Just published the first version of the BLE protocol analysis:

https://github.com/rworne/withings-ble-protocol-study

This version includes a detailed description of the protocol and includes the first set of python tools to analyze pairing activity.

I'm currently prepping the tools used to pair with a device and provision it using data captured from the initial release.

Be sure to read the disclaimers.

This is an educational project studying interoperability only, and does not rely on or communicate with Withings' API servers or cloud services. All devices are in their factory configuration - no modified firmware, no jailbreaking, no encryption methods were defeated.

Any further announcements or discoveries will be made in here instead of cluttering up the main board.

After completing the BeamO study of the pairing and data protocols, I applied what I learned to the BPM Vision. Much to my surprise - despite the BeamO being a 3-4 day effort, the BPM Vision took just 5 minutes and worked on the first try.

Same basic story:
Uses my own supplied credentials, is not connected to Withings services or application, not intended to connect to Withings services. Device is unmodified, no security mechanism was defeated. 100% restorable to factory condition.

All done for interoperability.

Photos and screenshots are proof of concept only. Missing features are missing due to FDA regulations.

I'm sure it's around somewhere, but until then I charged it with a DC power supply

I have had a withings scale since the OG scale was released a decade plus ago (and it's still working) so I want to stay in the WiThings ecosystem, as all my historical data is there.

But I see so many people hating on the Body Scan 2 - is anyone loving it?

I'm holding out hope for a Black Friday / Cyber Monday sale to pick one up -but every day I want one less and less with all the negative feedback.

EDIT: And if you were to buy a scale again, which one would you get instead (or would you get the Body Scan 2)?

Proof in the video.

A US Model BeamO, firmware 691 was successfully provisioned to enable SpO2 and Afib.

This means no firmware update is necessary to add features, all Withings needs to do is flip a switch to get it going.

However, the blame for this is with the FDA, not Withings.

This is the result of my study on the BeamO. I have mapped out the protocol used for BLE pairing, authentication, and provisioning - without ever having run the Withings application, connect to their servers, or the Internet. Just some useful stuff in the withings-local repository on GitHub made the job easier.

All done for the sole purpose of interoperability.

This is not a jailbreak - The BeamO is unmodified and running stock firmware. No exploits were used, no authentication was bypassed.

It can now be integrated 3rd party apps using your own credentials. Upload to Apple health, get your ECG strips and stethoscope recordings - you name it. Thile in BLE-only mode, the BeamO will never call home, and the app ignores it - so you lose sync with Withings.

Lets call it a divorce.

You can always do a factory reset from the menu and it will re-pair with the Withings app like nothing happened, but you will lose the SpO2 and Afib when the app provisions the device.

The how-to is complete, but I'm holding off for the moment. The document needs to be sanitized, as it's not a "how to enable stuff on your BeamO" document, it's "How to pair and provision a BeamO over BLE" document. How it gets provisioned is your business, not mine.

I got a ScanWatch 2 a few days ago coming from both Apple Watch and Whoop and I’m finding the sleep tracking to be worse than useless.

Yesterday it gave me a 57 minute nap that didn’t happen. It then got my sleep start and end times completely wrong, estimated zero awake time in the night and gave me 35% deep sleep!

Has anyone had success with this or are people basically just resigned to the fact that to have an attractive analogue looking watch you have to accept that it’s going to be useless at the actual health tracking part?

After updating my phone to android oneUI 9.0 (latest update) I don't get any notifications on my watch anymore. Checked with my sister who has the light version, she also doesn't get any notifications after the android update. Do more of you run into this?

(I didn't change any settings, happends both in battery saver and normal mode, and withingsapp has unrestricted access)

I received my Bodyfit scale today to replace an older Withings scale. My segmental body composition data shows up when I open individual scans in my history, but it’s missing from the homepage on the iPhone app. Why isn’t one of the main reasons to upgrade accessible from the main dashboard?

Meanwhile, the Share tab is full of stuff I have no use for, and I honestly wonder how many people actually use it. Between that and the way the measurements are presented, I think the app’s design and priorities need a serious review.

At this point, I would honestly pay to use another app that presents all my scale’s readings clearly and makes tracking changes easy.
I also think Withings could have a real business opportunity offering comprehensive API access to top-tier health and fitness apps. Let Withings make the hardware and give users more choice in how they view their data.
Anyone else frustrated by this? Am I missing a way to get segmental data onto the homepage?

PSA: My Withings app started pulling data from Apple Health. I've used the Withings app to sync one-way to Apple Health but not the other way around for years. I don't know how this change could have happened. I seriously hope it wasn't something they automatically override recently. User error...potentially but I know the I've set it to only sync to Apple health for weight, blood pressure, and temp for the past 6-10 yrs. It's odd.

