New Withings Users Must Pay $99/Year for Apple Health Syncing

Commenters reacted with anger and practical advice after Withings put Apple Health syncing for new accounts behind a $99/year paywall. Several urged filing complaints and leaving scathing reviews (ShakataGaNai), or returning purchases and pressuring Apple sales channels (altairprime). Legal concerns were raised: ben1040 cited App Store guideline 4.10 to argue Apple-native features shouldn’t be monetized. Many called it anti-consumer grift (alistairSH, adocomplete, techdiff) and compared it to absurd OEM subscriptions; others predicted the company would backtrack under pressure (mikestew, michaelhoney). Users who otherwise liked Withings hardware complained that the app and support have degraded (TomAnthony, PSNapier), and vowed not to buy more devices (rootusrootus, ost-ing) or to ditch existing ones.

Other commenters discussed technical and privacy angles. A few suggested reverse-engineering or clone apps as workarounds (cebert, baxtr), while PeterUstinox pointed out Withings’ open API and some users mentioned switching to Android’s Health Connect. Privacy and data-lock concerns were prominent: jmbwell described being forced into data collection during setup, wl reported unwanted marketing tied to sleep data, and nonfamous explained switching devices previously to keep health data in Apple Health. Some readers dismissed extensive tracking as unnecessary (loloquwowndueo, rpdillon, nunez), underscoring a divide between those who value integrated health records and those who reject subscription-driven telemetry.