Getting Started

Getting Started with NOOP — Your First 10 Minutes

Welcome to NOOP. This tutorial walks you through installing the app, pairing your WHOOP strap (or importing history), and a guided tour of what you'll see. No account, no cloud—just you and your data on your own machine.

This page covers macOS. Android users: the flow is nearly identical (swipe up for the bottom-nav menu instead of the sidebar), though some screen names differ slightly. Platform notes are marked below.

New to NOOP? Start here. For pairing details, deeper screen reference, and troubleshooting, see Strap Support and Pairing, Features, and FAQ.

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Step 1: Install NOOP

On macOS:

1. Go to the Releases page and download NOOP.app (choose the file matching your Mac: arm64 for Apple Silicon, x86_64 for Intel).
2. Drag NOOP.app into your Applications folder.
3. First launch: macOS blocks unsigned apps. You have two options:
   • Terminal (fastest): Open Terminal, then run:

     xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/NOOP.app

     Then launch NOOP normally.
   • No Terminal: Double-click NOOP (it'll be blocked), then go to System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to the bottom, and click "Open Anyway" next to NOOP.

On Android:

1. Go to Releases and download NOOP-full.apk (or NOOP-demo.apk if you want to explore without a strap first).
2. Enable Settings → Apps → Special app access → Install unknown apps for your file manager or browser.
3. Tap the APK file to install.
4. First launch: Just open the app.

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Step 2: The Welcome Wizard

NOOP opens with a calm, paged onboarding wizard. Read the screens—they explain what NOOP does and what to expect:

1. Welcome — "all your data, none of the cloud"
2. What it does — three slides on the recovery ring, live heart rate, and offline data ownership
3. Bluetooth priming — explains Bluetooth before macOS asks for permission (just tap Continue or Allow when the OS prompt appears)
4. Wear & wake — put your strap on snugly, make sure the sensor sits on skin and it's charged
5. Scan — you'll see a radar sweep animation; tap Scan & Connect

A Back button is always available if you want to re-read or change something.

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Step 3: Pair Your Strap (or Skip to Import)

If you have a WHOOP strap:

The app scans for your strap. It may take 10–15 seconds. When found, the scan screen says "Connecting…" and shows the strap name (e.g. "WHOOP 5AG…"). The moment it bonds, the screen blooms with a Recovery Ring and battery percentage—celebration 🎉

What you'll see:

• A glowing recovery ring (probably grey/empty—that's normal on day one)
• Battery % (e.g. "87%")
• A Bonded · streaming pill at the top

If pairing stalls:

• Wait ~30 seconds. It can take a few tries.
• If it keeps failing with "bond refused" or "Encryption is insufficient," see Strap Support and Pairing. (Most common: your phone's WHOOP app still has the bond. Close it or turn off Bluetooth, then retry.)

If you don't have a strap (or want to skip for now):

1. Tap the back arrow on the Scan step.
2. Go back to the Wear & wake step and tap the skip link (or continue without pairing).
3. The wizard moves to profile setup, then import.

You'll still see live heart rate and all scores—just after you import history (next section).

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Step 4: Complete Your Profile

The wizard asks for:

• Age — used to estimate your max heart rate (Tanaka formula: 208 − 0.7 × age)
• Sex — for calorie and zone estimates
• Weight & Height — for calorie math

Your estimated Max HR shows below. You can edit it manually if you know your real max.

Tap Continue when done. These are stored locally on your Mac—they're just for personalization, not sent anywhere.

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Step 5: Import History (Optional but Recommended)

The wizard offers to import:

WHOOP Export (CSV)

If you have years of WHOOP data, import it here to get your full history instantly:

1. Get the export: Open the official WHOOP app → Account → Data Management → Export WHOOP Data (you get a .zip file emailed to you).
2. In NOOP: Tap Import WHOOP Export → select the .zip folder.
3. NOOP reads it in ~30 seconds and backfills all recovery, strain, sleep, and workout history.

What fills in: Recovery scores, day strain, sleep stages, workouts, and journal answers (if you've logged them). Everything lands locally on your Mac.

Apple Health Export (Optional)

If you've logged steps, weight, workouts, or other metrics in the Health app:

1. Get the export: Health app → Profile (bottom-right) → Export All Health Data → email the export.zip to yourself.
2. In NOOP: Tap Import Apple Health → select the file.
3. NOOP streams and reads it (large exports take 1–2 minutes).

What fills in: Steps, calories, active energy, weight, body fat, sleep hours, SpO₂, and workouts. Appears in the Apple Health and workouts screens.

