- Fitbit co-founders launch new fitness tracker Luffu, which switches from Fitbit’s individual health monitoring to tracking for the whole family
- It uses AI ‘in the background’ to collect health information from connected devices and platforms, as well as provide updates on health changes and answers to your questions
- While it can be a lifesaver for carers of children and aging adults, there are concerns about the potential extra stress it could cause
Two years after parting ways with Google, Fitbit co-founders James Park and Eric Friedman have entered a new era of fitness tracking with their new startup Luffu – which shifts the focus from individual to family health monitoring.
Billed as an “intelligent family care system,” Luffu aims to help families proactively monitor their health and fitness levels from one place, while quietly using AI “in the background” to collect your family’s medical information from connected devices and services such as Apple Health and Fitbit. It can also be used to enter information manually using voice messages, text and images, and allows users to ask questions for the specific needs of family members.
Luffu, which will expand from its software startup to hardware in the future, aims to not only help users manage their children’s health, but also their aging parents if they are primary caretakers. Even pets are included. That said, it will offer more than just a place for you to see the health status of each connected family member.
After taking a little break from Fitbit and Google, I’m starting something new and very personal. As the co-founder of Fitbit, I thought I understood health technology. Caring for my parents from a distance changed that perception. It was frustrating trying to help manage their care. Your data…3 February 2026
Although that is Luffu’s main goal, the overall experience will come in different forms. As well as logging your health by accepting voice messages, photos and more, its AI model acts as a ‘guardian’ and will watch for any health changes and alert you once it has become familiar with each member’s health patterns.
Additionally, its co-founders say it will act as an easy Q&A model, allowing you to use simple language to ask questions about individual health conditions — all of which can be shared directly with family members.
At the moment, Luffu is in a phase of private testing, but you can sign up for the waiting list on Luffu’s website. But in light of Park and Friedman’s ambitious new venture, we have our reservations.
“I can also see that Luffu increases that stress”
If there’s anyone who can lead fitness tracking in the whole family, it’s the co-founders of Fitbit, and on paper Luffu can ease a lot of pressure for those with caring responsibilities for children and elderly family members – but there are a few holes in the system.
As a veteran with extensive experience with best fitness trackers, our senior fitness and wellness editor, Matt Evans, is of two minds about Luffu. Here’s what he thinks about the new fitness tracking service:
“After the Fitbit founders left Google a few years ago, their new venture is surprising; a health platform focused on family caregivers rather than individual fitness fans.
“I can definitely see this working for some, especially those juggling young children and aging relatives. In the press release, Luffu uses the term ‘family director,’ and the app aims to ease some of the invisible cognitive load and reduce the stress and burnout that comes with it. Interacting with wearables features like Fall Detection can certainly lead to more effective medication reminders in the home.”
“But I can also see Luffu adding to that stress in some cases, as constant streams of information about your loved ones can lead to obsessive checking and encouragement of the kind of ‘helicopter’ parenting and family management, a bit like constantly updating social media feeds. Careful implementation of these tools is necessary, otherwise the stress of ‘cyberchondria’ will only add mental strain to a carer.”
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