Withings Requires New Users to Pay $100 a Year for Apple Health Sync

New accounts face a paywall for Apple Health sync

Withings is gating the ability for users to sync their data with Apple Health to its own subscription service, according to a post on the company's support forum. Current users don't seem to be impacted, but accounts made after October 13 need to be Withings+ members to automatically connect their information to Apple Health or another similar third-party app.

The Withings+ plan costs $100 a year. Rather than allowing the automatic sync, new free users will need to manually export and upload their history any time they want to access their latest Withings data in another platform.

Company confirms the change

A reply labeled as "Official response from Withings" confirms the change, though stating that after the 13th, "automatic sync to third-party apps is part of Withings+." Withings has found itself in hot water with its customers after adopting an expensive policy change this week.

Many responses to the original post are from existing users criticizing the change to apply this additional charge to new customers for what is a comparatively simple feature. Withings was asked for additional comment.

Hardware lineup

Withings is primarily known for high-end smart health gear. The company recently released the Body Scan 2 scale, which costs $600, while the mid-range version will still run you $280.

Sources: Engadget