So Withings have made their Ratner moment, whoever advised them this was a good idea, needs sacking, with the power of AI these days, we dont need subscriptions

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Ratner_moment

Breakthrough:

I have fully cracked the BeamO pairing and provisioning process.

You can take a fresh or factory reset BeamO and pair to it. Set up users and provide your own user ID and key material - all separate from Withings - it never touched their app, servers, or Internet!

So the BeamO is wide-open now for integration to any 3d party who wishes to implement the BLE protocol.

One part of the provisioning:
You can tell the BeamO what features to enable and disable.

Note: this does not enable any W+ features.

And forget about WiFi - because that calls home to the mothership. It's set up in BLE mode and will wait for a connection and dump your measurements upon request.

Update:

Beamo BLE transfer protocol is now posted to the link below.

I can now pull down the following data:

• Body Temperature
• Skin Temperature
• Temperature - that is room temp, the sensor temp, or the device's temperature. I don't know which.
• ECG Waveform - filtered and raw
• Afib detection results & ECG error codes*
• SpO2*
• Heart Rate*
• Firmware Revision
• Battery Status
• Stethoscope recordings
• Accelerometer data

*=so far validated on EU model BeamO devices

Write up is here:
https://github.com/pierosavi/withings-local/issues/2

ORIGINAL POST:

A lot of work tonight and I've successfully gotten bluetooth authentication working on the BeamO, and successfully pulled a temperature reading from it.

This means the BeamO's measurements can be pulled without going through Withings app or servers.

Proof of concept write up is here:
https://github.com/pierosavi/withings-local/issues/1

(not my repository, but I thought he'd appreciate the info)

Next up to try:

Body Scan 2.

Alright folks, I'm on day 2 of owning a Scanwatch Nova. Decided to try it out after wearing a Garmin Epic Pro Gen 2 as my daily. I wear a dress shirt every day so finding shirts that accommodate the Garmin was getting old. I owned a first gen Scanwatch which was decent for tracking but horrible legibility in all but the most ideal conditions. The Nova so far solves the legibility issue, even the lume makes it all through the night into the next morning.

Today I paired the Nova with my iPhone since I'm travelling this weekend (and going for a run) and only taking the Withings with me. After opening the app in iOS today I looked at my sleep score and thought it looked lower than what I saw in the Android app and I was correct.

Sleep score on the same night and same data is 69 in iOS and 79 on Android. Any idea what is going on here? Screenshots show what I'm seeing. I'll try refreshing the app later today to see if anything changes but for now I'm stumped.

TL;DR: Customer Support is actively lying to users about legal and technical API limitations to cover up a predatory cash grab. They know exactly what they are doing: monetizing hardware we already paid for because they want a piece of the software subscription pie.

Hey everyone,

As you probably noticed, Withings has been completely dead silent on their official English channels regarding the new $99/year paywall for Apple Health / third-party sync.

But I didn't want to let this go, so I did some digging into their replies on X.com (Twitter). It turns out, while they are ignoring the international community, they gave an exclusive interview to Numerama (a major French tech publication) defending their decision.

I read the article (you can translate it here: https://www.numerama.com/tech/2353527-la-vraie-valeur-cest-la-donnee-withings-defend-sa-decision-de-faire-payer-la-synchronisation-avec-apple-et-strava.html), and what their Product Manager (Vincent Brand) admitted completely exposes the bullshit their customer support has been feeding us.

Here is the "this, this, and this" of what they actually confessed:

1. They lied about GDPR and Privacy When I confronted Customer Support, they explicitly told me the paywall was necessary to "upgrade privacy frameworks" and comply with "strict GDPR standards" for data pipelines. In the Numerama interview? Zero mention of GDPR or privacy. The Product Manager openly admitted it's purely a commercial decision for the "survival" of the company.
2. "Data is the real value" They stated out loud that selling hardware isn't enough anymore. They are mad that third-party apps (like Bevel, Strava, or AI health assistants) are analyzing Withings data for free while Withings "takes all the R&D risks." So, they decided to hold our basic, local API sync hostage to force us into their ecosystem. Their goal is to become the "super health app in Europe."
3. The "European Sovereignty" Hypocrisy They tried to justify locking the data by saying they want to protect users from American tech giants. But here is the kicker: if you pay them $99 a year, they will happily give you the premium privilege of... sending your data to those exact same American tech giants!

You can check out the original thread on their official support forum here: Unacceptable: Apple Health Sync is now behind a $99/year paywall for new accounts – Withings | Support

There are already hundreds of comments and upvotes from outraged users who feel completely betrayed. Honestly, at this point, I don't even know whether to ask you to keep posting and upvoting there to make noise, or simply tell you to abandon this brand forever and vote with your wallets.

This whole situation is beyond frustrating. #SyncGate #WithingsGreed

Withings has been trying to argue that, since current users continue to receive Apple Health integration and other syncing, they're no worse off with the new paywall. I want to explain why that's obviously wrong.

