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Amazon Halo available to all: Here's where it may be disruptive
Amazon said its Halo wearable device is now available.
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The device, which launched in August via an early access program, will cost $99.99 with six months of a free subscription that's $3.99 a month after.
I've reviewed the device, which straddles the creepy-yet-useful line, and I continue to wear it. My primary takeaway is that Halo is evolving and is likely to continue to add content for home workouts.
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Here's a look at the five core features and my take on Halo over time.
- Activity: Halo tracks activity as well as sedentary time to give you a score. This feature is handy, but I have the Halo doubled up with a Garmin Fenix 6. I have activity tracked to the max.
- Body: Halo uses computer vision to track body fat percentage. I've used this feature twice, didn't exactly like the number and haven't gone back.
- Tone: This feature measures how you sound to others to gauge your social and emotional well-being. Tone is the feature that keeps me wearing the device. Oddly enough, I use Tone as a work tool to help me figure out how I come off during the 6th Zoom meeting of the day.
- Sleep: Sleep is also interesting and Amazon does appear to give you more metrics to ponder.
- Lab: I haven't used the workouts that are provided much, but my bet is that Halo will be a window to content providers much like Prime Video showcases channels.
With the general availability of Halo, Amazon has added more workouts and insights to connect dots between activity, sleep, and other trends.
I think the content availability for $3.99 a month is going to be disruptive. It's possible that you may get enough workouts for Halo at a third of the price of other programs. Halo may be good enough for many folks. Halo is also likely to be a staple in corporate wellness programs and it's notable that John Hancock quickly added the device to its Vitality program.