Oura, which makes the Oura Ring, has launched Oura Labs, a beta testing program that allows users on iOS to test new features before they are officially released to the general public.
Oura’s newest wearable, the Oura Generation 3, currently tops our list of the best smart rings, and Oura Labs is an in-app program that allows users to provide feedback on new features via an embedded form.
The first feature to be tested in this way is Symptom Radar, a tool that can “help detect early changes in your well-being by monitoring various biometric trends” and send you a notification recommending you rest more or change your exercise goals by activating Rest Mode. in the Oura app.
These biometric trends include “significant changes in temperature trends, respiratory rate, resting heart rate, and heart rate variability.” The Oura Generation 3 can already monitor and flag changes in these metrics through a readiness score, but Symptom Radar watches for these signals and delivers push notifications to let you know if you are at risk of developing health problems.
Shyamal Patel, Oura’s chief science officer, said in an exclusive conversation with Ny Breaking: “When your body starts to respond to fatigue, high activity levels or impending illness, your readiness score is right in the Oura app, which is used to indicate Rest Mode , not always. respond immediately.
“Rest mode prompts usually appear after your biometrics have deviated significantly from your baseline. Symptom radar gives members the ability to preventively detect small to moderate changes in their biometrics.”
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It sounds like a nice, useful new feature. However, it is currently only available to Oura Labs users on iOS. Oura Ring users on Android or other phone operating systems will have to wait for the wider public release of Symptom Radar.
Patel told me, “We don’t have any additional information about Android at this time, but we hope to expand the (Oura Labs) program in the future.”
Although it’s iOS-only for now, it can hardly be considered a coincidence that Oura is now launching its beta testing program. Smart rings are set to really take off this year, thanks in large part to the impending arrival of the Samsung Galaxy Ring.
With a lot of competition on the way, introducing a beta testing program will theoretically allow Oura to improve its service and get new features to its user base much faster.
If an Oura Ring Generation 4 is on the way, Oura will need to equip it with quite a few new features if it wants to ensure it remains a major player in a wearables category where demand is rapidly increasing.