In a world where you can get a smart version of just about anything from speakers and watches to water bottles and running shoes, I find smart rings particularly appealing. In some ways they are perfect wearables. It’s discreet, stylish, and can blend seamlessly with the rest of your outfit.
Of all the smart ring products available today, the Oura Ring is the most well-known, most adopted, and tops the list of best sleep trackers. , a robust wellness tracker aimed at monitoring sleep and stress. Seven temperature sensors monitor “recovery time,” and it features an updated heart rate sensor and readiness score like Garmin and Fitbit.
The Aura ring, like most other smart rings, is a screenless wearable, a chunky but cute ring designed to be worn on your index finger. Of course, no physical screen means you have to open the app to view your stats. Unless, however, you are the owner of the best Apple Watch.
You might be wondering what it means to own two wellness-oriented wearables, but Oura does its best to integrate into Apple’s health economy. Several new features have been introduced, including his Oura app for watchOS that lets you get all the details and health data right on your wrist, including sleep, readiness and activity data. You can also add Oura metrics to your watch face.
Starting with iOS 16, Oura introduced a widget that allows you to view your Oura stats on your home screen. These widgets are customizable and can show your sleep score, readiness score, activity score, ring battery level, activity goal progress, daily movement, body temperature graph and heart rate graph.
So should Apple Watch users consider spending more money on the Oura Ring, even though they already have a perfectly good wearable? It’s going to be a question of monitoring, battery life, and how you use the watch.
If you charge your watch overnight (unless you’re using something with a long battery life such as the Apple Watch Ultra, you’re likely a power user), you’re not using the Apple Watch’s sleep tracking feature. . Always wear your watch.
The Oura ring helps fill those gaps because it’s much easier to wear comfortably all night long and can continue to provide Apple Health information without being tethered to your watch. Battery life is far better than the 18 hours Apple offers, or 36 hours for Apple Watch Ultra users.
Oura Rings also track data that your Apple Watch doesn’t. The Apple Watch doesn’t offer recovery metrics like Fitbit or Garmin, so using the Oura Ring with your Apple Watch lets you know if you’re ready for your next long run. The aforementioned “recovery time” not only looks for signs of stress, but Oura can also monitor how much time you spend in bed and how much time you actually sleep. A very professional kit, but a very sophisticated kit.
The Apple Watch, on the other hand, is a generalist technology. Great for staying connected, reading notifications, emails and other messages on the go, monitoring specific workouts and loading more. It’s probably the most popular smartwatch brand on the market, and for very good reason.
Poor battery life hampers your ability to monitor your health, but if you can afford an expensive Oura subscription, the ring effectively decouples the health aspect from the actual watch, so the watch stays charged. Data is recorded even while
For certain sections of users, this new integration makes Oura Ring a must-have. Some people may not like the idea of constant sleep tracking, like the sleep expert I interviewed about the usefulness of fitness watches.
