The ‘Analog Era’ Has Sparked a Screenless Wearables Race — Can Google Take Down Whoop?

Google’s new screenless Fitbit Air takes aim at Whoop’s growing wearable empire. The bigger story is a consumer base that’s done staring at screens

Remember when having all the bells, whistles and a bright, colorful display signaled a premium device? 

Google’s new Fitbit Air, unveiled this week, has none of that. No screen. No ping. Just a $99 band that tracks your body and stays out of the way until you open the Google Health app.

It’s meant to be worn 24/7 and is, if we’re being honest, similar to Whoop’s highly popular screenless wearable.

Hours after the Fitbit Air went live, Whoop founder and CEO Will Ahmed posted on X what amounted to a warning shot. His post showed an image of a Whoop circuit board with the words “Don’t bother copying us, we will win,” and a caption noting the message is engraved on every Whoop board.

It’s a call back to 2021, when Ahmed first put the message on the circuit board of Whoop 4.0, along with the initials of every engineer who worked on the wearable. A pointed message to then-competitor Amazon Halo, which launched its own screen-free band that bore a striking resemblance to Whoop’s device. Amazon eventually discontinued the product in 2023. 

Meanwhile, GPS and wearable giant Garmin, which is seeing revenue surge in its fitness segment, appears to be gearing up to go screen-free.

The company filed a U.S. trademark application for a product called Cirqa in February, describing a body-worn sensor system for measuring physical and emotional stress recovery, alertness and performance. Images of the screenless band briefly leaked on Garmin’s website in January, TechRadar reported.

The Analog Era

But beyond the launches and jabs, the screenless pivot raises an obvious question: why now, and what does it mean for the future of wearables? Some data may help explain why.

More than half of Americans want to reduce their screen time, according to a YouGov poll, while a 2025 Harris Poll conducted for Quad found that 81% of Gen Z adults and 78% of Millennials wish they could disconnect from digital devices more easily. Searches for “digital detox ideas” and “digital detox vision boards” also increased by 72% and 273%, respectively, according to Pinterest’s 2025 Summer Trend Report.

Perhaps the biggest indicator that consumers are ready to ditch their screens is the number of spaces where they aren’t invited. Phone-free events grew 567% globally between 2024 and 2025, with attendance up 121%, according to Eventbrite.

Consider, too, smart rings. Screenless by design, the smart ring category accounts for 75% of fitness tracker revenue, up from 46% a year prior, per Circana data released last fall. U.S. consumers under 34 are nearly twice as likely as the average buyer to own one.

And then there’s Oura. The smart ring nabbed the top spot as fastest-growing product in consumer tech over the last quarter, with searches up 58% year-over-year, according to a recent consumer electronics report from MediaVision.

While it remains to be seen who will hold the top spot on the screen-free leaderboard, the wellness tech category is becoming more passive, even at home, with devices like Ultrahuman that measure and monitor in the background and deliver info when prompted.

What it points to most of all is that in the era of health and wellness monitoring, the technology will be running in the background, waiting patiently and likely without a screen.