Allison interviews Caroline Lagarde, Product Manager from Withings, about the Body Scan 2, their latest smart scale.
Withings considers Body Scan 2 as more than just a smart scale, but instead a connected health station due to the numerous biomarkers it measures. The Body Scan 2 has a built-in handle that is connected to the base by a retractable cord and extends up to waist height. Both hands are placed on either side of the handle to get sensor readings from the hands and the feet simultaneously. A small display is built into the handle for easier viewing of scale measurements.
With sensor readings from the feet and hands, the Body Scan 2 measures weight, fat/muscle mass, heart rate, and an electrocardiogram. Using these measurements combined with your age, the Body Scan 2 estimates vascular age, heart age, hypertension risk, and an electro-dermal activity score. It can detect atrial fibrillation, assess arterial rigidity, and help you improve your stress response and recovery abilities.
All Withings scales integrate with the Withings mobile app that allows you to see your current and historical measurements and estimates. The app is compatible with iOS and Android.
Body Scan 2 is scheduled to be released in Q2 of 2026.
Learn more at https://www.withings.com/
Using a Screen Reader? click here
Transcript of Interview
Allison: I am addicted to Withings products. We try to search you guys out every single year. And uh I actually put a Withings scale on my uh Christmas list this year and I gave my husband Steve a uh Beamo for uh for his Christmas gift. But I am here with uh Caroline Lagarde of Withings and we’re going to talk about a new product. Maybe we should have gotten waited and gotten me this one for for Christmas.
Caroline: So, uh I think you’re going to be able to get uh this product uh next year for Christmas because it’s going to be uh delivered in Q2 2026. Maybe to explain why we developed this new uh scale at Withings, I’ll give you some context. So, at Withings we we got the um we yes, we got the we stated that uh we’re that our modern life life, sorry, our modern life changed the way we live. So we eat on the go, we sleep a lot less, we are under pressure. So because of this uh there is a big uh increase of chronic disease all around the world. And so this chronic disease develops silently for years before they are declared and the goal of Body Scan 2 is to detect the early signs of this chronic disease before it’s too late.
Allison: Oh wow. So this isn’t just about seeing how fat you are.
Caroline: Yeah, exactly.
Allison: By the way, I would like to thank the company for if you try to weigh yourself on your birthday, it just says happy birthday and it will not tell you how much you weigh. Whoever wrote that into the software, let them know. So this is called Body Scan 2. So it looks like a scale, but it’s got a uh it’s got some sort of sensor thing up at uh maybe arm height.
Caroline: Yeah, yeah, exactly. So this is a handle and so we embedded the display in the handle so that it’s easier for the user to look at the datas and the results on the screen. And we also added two interactive buttons so that the person can interact with the scale.
Allison: Oh okay.
Caroline: And yeah, in fact I’m talking about the scale but it’s a lot more than a scale. So this is um longevity station.
Allison: Longevity station.
Caroline: Exactly.
Allison: Okay. So what does it measure?
Caroline: Yeah. So at every weigh in, you’re going to get a complete assessment of your cardiovascular health and metabolic health.
Allison: Cardiovascular and met met metabolic.
Caroline: Metabolic health. Yes, exactly. And so based on this, we’re going to give you your health trajectory. So which is your path to longevity. So it’s whether you’re gaining uh losing years or gaining healthy years. And so based on this, we’re going to give you advices whether you should keep on uh sleeping more or doing more activities and so on to improve this health trajectory.
Allison: Oh, interesting, interesting. I do know I do know that my scale told me I was dehydrated after New Year’s and that’s inexplicable why it said that. But yeah, what kind of—
Caroline: Very, very powerful. More than 60 biomarkers that are measured uh on this uh on this scale.
Allison: Really? So this is all just from your feet on the scale?
Caroline: Feet and uh handle. So here you can see this is a sensor, this is a sensor. This is a sensor and the sensor and here is a sensor also inside.
Allison: So you’re holding it. Show show me how you would hold it.
Caroline: Yeah, you’re holding it like this.
Allison: Okay. So she’s holding this long black plastic piece which she’s got uh her thumb on two sensors and then her palms and your fingers wrapped around her on the sensors underneath.
Caroline: Exactly.
Allison: Yes.
Caroline: Uh yeah. And so maybe I can give you the three key points uh of this scale. So first of all, it detects hypertension risk. So it sends you a notification when you’ve got uh hypertension risk.
Allison: I thought you had to measure blood pressure in order to do hypertension.
Caroline: So uh we don’t measures the the tension the the blood uh pressure directly on the body, but we tell you whether you’ve got the a risk of hypertension. See what I mean? This is a screening. This is not monitoring.
Allison: Oh, okay. Okay. So if your body characteristics would give you likely give you hypertension, it’s going to say, hey, might want to keep an eye on it.
