The app improvements are significant. These include a new feature called Timeline, which is a running log of your day that includes everything from your meals, meditations, and workouts. Automatic activity detection now includes more than 40 different activities, with automatic heart rate detection and heart rate zones. Daily Stress, which lets members see more context when it comes to their daily movement and activities. You will also be able to overlay tags and activities on your day to see, for example, if alcohol really does spike your stress.
Oura Labs—the tab in the app where you could opt into trying features that were still in development and provide feedback—was previously only available in iOS. But now Android users can check out features that might be useful, such as Meals, which uses computer vision to break down pictures of what you ate to see if you consumed enough fiber or protein.
Android users can now also try Oura Advisor, which is Oura’s generative AI chatbot. I have only begun testing this, but so far I have found it to be about as useful as other AI-enabled health coaching services—which is to say, not so useful. Most importantly (to me), the app has a significant expansion of Oura’s women’s health features.
Man, I Feel Like a Woman
If you’re a woman, one of the primary reasons to get a smart ring is cycle tracking. In the past few years, many fitness trackers—including the Apple Watch—have added skin temperature sensing to the metrics that they collect. Ideally, wrist wearables would be sensitive enough to capture the temperature drop that usually occurs the day before you get your period, and is the only foolproof warning that your period is coming.
However, in my testing, only smart rings have been sensitive enough to catch that temperature drop in your basal body temperature (BBT) accurately. “One of the disadvantages to a wrist-worn device is that you’re often charging it overnight,” said Oura VP of product Jason Russell. “With temperature data, we’re able to get a really strong signal during the night time. [The finger] is also a better place to capture temperature signal on your body as well.”
That probably accounts for the fact that Oura’s largest-growing member demographic is women in their twenties. In the past year, Oura’s membership shifted from primarily male to primarily female. The company partnered with Natural Cycles, the menstrual cycle-tracking app that uses your BBT drop to track your period. It also introduced Pregnancy Insights, Cycle Insights, and the Cycle Insights Report, and now its latest feature is the Fertile Window.
It’s important to note here that Oura conceives of this feature as an aid to help you get pregnant, and not to prevent a pregnancy. Still, even those of us whose children are now thinking about soccer teams and driving cars would find this information useful, especially as we’re entering perimenopausal and menopausal years.
When I first started wearing the Oura Gen3, I did not expect that, in the coming years, this little ring would be the tracker that I’d continue wearing, and against which I would compare almost every other fitness tracker that I tested. The Oura Ring 4 looks to make a number of significant improvements to a category-defining wearable, and for an underserved population. (It’s really hard and annoying to keep track of your period!)
All current Oura members will be able to see the app developments, and the Gen3 will remain on sale as long as supplies last. The Oura Ring 4 is available in sizes 4-15, and in six colors, Brushed Silver, Gold, Rose Gold, Silver, Stealth, and Black. One month of membership is included in purchase, and you can subscribe monthly for $6/month or $70/year. You can preorder today; it starts shipping on October 15, 2024.
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