“Anti-shift worker elitist device:” Oura Ring disappoints users after messing up activity tracking
Oura Ring says you can track your health metrics, but apparently only at certain hours.
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Oura Ring says you can track your health metrics, but apparently only at certain hours.
While the smart ring market has devices that focus on different features, one of the popular choices among users is a smart ring that tracks their activity and health metrics.
So, it’s unsurprising that users want their wearables to provide as accurate data as possible. Nevertheless, one Reddit user noticed a “flaw” after wearing an Oura smart ring.
“[...] a week in and with me having a ridiculous schedule where some days start at 11 p.m. and others start at 5 a.m., my step counts tend to be ridiculously low. Seems like a major flaw to me not being able to track steps overnight,” wrote the user.
More users online noticed the same pattern, being disappointed in the “feature,” which “treats 12 a.m. - 4 a.m. like a black hole.”
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While some expressed their disappointment in being unable to monitor their activity while being out at night, some also stressed that this means those who work at night can’t use the device fully.
“They should really change the definition of this device to a sleep tracker and not a health tracker tbh,” wrote a Redditor.
Another user noted that Oura started as only a sleep tracker and, with time, added more features. However, as Oura users noticed, it didn’t consider the issue of being unable to track activity from midnight to 4 a.m.
“[...] they talk the inclusivity talk about chronotypes and shift workers but then can't even admit that sometimes people are active at night,” concluded the user.
“Honestly, the real question is, will I get refunded for my prepaid year of membership or not when I return this anti-shift worker elitist device,” wrote the original poster.
Another Oura wearer noticed some inconsistencies with the device’s sleep monitoring.
“It screws up sleep tracking too if you don’t sleep during traditional hours,” wrote the user, stating that when they take a nap in the middle of the day, the ring only shows this information the next day.
Another user noticed that if your heart rate is “out of range,” then the ring also doesn’t consider you sleeping.
“Per my ring, I haven’t slept in a week, but I bet if I went for a walk at 3 a.m., it’d ignore that too. Am I dead? Can y’all see me? I want to love this ring, but they’re making it really hard,” wrote the user, with someone joking that Oura might start showing them ads for rehab centers.
Oura also joined the discussion by sharing that it is aware of the issue and is working on an update. It gave no date for when the problem would be resolved but promised to share the outcome through social media.
The company’s response made users question why this happened in the first place. One explanation was that by limiting the use of sensors, Oura is able to provide users with longer battery life.
Despite Oura’s response, some users said they’d return their smart ring.
Last year, Oura-funded research showed that among wearables such as Apple Watch, Fitbit, and Oura Ring, the latter proved to be a leader in sleep tracking. Since the study was backed by the company and could be used for marketing purposes, similar research revealed similar results.
The device often becomes the subject of online discussions. The last time this happened was when the company launched the Oura Ring Symptom Radar, a feature that uses health data to notify people of early signs of sickness.