The Oura Ring 4 may be grabbing headlines, but behind it is a new version of the Oura app that is available regardless of which Oura Ring you own. Considering you have to pay $6 per month to see the vast majority of data collected by the smart ring and take advantage of its insights, is it worth it, and has the new design improved the app?
I’ve been using the new Oura Ring app for about 10 days now, at first connected to a third-generation Oura Ring, but over the last few days connected to the new Oura Ring 4. Here’s what to expect and whether it’s worth the subscription.
The Oura app’s new design
Over the last couple of years, Oura Ring’s app has become more feature-packed and confusingly laid out as Oura added new collaborations, statistics, and Lab-based experimental programs. These were tacked on in places that made the most sense, but by the end, there were many different screens and menus to learn and navigate. It wasn’t a terrible experience, just a dense and time-consuming one.
Through the redesign, Oura intends to streamline the way we look at and examine data, cutting the tabs available from at least five to just three and introducing quick glance Circles at the top of the main screen to show key data that was previously only seen after scrolling down and through the app. Before I saw the redesign, I was concerned about any potential changes, as although the app was busy, it was still superior to most other smart ring companion apps.
I needn’t have worried, as the redesign is a success. For the most part, the way it shows data and its overall style has not changed, and I don’t think that side of it required any kind of dramatic overhaul. Instead, the first thing you’ll notice is the Readiness, Sleep, and Activity scores are all shown in Circles on the main screen when you open the app.
The Activity Goal pane is directly under it, and scrolling down shows Daytime Stress, heart rate data, and a new Timeline. This tracks activities and sleep, plus it allows you to add tags for other aspects that may affect your stats, ranging from a late meal to a hangover. There’s also a More button to expand the available data on the main screen, which makes it look more like the old app, should you want that.
Three tabs to choose from
Opening the app to the new screen layout makes it more informative and faster, and that’s a big win. At the bottom of the screen are now three tabs: Today, Vitals, and My Health. The Today screen is the one described above, and My Health contains Oura data points such as Resilience — which indicates your stress and recovery status — V02 Max, and Cardiovascular Age (which aren’t designed to be used every day). I actually use Resilience quite often as a way to gauge how I’m balancing sleep, exercise, and stress, and I find it useful. It’s good to see it prominently on the My Health page.
Vitals is an entirely new way of presenting the Oura Ring’s key primary data, and it’s excellent. It places all the most important metrics on a single screen and then indicates whether the scores align with your baselines and a healthy range. Each has a drop-down menu to show more granular data, which was previously shown on the main overview pages for Readiness, Sleep, and Activity. It’s neatly presented, very clear, and really useful. It’s my favorite part of the redesign, along with a helpful quick-access menu switcher at the bottom of the screen when you explore the data in each Circle.
Longtime Oura Ring wearers will note the apparent disappearance of the guided meditations and relaxation techniques that lived on one of the many former tabs. These can now be found when you press the menu option in the top left of the screen and select Explore. Under this same menu structure, you’ll find other features like the social Circles mode and Rest Mode, as well as access to reports and trend data. By shifting the Explore feature and others to this side menu, it has given more space for the important data points used most often, all without removing any functionality.
Is anything missing?
The redesign is mostly positive, but there are still some issues. Upon launch, Oura said it would add automatic heart rate monitoring for 40 different activities, but this is not yet available for me, with the same old walking, running, and cycling options currently showing up. I asked Oura for confirmation on when the feature would arrive and was told it’s expected to launch on October 16, so it’ll be something I test for the Oura Ring 4’s review rather than comment on here. It’s also unfortunate that none of the app can be customized. For example, you can’t reorder the sequence in which Circles or boxes are shown based on your own preferences.
The Oura Advisor, which uses AI to give advice on improving your sleep and resilience, plus the new Meals scheduler, where you can upload photos of your meals, are hidden under the Oura Labs experimental feature list, so you must actively enable them. Some Labs features do not make it into the final version of the app, as shown recently with the removal of the Symptom Checker feature, so give them a try while you can. The more people use them, the more the features will improve, and the greater the chance they will become long-term additions.
It’s too early to say whether the new Oura Ring 4 has altered data accuracy. Areas I will be looking at before fully reviewing the smart ring include the amount of steps it tracks, which was usually much higher than a smartwatch, and if the new sensor array changes calorie burn, body temperature, and sleep stage tracking. I’ve found the Oura Ring usually represented a sensible middle ground compared to most other health and fitness trackers, allowing me to use the data to inform activity for the day and make changes where necessary.
Is the Oura app worth the money?
The biggest hurdle to buying the Oura Ring over any other smart ring is the subscription. It’s the only big player to make it a prerequisite, and although $6 per month isn’t a huge amount, it will add up to a far higher cost of ownership than any other smart ring.
However, if the app is worth the money, that should help soften the financial blow. The redesign has greatly improved navigation and presentation, but promised new features are either still coming or experimental, showing Oura’s preference for taking its time with things hasn’t changed much.
I still love its speed and reliability, with syncing taking just seconds and your data available immediately afterward. And I can’t remember the last time it failed for any reason. Even the initial setup is simple and fuss-free. For reference, I use the iOS version of the Oura app. Through the redesign, the data I want to see most is presented clearly, and on the main page, so I only have to dig down and scroll if I want to see more. Out of all the main smart ring competitors, only Samsung Health and the Galaxy Ring get close to the neat presentation and ease of use of the Oura Ring’s app.
The RingConn Gen 2 does not have a subscription fee for its app, which is fast and well presented, but the data is messier and not always very informative, or you have to do a lot of personal interpretation or data collation before taking much away from it. I was less inclined to check the RingConn app in the morning than the Oura Ring app, as I knew it would be a lengthier and less informative endeavor.
Speed, simplicity, reliability, and an extensive feature list keep me coming back to the Oura Ring app. If you can afford it, it remains the best smart ring app experience, and now it’s further improved by the sensible redesign.
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