Either way: Tap Skip if you want to explore with just live data for now. You can import later from Data Sources in the sidebar.

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Step 6: Finish Onboarding

The wizard shows one final screen:

"Your thread starts here."

Tap Done (or Let's Go on Android). The wizard closes and you're in the main app.

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Step 7: Your First Look — Control Center (Today)

You're now in Control Center—the home screen. Here's what you'll see:

Right now (live):

• Recovery Ring (left) — probably empty or grey; it fills with color as your baseline matures
• Today's Synthesis (right) — a plain-English summary like "Recovery is strong" or "Calibrating — learning your baseline"
• Key Metrics grid — 10 tiles: Recovery, Day Strain, Sleep, HRV, Resting HR, Blood Oxygen, Respiratory Rate, Steps, Weight, Calories
  • Each tile shows the latest value and a 14-day sparkline (a tiny trend line)
  • Sparse data? Weight and body fat auto-widen to all history, so tiles never show empty when data exists

Over the next few days:

• Recovery → appears after 4–5 nights (when NOOP learns your HRV baseline)
• Strain → live after today if the strap is worn; filled in from imports
• Sleep → appears after tonight's sleep is recorded
• HRV, Resting HR → live from the strap; also imported
• Steps, Calories → from Apple Health (if imported) or detected from the strap's motion

The "Live now. Your scores are building" message appears if recovery hasn't shown up yet. That's not an error—it's honest: NOOP needs a few nights to learn your baseline before recovery makes sense.

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Step 8: Tour the Sidebar (macOS) or Bottom Nav (Android)

On the left (macOS) or bottom (Android), you'll see the main screens:

Right now (live):

Live

• Real-time heart rate in huge digits (BPM)
• R-R intervals (milliseconds between beats)
• Connection status (Bonded · streaming / Disconnected / etc.)
• A Scan & Connect button to pair (or re-pair) your strap
• A Buzz strap button to test the haptics (if bonded)
• A scrolling BLE log showing frames as they arrive—useful for confirming the strap is talking

Health

• Live heart rate as a streaming sparkline
• Vital Signs tiles: Respiratory Rate, Blood Oxygen, Resting HR, HRV, Skin Temp (each says "In range" or "Out of range")
• Needs live HR from the strap or a recent imported day to show data

Breathe (macOS) / Breathing (Android)

• HRV biofeedback trainer
• Pick a pace (Relax 4–6, Coherence 5.5, Box 4–4)
• A soft orb pulses with your breath; the strap buzzes on inhale/exhale (if bonded)
• Shows live HR and rolling HRV

Intervals (macOS) / Interval Timer (Android)

• Silent haptic HIIT timer
• Set work/rest seconds and rounds
• The strap buzzes on transitions (triple buzz into work, single into rest)
• Works visually without a strap

After a few days (as data builds):

Sleep

• Last night's hypnogram — a graph of sleep stages (wake, light, deep, REM)
• Stage breakdown: "Deep 42 min · 15%", "REM 56 min · 20%", etc.
• Tiles: Sleep Performance, Efficiency, Consistency, Hours vs Needed, Respiratory, Sleep Debt

Workouts

• All detected and imported exercise sessions
• Date, sport, duration, avg HR, calories, distance (if available)
• Source badge: WHOOP or Apple

Trends

• Recovery chart over weeks/months (avg, peak, low)
• HRV, Resting HR, Day Strain as small multiples
• A calendar heat-strip of your recovery scores for the past year

Stress

• A single Stress Monitor (0–3 scale)
• "Your resting HR is up, HRV is down—body is under load"
• Derived from your RHR and HRV vs your 30-day baseline (or imported daily stress if logged)

Anytime (always available):

Explore (Metric Explorer)

• Pick any metric (HRV, HR zones, SpO₂, etc.)
• See its trend chart, min/max/avg, and what correlates with it

Compare

• Overlay 2–4 metrics on the same timeline
• See how they move together (correlation)

Insights

• "Does logging alcohol hurt recovery?" — split days you logged behaviors vs days you didn't, compare the outcomes
• Metric relationships: HRV vs recovery, sleep vs recovery, etc.

