Unacceptable: Apple Health Sync is now behind a $99/year paywall for new accounts

Disgraceful enshitification.

I don’t care that I am grandfathered in - I cannot support a company behaving like this.

It’s cold calculated greed. It’s consumer hostile. If all we can do is vote with our wallets, so be it. Shame on you

I just purchased a BodyScan and am still within my return window. I love these products and have used Withings for years, but this is crazy.

If they don’t reverse course on this decision, I will be returning the scale for a (much cheaper) competitor that doesn’t force a subscription for basic functions.

This is totally unacceptable. Your "growth team" or whatever you have internally at Withings making such decisions should get out of your office and talk with your users about why we bought Withings products in the first place.

Over the +10 years I have had Withings products I have recommended them to many people. But this change combined with multiple other existing free features now locked behind the Withings+ subscription, then I find it very difficult to recommend your products anymore.

This is a truly stupid idea! I have a set of scales. I have zero interest in any of the AI rubbish you’re trying to peddle me, and will now be replacing the scales and not buying Withings products anymore.

I’m well aware this won’t affect me as I already have an account, but I don’t care. The principle of it means I’m no longer using Withings products and shall delete my account.

This decision makes me hate Withings. Squeezing your customers when they have already paid for a smart device and asking them to pay 99 bucks a year to keep it smart to sync my data with my device locally is insane. I won't buy new Withings devices anymore.

Awful decision! I've been using Withings devices for more than a decade, and always recommended them to all my friends. I will probably move to another brand for future purchases and surely never recommend Withings ever again to anyone else. This is just unacceptable.

On top of that, this decision significantly reduces the resale value of these devices on the second-hand market, making them far less attractive to potential new users.

In short, I genuinely struggle to understand this strategy. It undermines the long-term value of the hardware, discourages new customers from joining the ecosystem, and risks alienating loyal users.

I really can’t see how this approach leads anywhere but downwards.

Unbelievable how awful this is. As the owner of four scales and three blood pressure monitors, I will never buy or recommend another Withings product, even though I am grandfathered into the system. Apple Health sync is table stakes when that’s the device operating system that you run on. 

If Withings doesn’t do a 180 degree turn on this decission I’m not buying any other product ever. I’m increasingly concerned about subscription tied products and only bought the body scan and BPM Vision due to their great convenience, and because of it being one of the “less bad” companies.

After this decision Withings becomes untouchable, even if my account is “grandfathered” it’s obvious that Withings is going to design non-subscription accounts to be increasingly unusable. Even if that’s not true I just don’t believe it; it’s a trust issue now.

I’m very seriously considering returning my BPM Vision, as I got it less than 14 days ago.

Update: already did my homework and have an Omrom X7 in my Amazon cart ready to be purchased. It’s even cheaper and it has better reputation regarding their measurements. I have a few days left to return my BPM Vision.

BTW Withings get a clue, nobody wants your AI subscription bs. It was never interesting, some admin nut saw the daily users KPI and went “let’s make our products worse, that will force people into subscribing”. Surely that’s the only possible outcome, what could go wrong?

Hey Markus & Withings team,

I know existing users are grandfathered in, but this is still a huge misstep. 

The only reason I stick with Withings is the free HealthKit sync. Putting a standard iOS feature behind a paywall for new users is just frustrating. I mostly use your app as a bridge to Apple Health. If I were a new customer today, I wouldn't buy in.

I really hope you rethink this. Even though I'm not directly affected right now, this kind of move makes me want to actively tell people to avoid your products. I definitely won't be buying anything else from you.

I'm grandfathered in, but what would be the recommended alternative smart scale?

Just ask ChatGPT

"Our mission hasn’t changed. We exist to help people take care of their health at home, so they can spot changes early and act before small issues become big ones..." as long as they pay us $100/yr, for a feature that costs us absolutely nothing, to use their data from the $500 (+ tax) scale you bought from us.

This move is so stupid because it will alienate those few people who are willing to spend $600 on a body scale.

Long time withings user here.
Initially, I was disappointed to read Matteo’s post.
What has angered me to login and respond however, is withings response.

I fear withings has gone the way of private equity; I expect there will be a mass exodus of customers over the coming years and talent, knowledge and innovation from the company.

PE has a habit of ruining all good things.

It was good while it lasted.
This is goodbye to the old withings.
I will miss you.

I've ben a Withings customer for many years, since their first BP cuff (Smart Blood Pressure Monitor), and 2 of their Watches, stayed with the hardware through the Nokia purchase era, then got the BPM Vision when Withings took back ownership of the company, and just recently replaced my old Qardio scale with Withings new Body Scan 2, which I bought for $599 and added the Withings+ Subscription.

