- Fitbit co-founders are launching new fitness tracker Luffu, which shifts from Fitbit’s individual health monitoring to tracking for the whole family
- It uses AI ‘in the background’ to gather health information from connected devices and platforms, as well as giving updates on health changes and answers to your questions
- While it could be a life-saver for caretakers of children and aging adults, there are concerns over the possible added stress it could spark
Two years on from parting ways with Google, Fitbit co-founders James Park and Eric Friedman have stepped into a new era of fitness tracking with their new startup Luffu – which shifts the focus from individual to family health monitoring.
Deemed as an “intelligent family care system”, Luffu aims to help families proactively monitor their health and fitness levels from one place, all while quietly using AI “in the background” to gather your family’s medical information from connected devices and services such as Apple Health and Fitbit. It can also be used to input information manually using voice prompts, text, and photos, and allows users to ask questions for family members’ specific needs.
In a press release, co-founder Park went into detail about what influenced him to start Luffu, sharing “I was caring for my parents from across the country, trying to piece together my mom’s health care across various portals and providers, with a language barrier that made it hard to get complete, timely context from her about doctor visits.”
Luffu, which will expand from its software startup into hardware in the future, aims to not only help users manage the health of their children, but also their aging parents if they’re primary caretakers. Even pets are included. That said, it will offer more than just a place for you to view the health status of each connected family member.
After taking a small break from Fitbit and Google, I’m starting something new and very personal.As a co-founder of Fitbit, I thought I understood health tech. Caring for my parents from afar changed that perception.Trying to help manage their care was frustrating. Their data…February 3, 2026
Though that’s Luffu’s main aim, the overall experience will come in different forms. As well as logging your health by accepting voice prompts, photos, and more, its AI model acts as a ‘guardian’ and will watch out for any health changes, alerting you once it’s become familiar with each member’s health patterns.
Additionally, its co-founders say it will serve as an easy Q&A model that allows you to use simple language to ask questions about individual health statuses – which can all be shared directly with family members.
At the moment Luffu is in a stage of private testing, but you can join the waitlist on the Luffu website. However, in light of Park and Friedman’s ambitious new venture, we have our reservations.
“I can also see Luffu adding to that stress”
If there’s anyone who could lead family-wide fitness tracking, it’s the co-founders of Fitbit and on paper, Luffu could ease a lot of pressure for those with caring responsibilities for children and elderly family members – but there are a few gaps in the system.
As a veteran with ample experience with the best fitness trackers, our Senior Fitness and Wellness Editor, Matt Evans, is in two minds about Luffu. Here’s what he thinks about the new fitness tracking service:
“After the Fitbit founders left Google a couple of years ago, their new venture is a surprising one; a health platform focused on family caregivers rather than individual fitness fans.
“I can certainly see this working for some, especially for those juggling young kids and ageing relatives. In the press release, Luffu uses the term ‘family CEO’, and the app aims to lighten some of that invisible cognitive load, reducing the stress and burnout that comes with it. Interacting with wearables features like Fall Detection, medication reminders and so on could certainly lead to more effective household management.
“However, I can also see Luffu adding to that stress in some cases, as constant streams of information about your loved ones might lead to obsessive checking and encouraging that kind of ‘helicopter’ parenting and family management, a bit like constantly refreshing social media feeds. Careful implementation of these tools are needed, otherwise the stress of ‘cyberchondria’ will only add to a caregiver’s mental load.”
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rowan.davies@futurenet.com (Rowan Davies)
