Glow (app)

Glow is a fertility awareness and period-tracking app. It is part of a suite of mobile apps focused on women's reproductive health and childcare, which includes Eve by Glow (a dedicated period tracker), Glow Nurture (a pregnancy tracker), and Glow Baby (a baby development tracker).^[1]

Glow
Developer	Glow Inc.
Initial release	2013
Operating system	iOS Android
Type	Period-tracking and fertility app
Website	glowing.com

The Glow company also operates an online shop that sells several fertility-related products, including ovulation test strips, pregnancy tests, and wearable breast pumps.

In 2024, Glow was reported to have approximately 25 million users across its various apps and community message boards.^[2]

History

Glow debuted in August 2013 as an iOS app. It was founded by Michael Huang and Max Levchin (one of the co-founders of PayPal and a member of the group of entrepreneurs popularly referred to as the PayPal Mafia).^[3][4][5] Glow was initially launched with $6 million in Series A funding, predominantly from the firms Founders Fund and Andreesen Horowitz. In 2014, it was reported that it had raised a further $17 million in Series B funding, with its backers being joined by another venture capital firm, Formation 8.^[6][7]

In 2015, Glow launched Ruby, an app dedicated to sexual health.^[8] That year, Wired reported that the company had added features to their apps allowing men to monitor their fertility. Glow subsequently released an additional set of apps focused on pregnancy tracking and infant development.^[9] In 2016, Glow reported that it had a total of approximately 3 million users; by 2018, this had grown to 15 million. Vox described it as one of the “big two” period and fertility tracking apps and the one that had started the “boom” in the femtech space.^[10][11]

Application and features

Initial reporting characterized Glow as an app that used data science to address fertility issues.^[12] Its features include menstrual symptom logging and an ovulation predictor.

Glow also features educational articles about women's reproductive health and childcare, as well as a set of online message boards.

Privacy and legal issues

Glow has received significant media attention for its privacy and security practices. In 2016, Consumer Reports identified potential exploits in the Glow app that they claimed could have exposed private user data to hackers.^[13] Glow subsequently reported that it had fixed the vulnerabilities and told The Washington Post they had no evidence that user data had been compromised.^[14]

In September 2020, the California Attorney General announced a settlement with Glow related to Consumer Reports’ findings, which included a $250,000 civil penalty.^[15][16]

Following the US Supreme Court's 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson ruling, which legalized state-level bans on abortion, Glow (and other fertility trackers, such as Clue and Flo) came under additional scrutiny over concerns that user data on abortions could be reported to law enforcement.^[17][18]

After this surge of media interest, a research team affiliated with the University of New South Wales conducted an investigation into the privacy practices of several popular fertility apps, including Glow. Their review of Glow was mixed, noting that they provided several privacy settings and de-identified sensitive data, but that user information could still be disclosed in the future if the app was sold. Glow rejected that claim, telling the Australian Associated Press that it "did not share" personal data. The company also cited several internal security measures it had implemented and its apps' offline data protection setting, which allows users to permanently delete their health-related data.^[19][20]

Reception

In 2014, Fast Company reported that 20,000 women had used Glow to conceive.^[21] Later that year, The Guardian included Glow Nurture on its list of the best iPhone apps of 2014.^[22] Media coverage often praised Glow's array of menstrual tracking options, although some reviews also noted that fertility apps are not birth control tools and cautioned against relying on them for that purpose.^[23][24]

In 2019, Cosmopolitan singled Glow's community of users as one of its standout features.^[25]