Apple Health

• Browse steps, weight, sleep, and other Health-app data you imported
• Separate from WHOOP data so you can track both

Data Sources

• Re-import WHOOP or Apple Health (if you got more history)
• See live strap status and battery
• One-tap import hub

Notifications (macOS) / Settings → Notifications (Android)

• Choose which Mac apps buzz your wrist (e.g. Slack, Mail, Messages)
• Customize buzz patterns per app

Automations

• Turn strap inputs into Mac actions: double-tap to lock, take off to lock, etc.
• HR-zone coaching (buzz when you hit zone 5)
• Smart alarm (strap buzzes at your wake time)

Settings

• Re-enter profile (age, weight, max HR)
• Connection status and controls
• Version and attribution

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What Fills In When: The Timeline

Understanding what data appears when keeps you from wondering if something broke.

Day 1 (today):

• ✅ Live heart rate — the moment the strap bonds
• ✅ Today's HR graph — a few minutes after strap connection
• ❌ Recovery, strain, sleep, trends — not yet

After tonight's sleep:

• ✅ Sleep session — start time, end time, stage breakdown
• ✅ Day strain — calculated from today's HR and motion
• ✅ Resting HR, HRV, Respiratory — from the night
• ⏳ Recovery — still learning (needs 4–5 nights minimum)

After 4–5 nights:

• ✅ Recovery — turns green on the ring
• ✅ Trends — recovery chart appears on the Trends screen
• ✅ Baseline metrics — Recovery, Stress, and insights now have personal context

Imported WHOOP export:

• ✅ Everything — recovery, strain, sleep, workouts, journal answers fill in within 1 minute
• ℹ️ Imports always win: if you have both live strap data and an import for the same day, NOOP shows the import

Imported Apple Health:

• ✅ Steps, calories, weight, body fat, sleep hours, workouts — within 1–2 minutes
• Shown in Apple Health screen and Workouts
• Does not override WHOOP recovery/strain/sleep (separate sources)

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What You're Looking At

Recovery

A 0–100 score that synthesizes HRV, resting HR, sleep quality, and respiration. NOOP's version is approximate (uses published sports-science methods, not WHOOP's proprietary math):

• 67–100 (green): Primed or peak — good time to push hard
• 34–66 (yellow): Steady — balanced day ahead
• < 34 (red): Depleted — consider rest or light activity

The ring fills proportionally; the shade tints from red to green.

Disclaimer: This is not medical advice. NOOP is not a medical device. Use it as context, not diagnosis.

Strain

A 0–21 logarithmic scale of cardiovascular load from your heart rate and motion. Based on Edwards TRIMP (a published method):

• 0–6: Light activity
• 7–13: Moderate training
• 14–21: Hard workouts

Computed each day from HR above your resting baseline and motion. Approximate — not WHOOP's model.

Sleep

Stages (Wake, Light, Deep, REM) are estimated from heart rate, heart-rate variability, gravity (motion), and breathing patterns. Approximate — EEG-free staging is ~65–73% accurate. Not a medical diagnosis.

• Deep: Your body recovers; slow wave sleep
• REM: Memory consolidation and dreams
• Light: Transition and maintenance sleep
• Wake: Restless periods or time awake

The hypnogram (graph) shows how these moved across the night.

HRV (Heart-Rate Variability)

The millisecond variation between heartbeats. Higher is better (more parasympathetic tone). NOOP shows RMSSD (root-mean-square of successive differences) in the 30–120 ms range:

• > 100 ms: Well-recovered
• 50–100 ms: Typical
• < 50 ms: Elevated stress or fatigue

Used in recovery and stress calculations.

Resting HR

The lowest sustained HR during sleep (the minimum of rolling 5-minute bins). Typically 40–70 bpm. Rising resting HR can signal fatigue or stress.

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Tips for Your First Week

1. Wear the strap every night. Recovery and sleep depend on it. NOOP learns your baseline over 4–5 nights.

2. Charge regularly. A low battery means gaps in data. The Live screen shows battery % so you know when to top up.

3. Import once if you have WHOOP history. Your full past fills in within a minute, and NOOP uses it to seed better baselines.

4. Don't worry about empty tiles. "Calibrating — N of 4 nights" is honest. Once you hit night 5, recovery appears and everything sharpens.

5. Stay within ~1 m of your Mac while bonded (Bluetooth range). If the strap drops and reconnects, that's normal.

6. Read the Features page once you're comfortable. Every screen is documented there.

7. Questions? Check FAQ or Troubleshooting.

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What's Next

• Pairing trouble? → Strap Support and Pairing
• What each screen does → Features
• Deeper dive on metrics → Analytics
• Installation from source → See docs/BUILD.md in the repo

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Remember

NOOP is offline by design. Nothing leaves your Mac. Your data is yours. There is no account, no server, no sync—just you, your strap, and the math running on your machine. That's the whole idea.

Welcome to your thread.