification elements for exercise and diet management. ...

. The partnership combined Withings' Health Mate app with MyFitnessPal's nutrition data to let the users know whether they were exercising enough in relation to their diet.

2016 to 2018; Acquisition by Nokia

In April 2016,

announced it had struck a deal to acquire Withings and integrate it with the group's Nokia Technologies division. The acquisition closed on 31 May 2016. The CEO of Withings, Cédric Hutchings, became the leader of the new Digital Health business of Nokia Technologies. At the time of the acquisition, the Withings brand was said to continue to exist, at least for the time being; however, by the winter of 2016, the brand had already transitioned from the original "Withings Inspire Health" to "Withings Part of Nokia". On February 26, 2017, it was announced that Withings would no longer be used as a brand: its devices would be sold under the Nokia brand. The rebranding was completed on June 20, 2017.

2018 to present; Purchase by Éric Carreel

On May 2, 2018, Nokia announced plans to sell its health tech business to Withings co-founder

. The sale was completed at the end of that month. Carreel had left Nokia in 2017 and completed the purchase of Withings later in 2018. In April 2019, Withings relocated a factory in France. The same year, it also released three new products including the Withings Move, a customizable smartwatch. Withings acquired both device company Impeto Medical as well as the personalized fitness and meal planning app 8fit in 2022. It incorporated technology for monitoring peripheral neuropathies into its smart scale products which was launched the same year. In 2023, it presented U-Scan, a reader and replaceable cartridge for individual urine testing, set to be released in late 2024.

Products

Smart watches and fitness trackers

Withings manufactures smart watches and fitness trackers, including the Activité, an activity tracking watch which was the first

smartwatch A smartwatch is a portable wearable computer that resembles a wristwatch. Most modern smartwatches are operated via a touchscreen, and rely on mobile apps that run on a connected device (such as a smartphone) in order to provide core functions. ...

to resemble a traditional wristwatch. It has no buttons and is controlled from a phone app, compatible with both

and Android. It can track the user's sleep, swimming, walking and running automatically. It also incorporates weight, heart rate, and body mass data from Withings' wireless scales, like the Smart Body Analyzer. The company also manufactures the Activité Steel which is made of

stainless steel Stainless steel, also known as inox, corrosion-resistant steel (CRES), or rustless steel, is an iron-based alloy that contains chromium, making it resistant to rust and corrosion. Stainless steel's resistance to corrosion comes from its chromi ...

with chrome hands and a

silicone In Organosilicon chemistry, organosilicon and polymer chemistry, a silicone or polysiloxane is a polymer composed of repeating units of siloxane (, where R = Organyl group, organic group). They are typically colorless oils or elastomer, rubber ...

strap. Other models include the Activité Sapphire and the Activité Pop. One of the users of Activité is former French president

François Hollande François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande (; born 12 August 1954) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2012 to 2017. Before his presidency, he was First Secretary of the Socialist Party (France), First Secretary of th ...

. Withings' first product since being purchased by Carreel in 2019 is the Steel HR Sport smartwatch, a fitness tracker with the appearance of a watch. It is a hybrid and provides heart rate monitoring, GPS tracking, and fitness level analytics including oxygen intake sensors. It is the first Withings product to offer fitness level assessments. Withings also unveiled the Withings Move at CES 2019. This is an entry-level smartwatch with an ECG version that has embedded electrocardiogram tracking. The ScanWatch is a smartwatch that incorporates a sensor that measures the oxygen saturation level in the blood to identify sleep apnea and detects atrial fibrillation. It also has a built-in ECG tool and monitors workouts and exercises.

Scales

In 2009, Withings released a WiFi Body Scale which was the first connected body scale. It measures weight and

fat mass Adipose tissue (also known as body fat or simply fat) is a loose connective tissue composed mostly of adipocytes. It also contains the stromal vascular fraction (SVF) of cells including preadipocytes, fibroblasts, vascular endothelial cells and ...

and sends data to the user's app over

, and also connects to platforms such as

Google Health Google Health encompasses the health and wellbeing initiatives of Google, including Fitbit and a range of other features and integrations. Google Health started in 2008 as an attempt to create a repository of personal health information in ord ...

and Microsoft HealthVault as well as diet and exercise sites such as DailyBurn. In 2012, Withings announced an internet-connected baby and toddler scale at the 2012

. It was the first scale of its kind and won a CES Innovations Award. It also produced the Withings Smart Body Analyzer, a smart scale that measures weight and calculates

body mass index Body mass index (BMI) is a value derived from the mass (Mass versus weight, weight) and height of a person. The BMI is defined as the human body weight, body mass divided by the square (algebra), square of the human height, body height, and is ...

and

. The scales received media attention when magician

Penn Jillette Penn Fraser Jillette (born March 5, 1955) is an American Magic (illusion), magician, actor, comedian, musician, inventor, television presenter, and author, best known for his work with fellow magician Teller (magician), Teller as half of the t ...

, having lost nearly 120 pounds in four months to preserve his health, attributed his success to a strict regimen and the Withings smart scale. Its Body Scan scale was launched in 2022, and it can perform an electrocardiogram and measure nervous activity. Body Scan launched in the United States in 2023 after it received FDA clearance. It also released the Body Comp and Body Smart scales that integrate with the Withings+ in-app service to provide advice and workouts based on body composition measurements.

