Whoop backpedals on its paid upgrade whoops

is a weekend editor who covers the latest in tech and entertainment. He has written news, reviews, and more as a tech journalist since 2020. Whoop is in damage control mode. After debuting its Whoop 5.0 fitness tracker, users were angered to find it had reneged on a promise of free hardware upgrades. In a new Reddit post, the company now says users who have been members for over 12 months can get the Whoop 5.0 for free. Part of the outrage was prompted by Whoop’s confusing messaging. Early yesterday morning, my colleague Victoria Song reported that to get a Whoop 5.0 band, users would need to extend their existing membership by an additional 12 months or pay a one-time upgrade fee. However, until at least March 28th of this year, Whoop’s website had a blog post that said users would only need to have been a member for at least six months to get a free upgrade to next-gen hardware. After the backlash, Whoop is now changing its tune — somewhat. Those with “more than 12 months remainin ... Read full article.