A Makeover to Oura: Smart Rings and App Stores Across the Several-Years Lifetimes from The Oura Experiment

Oura is giving its popular smart ring and app a substantial makeover. The company just announced the $349 Oura Ring 4, which will feature a slimmer design, improved accuracy, and more sizes. The Oura app will get a complete redesign to better organize the new features that have been introduced over the past few months.

As for the app, Oura users may have noticed it’s become increasingly cluttered over the past few months as the company added new features for stress tracking, reproductive health, heart health, and an experimental Labs beta program. There will be three sections in the new app. Today, Vitals, and My Health. The Today tab provides a summary of yourbiometrics, depending on the time and the user’s health goals. Vitals will allow members to dive deeper into metrics and scores, while the My Health tab will focus on longer-term trends.

Notably, Oura is also expanding its size range. You’ll now be able to buy the ring in sizes 4 to 15. Previously, the smart ring was limited to sizes 6 to 13. Part of this is because Oura says its demographic has shifted to majority female, with women in their 20s as the fastest growing segment. Overall, expanding its size range is a good thing.

Citing an external study, Oura says the new algorithm results in a 120 percent increase in signal quality and a 30 percent bump in accuracy for blood oxygen tracking. It also claims the new algorithm reduces gaps in daytime and nighttime heart rate readings by 7 and 31 percent, respectively. The company stated that the new method improves battery life by up to eight days depending on the size of the ring. (With smart rings, larger sizes tend to have better battery life.) These are claims from controlled studies. We will see how they translate in real life.

At a glance, the Oura Ring 4 doesn’t look too different from the Gen 3. However, the new ring will be fully made from titanium. (The previous ring had an epoxy interior.) The rings will be round, like the current Horizon models, with no flat edge. Perhaps most notably, the sensors no longer have protruding dome-shaped covers. They are missing for a flatter, more comfortable profile.

When the Gen3 debuted, Oura took around a year to roll out most of its new features, and it was impossible to counsel people to buy a subscription when you didn’t even know if it would be useful or not. Several years ago, Oura released a new app design that’s now ready to be downloaded by all of its members.

The New Size Range of Oura Smart Ring for Chargers and Monitors with a Safety-Censor: The P-Skin Case

The ring now weighs between 3.3 and 5.2 grams, depending on the size. The charging base also has a cover, which will help me keep it on the charger and prevent me from carelessly knocking it off my desk.

It is now available in an expanded size range, too, up from eight available sizes to 12, and in an expanded range of colors, which includes an updated black that has a more durable coating to address customer complaints. I have the original Heritage Black that I’ve been wearing for several years and have not had anything but good things to say about it. The more inclusive size range now also includes a size 4 to accommodate more of Oura’s female customers.

In the years since Oura launched its first smart ring, the category has exploded. There is a huge appetite for a fitness tracker with a screen, but no screen at all, and also allows you to wear your watch on your wrist instead of something that will bang you in the schnoz.