Health monitors

In 2011, Withings released the first connected

blood pressure Blood pressure (BP) is the pressure of Circulatory system, circulating blood against the walls of blood vessels. Most of this pressure results from the heart pumping blood through the circulatory system. When used without qualification, the term ...

monitor, which was upgraded in March 2014 to a wireless version to connect to

and Android mobile devices. Approved by the

, the device allows patients to chart their blood pressure readings at home: it measures systolic and diastolic blood pressure as well as

heart rate Heart rate is the frequency of the cardiac cycle, heartbeat measured by the number of contractions of the heart per minute (''beats per minute'', or bpm). The heart rate varies according to the body's Human body, physical needs, including the nee ...

. The BPM Core, introduced in 2019, adds an

ECG Electrocardiography is the process of producing an electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG), a recording of the heart's electrical activity through repeated cardiac cycles. It is an electrogram of the heart which is a graph of voltage versus time of ...

function and a digital

stethoscope The stethoscope is a medicine, medical device for auscultation, or listening to internal sounds of an animal or human body. It typically has a small disc-shaped resonator that is placed against the skin, with either one or two tubes connected t ...

which listens for some heart valve defects. Withings BPM Connect and Thermo

Withings Thermo is a temporal artery

thermometer A thermometer is a device that measures temperature (the hotness or coldness of an object) or temperature gradient (the rates of change of temperature in space). A thermometer has two important elements: (1) a temperature sensor (e.g. the bulb ...

which uses a 16-sensor array to deliver fast and accurate temperature readings. The thermometer displays the temperature, storing data to be analyzed and presented in the accompanying app. Its Wi-Fi and

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is li ...

connectivity allows

users to log readings, along with other information such as symptoms and medication. The device stores profiles of several people and its batteries last for about two years. Thermo won two 2016 CES Innovation Awards (Best in Fitness, Sport and Biotech, and Tech for a Better World). In 2023, Withings released a urine testing system called U-Scan. The device is placed in a toilet and allows for daily urine tests, with results reported to the user electronically. It analyses diet and hydration as well as hormonal changes in women. The information collected can also be accessed by a person's healthcare professional, with the permission of the patient.

Withings app

Withings has a mobile application that connects with many of its devices and shows activity and sleep trends over time in graphs. The app also tracks weight,

, blood pressure and more if the user enters the data or owns a Withings smart scale or blood pressure monitor. It can be integrated with

Apple Watch The Apple Watch is a brand of smartwatch products developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple. It incorporates activity tracker, fitness tracking, Health (Apple), health-oriented capabilities, and wireless telecommunication, and integrates wit ...

Business-to-business products

In 2019, Withings launched a line of

business-to-business Business-to-business (B2B or, in some countries, BtoB) refers to trade and commercial activity where a business sees other businesses as its customer base. This typically occurs when: * A business sources materials for its production process for ...

products known as Withings Health Solutions, for personal users and healthcare providers, that aims to track the wellness of patients to assist with chronic disease prevention, remote monitoring, and clinical research. Withings allows researchers and healthcare providers to use the Withings platform or their own platform to track the data which users allow to be collected. Since 2023, Withings has allowed

American Diabetes Association The American Diabetes Association (ADA) is a United States-based nonprofit that seeks to educate the public about diabetes and to help those affected by it through funding research to manage, cure and prevent diabetes, including type 1 diabetes ...

members to have free access to smart scale data and live coaching through its database.

Former products

Withings produced Aura, a smart

alarm clock An alarm clock or alarm is a clock that is designed to alert an individual or group of people at a specified time. The primary function of these clocks is to awaken people from their night's sleep or short naps; they can sometimes be used for o ...

with sensors, which had sleep programs to help induce sleep, and had light and sound programs to gently wake the user. A home monitoring system known as Withings Home was discontinued in 2017.

Research

Summary

Withings Health Solutions is involved in connected health through a combination of in-house research and academic partnerships. Using real-time data, it tracks the extent to which key risk factors for

heart disease Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is any disease involving the heart or blood vessels. CVDs constitute a class of diseases that includes: coronary artery diseases (e.g. angina pectoris, angina, myocardial infarction, heart attack), heart failure, ...

are linked to lifestyle, such as sedentary behavior, overweight and obesity, and

high blood pressure Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, is a long-term medical condition in which the blood pressure in the arteries is persistently elevated. High blood pressure usually does not cause symptoms itself. It is, however, a major ri ...

, and what steps can be taken to reduce risks. Withings products have been involved in numerous clinical trials.

Biomarkers

References within the table are associated to the metric/

biomarkers In biomedical contexts, a biomarker, or biological marker, is a measurable indicator of some biological state or condition. Biomarkers are often measured and evaluated using blood, urine, or soft tissues to examine normal biological processes, p ...

and not the device model. For example, if Withings validate the pulse wave velocity metric it will be available and validated for all devices that use this metric. Also, Withings can sell sub-models such as the Scanwatch Light which is a derivative of the Scanwatch 2.

References

{{Reflist, 30em Information technology companies of France French companies established in 2008 Internet of things companies Wearable devices Home automation companies 2016 mergers and acquisitions Fitness apps Health software Medical monitoring