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Bevel Turns Your Apple Watch Into a Whoop-Like Tracker - And It's Now Free

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  //health-fitness.news-articles.net/content/2025/ .. into-a-whoop-like-tracker-and-it-s-now-free.html
  Published in Health and Fitness on Tuesday, December 23rd 2025 at 15:01 GMT by Lifehacker

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Bevel Turns Your Apple Watch Into a Whoop‑Like Tracker – And It’s Now Free

When Apple first launched the Apple Watch, it promised “the ultimate health and fitness companion.” In the years since, it has indeed become the most popular wearable, offering heart‑rate monitoring, ECG, GPS, and a growing ecosystem of third‑party health apps. Yet for athletes who crave the granular sleep‑and‑recovery data of the Whoop Strap, the Apple Watch still feels a little… thin. The Apple Watch’s built‑in metrics (resting heart‑rate, maximum heart‑rate, sleep stages, and an approximate “sleep quality” score) stop short of the “strain, recovery, and fatigue” dashboards that Whoop users love, and its “battery‑life‑draining” GPS and always‑on‑display features make it a less-than‑ideal all‑day companion for many.

Enter Bevel – a new app that sits on top of the Apple Watch’s native sensor suite and delivers the Whoop‑style experience, without the cost of a Whoop subscription. The Lifehacker article highlights that the app, which previously required a $20 monthly fee, has dropped that price to zero: it’s now free for anyone who installs it and syncs an Apple Watch.

Why Bevel Matters

1. The Whoop Problem
The Whoop Strap, a popular fitness band sold by the company of the same name, charges a monthly fee (currently $30 / month) in order to provide real‑time “strain” and “recovery” insights. These metrics are derived from a proprietary algorithm that blends heart‑rate variability (HRV), sleep, and activity data. While the data is highly prized by serious athletes and those who train for marathon, triathlon, or strength competitions, it comes with an expensive price tag. For casual users or anyone on a budget, paying $30/month for data that an Apple Watch could provide for free feels unfair.

2. The Apple Watch Gap
Although the Apple Watch can export raw HRV and sleep data to the Health app, it does not provide a single, ready‑to‑read “Recovery” score. Users would normally have to hand‑craft dashboards in a spreadsheet or use third‑party services (e.g., Strava, Garmin Connect) that aggregate the data differently. This fragmentation is a pain point for the Apple Watch’s fitness‑enthusiast community. Bevel’s value proposition is that it plugs that gap, giving Apple Watch users Whoop‑like metrics at zero cost.

How Bevel Works

The app’s description on the App Store – which Lifehacker links to – explains that Bevel uses the Apple Watch’s ECG and HRV data, which is automatically recorded by the Watch during a 5‑minute “Health Check” each morning. The app processes the HRV and sleep data through its proprietary formula and displays:

• Recovery score (0–100)
• Strain score (0–100)
• Daily fatigue level
• Weekly trend graphs

Bevel also pulls in activity data from the Health app (steps, workouts, calories burned) to calculate a “strain” metric. The app does not require a premium tier; every feature is free, though users can opt into optional Bevel Premium which offers a few extra analytics and a “Coach” feature that sends push notifications when recovery is low.

Installation & Setup

1. Download Bevel from the App Store.
2. Pair an Apple Watch (Series 4 or newer) with the app.
3. Grant permission to access Health data and location (for GPS workouts).
4. The app will prompt you to perform a quick 5‑minute Health Check.
5. Data is sync’d automatically; dashboards refresh each morning.

Once set up, users can view the metrics on the Apple Watch face or in the iOS app. Bevel even offers a watch complication that lets you glance at recovery at a glance.

Pricing & Availability

• Free: The core recovery/strain dashboard.
• Premium (optional): $0.99/month for deeper analytics (though Lifehacker notes that the premium tier is still very low cost compared to Whoop’s $30/month).
• No subscription required to get the main metrics.

Lifehacker notes that Bevel was originally a $20/month app but rolled the price down to zero in a “limited time offer” announcement on their website (linking to the official announcement). The company’s statement: “We want to democratise high‑quality health analytics for all Apple Watch users.”

Community & Context

Bevel has already sparked a conversation on Reddit’s r/AppleWatch community and a thread on the Apple Support Community. Users praise the app for “being the first real recovery metric on Apple Watch” and for saving them money. Critics note that the recovery algorithm isn’t fully disclosed, so it may not be as scientifically rigorous as Whoop’s proprietary model, but many find the value comparable.

The article also references a link to the Whoop official site (whoop.com) and the Apple Support page about HealthKit integration, providing context for users who want to understand how Bevel’s data compares to Whoop’s proprietary approach.

What Lifehacker Highlights

• Free: Bevel is now free, breaking the “$30/month barrier” of Whoop.
• Data‑driven: Uses Apple Watch’s built‑in sensors (ECG, HRV, GPS).
• User‑friendly: Easy installation, a clean dashboard, and a watch complication.
• Community: Users are already sharing success stories on social media.
• Future potential: The company hints at adding “AI‑based coaching” and integration with other sports platforms (e.g., Strava) in upcoming updates.

Bottom Line

Bevel is a timely entrant into the Apple Watch ecosystem. It provides a Whoop‑style recovery and strain dashboard for free, filling a notable gap for athletes who rely on Apple Watch for health monitoring but don’t want to shell out for a Whoop subscription. For casual fitness fans, it’s a great way to see a recovery score that previously required an extra device or a subscription. For serious athletes, it offers a decent alternative – especially when the premium tier comes in at less than a dollar a month.

If you’re an Apple Watch user who’s been eyeing the Whoop metrics but haven’t yet justified a monthly fee, Bevel’s free launch is a no‑risk test drive. Install it today, pair your watch, and see whether your recovery score tells you what you need to know about your training load. And because the app is now free, you can experiment without paying a cent – a move that Lifehacker calls “one of the biggest shifts in wearable health analytics this year.”