The Oura uses sensors on the inside of the ring to track more than 30 health and wellness metrics, including the heavy hitters like heart rate and heart variability, and is perhaps best-known for its sleep tracking (check out our review on how the Oura Gen3’s sleep recommendations gave us more energy for workouts.)
The Oura Ring 4 has more than double the number of sensors than the Gen3 (now 18, up from 8), and the newest version includes something called “Smart Sensing,” which showed some impressive accuracy improvements over the Gen3 in external testing, including 7 percent fewer gaps in the daytime heart rate graph and 31 percent fewer gaps in the nighttime heart rate graph. A gap in the graph is when there’s a segment of time that’s missing heart rate data—fewer gaps means more continuous monitoring, resulting in better, more consistent data.
“With Smart Sensing, Oura Ring 4 accounts for ring rotation that naturally occurs with daily activities, as well as differences in finger anatomy, shape, BMI, and skin tone,” said Holly Shelton, chief product officer at Oura, in a press release.
The Oura Ring 4 is also available in sizes 4 to 15, making it one of the most inclusive smart rings, size-wise, and both the outside and inside of the ring is now made of titanium for better durability. It’s also thinner than before (by about .02mm, which isn’t much) and the battery life is extended so you can wear it for up to eight days.
Oura announced a new app layout alongside the Oura Ring 4’s release, which aims to streamline the data you get from the ring (it’s a lot—in addition to the usual sleep, activity, and more, the ring also looks at stress and resilience, women’s health, and heart health, and Oura recently announced plans to move into metabolic health). The app is a bit cleaner, with three sections accessible via tabs at the bottom of the home screen: Today, Vitals, and My Health.
“With all the new features and capabilities that we’ve introduced in the last 12 months, it had become harder to navigate the Oura App,” Shelton said. “With this redesign, the [app] connects the dots to help Oura Members understand how their habits
and behaviors today—like aerobic activity and sleep hygiene—impact their health as they age, and also helps them understand how they can make changes that will pay off later in life.”
The updated app is available for everyone with a ring, regardless of ring generation, and starts rolling out today.
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In addition to the one-time cost of the ring, which comes with one month of membership, there’s a membership cost of $5.99/month or $69.99/year.
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