ECG and Heart Screener: which band for WHOOP MG
The band is part of the sensor
On WHOOP MG, ECG and Heart Screener are not purely software features. The reading needs to close an electrical circuit between two contact points: the device on one side, a conductive element built into the band on the other, which you touch with a finger from the opposite hand during the reading.
In other words the band is a component of the sensor, not a decorative accessory. Replacing it with a non-conductive band removes the feature.
What keeps working
Everything else, without exception. Sleep, strain, recovery, continuous heart rate, variability, skin temperature, blood oxygen: those readings come from the optical sensors in the device and do not depend on the band. A woven band degrades none of them, provided it is fitted correctly.
What disappears, and only this: ECG and Heart Screener.
Our bands are not conductive
Better written here than discovered after the purchase. Our bands are woven elastic nylon. Nylon does not conduct, and none of our models includes a metal contact linked to the device. On a WHOOP MG fitted with a QUIETUDE band, ECG will not be available.
That is true of very nearly every textile band on the market, whatever the brand. A band advertised as ECG-compatible always has a visible metal section on the inside.
What ECG users actually do
They keep the original conductive band and put it back on for the reading. Swapping a band on WHOOP 5.0 or MG takes seconds: the strap releases with a tab, no tools.
In practice most people take an ECG now and then, not several times a day. Wearing a woven band day to day and switching back to the conductive one for an occasional reading is the compromise most MG owners settle on.
If ECG is why you bought an MG
Then keep the conductive band as your main strap. We would rather tell you before the purchase: no band is worth losing a health feature you use every day.
If you take an ECG occasionally, though, nothing stops you owning several bands and rotating. See also: what changes between WHOOP 5.0 and WHOOP MG.
And the rest of the time
None of our woven bands is conductive: keep the original conductive band for ECG. For the other twenty-three hours, Already Late Black or Jet swap back in thirty seconds.