What Is The Amazon Halo? Here’s What The New 3D Fitness App Can Tell You About Your Body

Amazon is looking to get a foothold in yet another product space, this time the fitness tracker market dominated by Fitbit and Apple Watch. The e-commerce giant on Thursday debuted the Amazon Halo, a wristband device that will work in together with a new app and optional subscription.

So how does it actually work? The Halo wristband, unlike most of its competitors, lacks any kind of screen. In order to view stats tracked by the device, users need to use the Halo app. The app tracks things like steps, cardio, body fat levels, and tone of voice, and the product is overall intended to get users into healthy routines rather than help them track exercise stats.

Halo will also boast more in-depth programs accessible through a subscription service. For $3.99 a month, users can take part in special “labs,” which are essentially challenges designed to create new habits, like meditation, exercise routines and better sleep.

Two of the major functions being pushed by Amazon are called “Body” and “Tone.” Body is an app function that uses your phone’s camera to create a 3D body model and uses to calculate body fat percentage. Tone uses two microphones built into the wristband to track the user’s tone of voice throughout the day. This will purportedly allow the app to track emotional states, balancing the need for mental health while pursuing physical health.

As highlighted in a report from The Verge, Amazon has taken steps to mitigate the threat the app might pose to users suffering from anorexia or similar conditions. While the Body feature boasts a slider that can show one’s body with different fat levels, it won’t allow users to view themselves with dangerously low levels and will warn them about the risks of getting so thin. Furthermore, this feature will not be accessible to anyone under the age of 18, as teens known to be at considerable risk for body dysmorphia. The rest of the app is usable by anyone 13 and older.

The Amazon Halo is currently in the public testing phase for early adopters that sign up. For these first users, the device will cost $65, but this is expected to rise to $100 when the product launches fully. There is no timeframe for when his launch might be.