The Samsung Galaxy Ring incorporates Natural Cycles, but not like Oura

With an Oura Ring, a woman can track her fertility cycle in perhaps the highest-tech way yet. Can Samsung’s Galaxy Ring offer the same level of tracking? Not exactly.  

If you happen to find yourself on the women’s wellness side of TikTok, where people trade health tips and talk about their menstrual cycles, you’ll eventually come across the newest and techiest form of contraception around: the Natural Cycles app. 

Also: The best smart rings you can buy

Natural Cycles is an FDA-cleared, hormone-free birth control alternative that uses basal body temperature to predict daily fertility. Women take their temperature daily as they wake up, and the app informs them whether they’re fertile. There are two subscription options: an annual fee of $120 or a monthly subscription of $16.99.

This functionality of the Oura Ring is a significant reason women are drawn to the smart ring brand. In conversations with friends about Oura, I’ve heard “Natural Cycles” tossed around a handful of times as a reason for their buying decision (a whopping $420 for the cheapest Oura Ring, plus a Natural Cycles yearly subscription).

Natural Cycles’ compatibility with Oura is also one of the many reasons I believe Oura is the most competitive smart ring on the market. 

But now there’s new competition. Samsung’s Galaxy Ring has entered the market and rivals Oura in several ways. Samsung’s ring even offers some compatibility with Natural Cycles.

Also: Samsung Galaxy Ring review

Like Samsung Galaxy Watches, the Galaxy Ring includes some functionalities of Natural Cycles in the Samsung Health app, where your sleep, activity, and wellness data is stored. Those features are available because Samsung announced a partnership with Natural Cycles last year to bring its menstrual cycle-tracking to the Galaxy Watch 5 models and future wearables. 

The partnership is intended to provide Galaxy users with “more detailed insight into their menstrual cycle”, according to the press release. 

However, there are differences between the insights you’ll receive from the app on the Galaxy Ring and other devices. For a start, Samsung Health users don’t pay the $120 yearly subscription to Natural Cycles, so they aren’t reaping all the same benefits or cycle-tracking insights that Natural Cycles offers to Oura Ring users. 

In addition, the Galaxy Ring, unlike the Apple Watch and Oura Ring, isn’t a certified Natural Cycles device. While you can use the Natural Cycles cycle-tracking functionality within the Samsung Health app to document daily symptoms, log your period, and get a general sense of when your next period and fertility window begins and ends, the Samsung Galaxy Ring provides a less nuanced analysis of your fertility. 

Let me explain the differences. Each day, the Natural Cycles app provides you with a more detailed account of whether you are or aren’t fertile based on an algorithm that uses your hormone data and your temperature taken that morning by a thermometer, Apple Watch, or Oura Ring. However, in the Samsung Health app, Natural Cycles only provides a predicted fertility window that you can view weeks ahead. 

Women’s bodies change from week to week and month to month. These changes impact body temperature. Samsung Health algorithms, powered by Natural Cycles, only provide a general fertility window instead of daily “fertile” or “infertile” notifications. As a result, the insights you see may be more prone to flaws or miscalculations than with the Apple Watch and Oura Ring.

Prospective smart ring users, particularly Android users, may feel the inclusion of Natural Cycles within the Galaxy Ring is enough to opt for a Galaxy Ring over the Oura. The Natural Cycles functionality on Samsung Health could be helpful if you are on birth control and want to understand the different phases of your menstrual cycle. 

Also: How we test smart rings at ZDNET in 2024

However, I’d look to the Oura or Apple Watch if you want true and certified Natural Cycles compatibility, especially if you are using Natural Cycles as your only form of birth control. 

Given Samsung’s partnership with Natural Cycles, could we expect a Natural Cycles-compatible Galaxy Ring in the future? Samsung did not immediately respond to our request for comment.

In the meantime, I’ll be hoping for imminent compatibility, both for the sake of Samsung’s standing in the smart ring market and the quality of non-hormonal birth control.