Oura has finally added SpO2 measurements to its Oura Ring 3 – as the final promised features land on the device.
The Oura 3 launched way back last year, but some of its core features were delayed – including blood oxygen measurements.
That caused some surprise, given that SpO2 tracking is a staple on wearables of all price brackets.
However, the implementation of the data and making it meaningful is more difficult than just slapping on a sensor – as some rivals have found out. And squeezing that into the form factor of a smart ring has clearly caused issues for Oura.
The blood oxygen monitoring feature goes live by default, but can be toggled off if you want to. Oura says it will have an impact on battery life.
The data drives two new metrics: Average blood oxygen and breathing regularity.
Average blood oxygen will show saturation in the blood, which can be a sign of illness, sleep disorders, or difficulties adjusting to altitude. Of course, Oura does caveat that its feature isn't for medical use – but it’s a good way for users to screen their overall health.
Breathing regularity is more of a push towards the tracking of sleep apnea – and studies how breathing changes during sleep. Again, Oura doesn’t specifically name it as such, but it challenges Fitbit’s Estimate Oxygen Variability – which is one of its Premium features.
Switching on SpO2 completes the Oura 3’s potential, after the company launched its workout heart rate data last month.
And the company has also integrated with Strava, for two-way syncing of data between the platforms.
We’re big fans of the Oura 3, thanks to the accuracy of its sleep and heart rate data – which makes it a great health and wellbeing partner.
But we did have reservations about fully recommending it, given so many important TBC features.
The Oura 3 update is rolling out now.
How we test
James is the co-founder of Wareable, and he has been a technology journalist for 15 years.
He started his career at Future Publishing, James became the features editor of T3 Magazine and T3.com and was a regular contributor to TechRadar – before leaving Future Publishing to found Wareable in 2014.
James has been at the helm of Wareable since 2014 and has become one of the leading experts in wearable technologies globally. He has reviewed, tested, and covered pretty much every wearable on the market, and is passionate about the evolving industry, and wearables helping people achieve healthier and happier lives.