Amazon reported it would stop supporting its Halo health-tracking wearable business after July 31, and notified employees on April 26 who work in that division that they were being laid off.
Amazon said, “We recently made the very difficult decision to stop supporting Amazon Halo effective July 31, 2023. We are incredibly proud of the invention and hard work that went into building Halo on behalf of our customers, and our priorities are taking care of our customers and supporting our employees. We notified impacted employees in the U.S. and Canada today. In other regions, we are following local processes, which may include time for consultation with employee representative bodies and possibly result in longer timelines to communicate with impacted employees. For employees who are impacted by this decision, we are providing packages that include a separation payment, transitional health insurance benefits, and external job placement support.”
Amazon released the health-tracking bracelet in 2020, marking its first entry into the wearable device category and a deeper move into the healthcare space.
The original Halo Band was a minimal tracker that launched in 2020. The device, while affordable, was also controversial, with two marquee features that could generate a 3D image of a user to measure body fat and monitor the user’s tone when speaking with others. Amazon followed up with the Halo View in 2021 and recently launched the Halo Rise, a contactless sleep tracker and smart alarm clock.
Photo courtesy Halo