Caroline: Yeah, sure, exactly. So we’ve got many different datas. We put all of them in a AI predictive model and then this based on clinical studies we’ve made, it’s going to give you whether you’re high or low uh on this risk.
Allison: Wow. Wow. So how do you protect our data?
Caroline: Uh so we’ve got uh well, we we don’t sell our data to anyone and we follow all the regulations in Europe and in the USA.
Allison: Okay. So but your data does not stay local, correct?
Caroline: Uh so our data center um
Allison: I mean it’s not local on my device. It’s not going straight to my iPhone and then nowhere else. It is is it going to your servers?
Caroline: I mean the data data centers that Withings own and that is the property of Withings and then this only goes for the user in their application. And in fact you can download all the information we we collect on you whenever you want uh on your uh account and you can also ask to delete them. Yeah.
Allison: Okay. That’s good that’s great. That’s great. Say say the word uh AES encryption at some point in the story will be will be good.
Caroline: And maybe that’s so the two other novelties I didn’t talk about it. So I talked about hypertension uh risk and then we measure the heart age also. So until now we had an electrocardiogram. So to measure the responsiveness of your heart to order to beat. So—
Allison: Say say that one more time. Measure the heart for what?
Caroline: So you’ve got um we already measure electrocardiogram. So electrocardiogram—
Allison: Okay. An ECG.
Caroline: Yes, exactly. ECG. So this is the order that your heart receive to beat. And then the heart beats and then it pumps blood. So this is what we measure. We measure the efficiency of the ejection of the blood. So the pumping efficiency of the heart and we vulgarize it in a heart age. And then we’ve got the vascular age, which is which we already had on Body Scan 1, which gives you the stiffness of your arteries. So now we’ve got all the way for your cardiovascular health.
Allison: Holy cow. Okay.
Caroline: Yeah.
Allison: That’s crazy. What’s the third one?
Caroline: The third one. So this is a long-term impact of an unstable glycemic regulation on your body. So this is a little bit complicated. Let me explain.
Allison: Okay. I’m up I’m I’m bracing myself for the challenge. Here we go.
Caroline: So we don’t come to measure directly uh the glyc the your glucose in uh your body, but we measure if there’s an impact of an unstable glycemic uh on your body. So for example, if your nerves are deteriorated, if you’ve got visceral fat at some places where you shouldn’t have, how much visceral fat you have, uh your artery stiffness, all of these data, we put them in a AI model and which uh predicts whether there is an impact an impact of not or not. So if uh there is a unstable glycemia or not.
Allison: So how would you know where my visceral fat is?
Caroline: So—
Allison: I mean I’m sure I got some but I I don’t understand how the scale is going to tell me where it is if I’ve got my hands and my feet. You don’t know if it’s on my hips or my nose.
Caroline: Yeah. Sure.
Allison: Sure.
Caroline: So in fact you know uh for uh so we’ve got different electrodes everywhere. So we can make different um circuits in your body. So if we decide to connect the two electrodes from your feet, current will go from one feet to uh from one foot to another one. So it’s going to be only in the uh legs uh legs parts.
Allison: Through the we through the waist. Yeah.
Caroline: Yes, exactly. So if we take between the two hands, then it’s going to be in between the two hands. So we can decide where to measure everything based on which electrodes we switch on or switch off.
Allison: Yeah. If you go from my right foot to my left arm, you’re going to find that visceral fat right there. Okay. Okay. That’s really, really interesting. So that’s why it’s important to to have this what do you call the upper piece?
Caroline: The handle, handle.
Allison: The handle. And you had that on the version one, but this is a version two that’s going to be coming out, right?
Caroline: Yeah. Exactly.
Allison: Okay. Well, I think I know what I’m going to ask for for Christmas. Uh do you have a price point yet for the uh—
Caroline: Uh yes. So in Europe, I know in the US.
Allison: Sorry.
Caroline: She just looked at my badge. That was cute. No, I’ve got European listeners. I want to know for New Zealand too.
Allison: For New Zealand too.
Caroline: New Zealand’s not yet ready. But so in the US it’s going to be 599 dollars.
Allison: Okay. Great, great. And uh the name of this model one more time.
Caroline: Body Scan 2.
Allison: Body Scan 2 and Steve has a question.
Steve: And when is that coming out? In February did you say?
Caroline: Uh Q Q2 2026.
Steve: So Q2 is uh—
Allison: Q2. Yeah. Second quarter of 2026. Very good. So if people want to find out about all the things that you do at Withings, where would they go?
Caroline: Withings.com. Yes, sure.
Allison: Okay. W I T H I N G S.com. Thank you so much. This is fascinating, Caroline.
Caroline: Thank you.
Allison: Thank you very much.
Caroline: Thank you.