In one sentence
Where VT starts when there is no wearable yet, or one that writes very little: the measures you can keep with a phone, a scale, a tape measure and a few taps, on a Home screen that grows as you add more.
Who it is for
You do not so much choose Essential as start on it. VT places you here when your devices do not record your nights, and Home says why in one line: without a wearable, Essential builds your Home from your phone, your scale and your CGM; with one that writes only a few readings, from what it does write as well. It is a starting point, not a program. Everything you record here counts later: when a wearable with overnight readings is connected, Longevity Playbook opens up. In your first 48 hours VT moves you there and tells you; after that it offers it once.
Its focus on Home
Five cards are always there, each with its ask when empty: Training Load (Log your trainings), Steps (Connect Health and your phone counts), Energy eaten (Log a meal), Waist (Add a waist measurement) and Blood pressure (Record your blood pressure). The other four slots fill, in order of importance, from whatever your devices do record: weight trend, glucose, resting heart rate, body fat, time in tight range, HRV, visceral fat, glucose variability, overnight SpO₂, fat-free mass index, HbA1c, VO₂ max, metabolic age, waist-to-hip ratio, calories goal, fasting glucose, respiratory rate and basal metabolic rate. Essential has no Also tracked page.
What it gives its best with
Asked for: two weigh-ins a week, which give the trend, and a waist measurement each season. Helps: a wearable that records your nights, since with one Longevity opens up, and a lab panel, marked Coming soon for now. Reminders come at most three times, a month apart, and never end in an offer of another Playbook.
In Meals
No rules of its own: VT's own protein, fiber and calorie targets and the guideline limits apply, as under every Playbook.
What Eir leads with
Building a record worth reading: trend weight, waist, steps and blood pressure; what the record shows so far, and what one more measure would add. It does not read into sparse data, and it does not recommend devices by brand.
Sources
- Vitality Tracker, the Playbook catalogue (Essential, version 2, published November 2026)
- the Features page (Playbook Selection).