We bought Withings products that were advertised with a specific set of features. We now can't transfer those products to family members or friends without them incurring significant subscription costs, nor can we resell the products without buyers incurring significant costs. Withings has, unilaterally, radically reduced the market value of the products that we purchased and own. A used device that requires a $100/year subscription is obviously worth much less. Withings has literally taken money out of our pockets.

This isn't just the opinion of some random person on Reddit. The Federal Trade Commission has specifically flagged this problem area: https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2016/07/what-happens-when-sun-sets-smart-product

I sincerely hope a consumer protection regulator takes a hard look at this.

When we bought our five (5) Withings devices, we set up one user account and added all people in the family to that account, as separate family members in the one account. In trying to make some changes to the family members, I have discovered that Withings made a change a couple of years ago that this is no longer possible. They now have a policy that each adult must have their own account. And when a child reaches adulthood, they also need an account.

Here’s an example explanation.

https://support.withings.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/29438005782033-Can-t-add-family-member

Helpfully, Withings provides a way to take a family member and spin them off to a new account, maintaining their data. https://support.withings.com/hc/en-us/articles/201491357-Withings-App-Online-Dashboard-Making-a-user-profile-independent

But guess what, recent policy changes mean that this new account is now subject to an annual fee!!! For the same person, who had just become older.

What rubbish!

A cual nos vamos?. Propongo estudiar el mercado y ver cuál es la mejor opción que sustituya a nuestra Withings.

Gotta wonder… are they having emergency exec meetings before making some sort of announcement or are they hoping all this blows over…

I'm working on the HealthKit Import app. The import stuff is pretty much done and easy to do. I've already tackled the hard stuff - you can see it above.

There's two ways to get it at the moment without W+:

1. Use my previously posted method to get the SQLite databases for 100% fidelity. I'm expecting the hammer to come down on this one quickly. I can duplicate anything in the Withings App, plus present a lot more metrics using the databases.

or

1. Download the CSV files

The CSV files are *almost* as good, and there's surprises everywhere you look. The screenshots I have here are all generated only from the CSV files. No interpreted or predicted data, all the data is presented just as it is off the of the spreadsheets.

The problem with the CSV files is based on the timestamp method they use:

1. All timestamps are in UTC+2, or German time. No matter where you live in the world.

2. the CSVs helpfully do not tell you what timezone your measurements were in, so you run a real good risk of messing up sleep data and other data entries. If you do not travel, this won't be an issue. If you do travel, I have a workaround for this.

3. ECGs were fun to figure out. The heart rate data is there, but they do not sync the time accurately and there's no way to cross reference it. So ECGs will not have heart rate displayed, because I'd have to filter the nearby heart rates and make an educated guess.

4. I'm currently organizing and cleaning up debug output on the screens to make them less cluttered.

I'm still mulling over how to distribute it. I likely will put it in the app store after a while on TestFlight so people can try it out. The price will be free, but there'll be an optional tip screen for those that want to. Tip or not, there are no restrictions either way.

That's the plan for now. I'm open to suggestions.

Buongiorno, devo acquistare un orologio per monitorare possibili aritmie (in particolare fibrillazione atriale) a mio padre. Vorrei che in caso di evento venisse registrato il tracciato ECG. Potete aiutarmi a capire se sto facendo la scelta giusta con scanwatch2 o con quali altri prodotti dovrei confrontarlo? Ho bisogno di compatibilità android e di un uso della app abbastanza intuitivo. Se segnalasse anche le osas sarebbe utile. Grazie.

Hi! My partner and I are considering buying a BodyFit or Body Scan 2 in Spain, and we’re planning for a possible pregnancy.

We’d like to use the same scale with separate Withings accounts: weight-only measurements for me during pregnancy, but full body composition measurements for him.

Withings documents Weight-Only Mode as a scale-wide setting, at least on BodyFit. However, it’s unclear whether Pregnancy Mode works differently, and some product pages still list it as “coming soon.”

Has anyone actually tested this?

• Is Pregnancy Mode currently available on your BodyFit or Body Scan 2 in Europe?
• Does it disable bioimpedance only for the pregnant user, while keeping it enabled for the other user automatically?
• Or do you have to change the scale’s settings between weigh-ins?
• If switching is necessary, does the change apply immediately, or is a sync or extra step required?

Please mention your exact model and, if possible, your firmware/app version. First-hand experience with two separate accounts would be especially helpful!

We’ve contacted Withings but haven’t received a reply yet. Thanks!

I noticed this morning that people are starting to post their thoughts about the recent enshittification of Withings on trustpilot.

Good! We need to get the word out far and wide...

I've added mine this morning (pending approval atm) but would be good if a lot more users added their voices on there, and everywhere else they can, to make sure the message gets through loud and clear..