Blood oxygen sensing is finally rolling out on the Oura Ring

Image: Oura

When Oura announced its third-generation smart ring, SpO2 sensors were one of the marquee upgrades. Even though the new Oura Ring had the required hardware, the feature itself was still being worked on. Oura says that users will be able to use blood oxygen sensor this week.

When it comes to sleep tracking, blood oxygen metrics are becoming more popular. It works by shining a light on your skin. The amount of light reflected back is used to calculate the amount of oxygen in your blood. The Oura Ring Gen 3 has the same feature that works on the other two. The Oura Ring will measure SpO2 during sleep, unlike many devices that only take spot checks.

Users will be able to see average blood oxygen and breathing regularity in the form of metrics. The latter is intended to track drops in average blood oxygen levels. Users will be able to see how many sleep problems were detected in a single night.

Image: Oura

Users can choose to turn on or off the metrics from the main menu. The metrics themselves will be displayed in the Sleep tab, and suspected variations will be shown in a 15-minute interval. Dark blue for few variations, light blue for occasional variations, and white for frequent variations are the colors of the line.

Users should not take these metrics lightly. The Oura Ring isn't meant to be used for diagnostic purposes. It isn't an automatic sign that you have sleep apnea if you have frequent sleep disruptions. It isn't a good substitute for a pulse oximeter. This kind of Wearable SpO2 data doesn't change much on a daily basis. When your long-term trends deviate from your baseline, features like this are meant to help you keep track of it.

There are a few things that need to be done to enable the feature. According to Oura, sleep sessions lasting longer than 3 hours will be limited. The ring will lose its battery life if SpO2 is enabled. The Oura Ring Gen 3 has an estimated weeklong battery life, but over the last nine months, I have generally gotten around 4-5 days on a single charge.

It is good to see that Oura is delivering on the promised features. The feature that was absent at launch is workout HR tracking. It wasn't a popular decision among long time customers when Oura introduced a new $6 monthly subscription for the Gen 3. Users are getting more of what they were promised now that they have paid a subscription.