I bought the new iPhone 18 Pro when it came out, running iOS version 27.0.1

I can not get it to sync with Apple Health. I hav tried all their Support FAQ suggestions, but the screens and toggle choices I have in iOS 27 do not match their documentation.

I have written the 4 times, got responses like (we've pushed your issue up to our Expedited Service team, you should have an answer within 7 days (!)... it's now been 8 days, and nothing.

I am on a GLP1, have had two ablations for AFIB, and want to track my BP, weight, and HR in conjunction with my cardiologist and electrophysiologist... my Oura ring, HeartWatch Apple Watch app and AirSense 11 CPAP all sync with Apple Health, but not my two Withings products. 

Have any of you with new iPhones running iOS 27 successfully sync's to Apple Health?

Yes every day’s sometimes i need to open withings app before ( force sync )

Note: Unbelievable, Withings blocked my first message.

We need Withings to reverse the new policy and publish a commitment to open data connections with the appropriate security around health info. I have purchased six Withings products and was a big proponent of their ecosystem. I was eyeing an upgrade to the scale, but I can now put that to rest.

Yes, I am grandfathered in. But now I can no longer recommend Withings to others and I have lost trust. To restore trust, Withings must commit to being open.

The situation should also be used to review internally how Withings does business. Develop compelling new features, and a subset of users will happily pay for them. Taking existing features and moving them behind a paywall is what you do when you have run out of ideas and have given up generating new ideas.

Withings, open your eyes.

No one is paying a subscription for basic, local, on device data sync.
You seem desperate to get more subscribers for your lame service instead of making it actually useful and attractive to the users.

This is a giant red flag and it’s disrespectful to your customers.

Bought my scale October 9th, but didn't receive it until October 15 and nowhere during the buying process was this made clear.

Even more outrageous is that it is $99 per person and not even per family. Adds $200 to the upfront cost.

Return process immediately initiated.

won't use withings going forward after this

I reckon Withings has one chance left to make this right and salvage what little is left of 18 years of customer goodwill. If Monday 19th October comes and goes and they don't:

• issue a full apology
• pledge to never pull this crap again
• and pledge to never limit at some later date the raw device measurements that have historically been included in the free Apple Health sync,

then I think the Withings brand is already sunk and all aboard with any common sense should abandon ship, disillusioned employees and customers alike. 

My bet is the MBA/private equity geniuses in the boardroom have convinced them this is a licence to print money. I just think it's textbook enshittification. 

I own multiple Withings products, and have been a customer for probably 15 years. Have often upgraded to new products when they come out. I've recommended Withing products to friends and family. If this decision to charge for Apple HealthKit syncing, that ends now. I will no longer but Withings products for myself, nor will I recommend them. I'll go to a competitor that doesn't charge for Apple Health syncing. I was considering upgrading my scale very soon actually, but now am 100% holding off until I see if they follow through to keep this bad decision, and if so, will go to a different brand.

I was a huge withings, recently I moved to some other (more sport oriented) ecosystem, but I stil happy Withings Body Smart scale and I bought scan watchs for my parents.

I don't plan to buy any withings product anymore

Wait til DC Rainmaker and GPLama cover this

Extremely disappointing behaviour of a company I thought was better than that. I have been owned of a scale for maybe 10 years now, and I just bought another one which I am considering cancelling.

I don’t care being grandfathered, forcing people into an expensive membership to get basic features is not the way to go. You want to charge? Add value, add features that are worthy of it. Apple Health sync? We’re all buying smart scales, that’s a given.

Shameful. I hope they will reconsider before losing customers. But they might have already lost the trust.

I am really surprised and disgusted by this action from Withings, I’m a long term customer on my 4th scale with a few hardware failures recently but I stuck with Withings as I consider them a good company even if the Withings+ was poor. This won’t affect me as an existing customer but could no doubt affect me in the future. I certainly will look elsewhere for my next device, if this had happened a few weeks ago I would have bought a different replacement scale, Withings is already more expensive than most.

I’ve a body scan 2 still within the return period, does anyone have any experience of similar products that are as accurate?

This is a pathetic decision and shows that Withings is not in good shape as a company. They’re so bankrupt of ideas that they can’t make Withings+ stand on its own two feet and interest enough people to sign up, so they have to go the route of treating customers like trash and moving a basic feature behind a paywall. It speaks to a desperate company. Best to stay away going forward.