Your Oura ring just got a major upgrade that fixes its biggest flaw – for free

Oura might be a stellar sleep tracker, but it hasn’t always been a reliable activity tracker. Reddit users under the r/ouraring subreddit regularly lament this situation, saying the Oura Ring miscounts steps during activities and workout sessions. One recent Reddit post called the step tracker “wildly inaccurate.” 

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Oura has seemingly listened to these complaints. The company has announced it is upgrading the smart ring’s step-tracking feature. That’s right: activity enhancements and upgrades are coming to the app, including new trends for viewing your active time, integrations from partners like Apple and Android for heart rate data, and more accurate calorie- and step-counting mechanisms. Let’s run through some of the activity upgrade highlights. 

Improved accuracy for calorie and step counting

The new step-counting algorithm functions like a pedometer to track movements and interpret steps. The algorithm should improve average daily step count errors; Oura said it cuts that metric by 61%. Additionally, users can expect to see 20% fewer steps logged with this updated algorithm. 

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Calorie tracking now considers movement intensity (heart rate zones). This update should allow the ring to accurately track calories burned during exercise, slashing median active calorie error by 53%, according to Oura.

Automatic Activity Detection upgrades

More movement data is coming to Automatic Activity Detection, so you don’t have to go into the app and record workouts to learn about your exercise performance. This upgrade is great news for runners who forget to log their workouts before they set off on an afternoon jog. 

Oura will use your phone’s GPS data to show running and walking details, like splits, even when you forget to press record. On that note, Automatic Activity Detection, which previously took a four-hour break between 12am and 4am, will now work around the clock and automatically track activity no matter the hour. 

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Active Time is getting a facelift with a new trend view that displays active minutes for daily, weekly, and monthly periods. 

More integrations across apps 

If you exercise with an Apple or Android smartwatch, you’ll be pleased about this new integration. Heart rate data recorded by Apple HealthKit, Apple’s inter-app health data aggregator and disseminator, and Health Connect data, taken by Android, are now displayed in Oura’s activity log. This integration enables exercise apps that communicate with HealthKit and Health Connect to record activity within the Oura app.  

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More integrations are coming to partner apps, like CorePower Yoga, The Sculpt Society, Technogym, and Open. Users will find more of their sleep, activity, recovery, and stress data displayed on these apps to inform their workout or recovery regimen for the day. 

For example, Technogym considers a user’s heart rate variability, resting heart rate, and sleep patterns when creating a workout routine for the day. On the CorePower Yoga app, users can see how taking a class impacts their recovery and stress levels.