Your Oura Ring will soon make it easier to track your heart health

By Bryan M. Wolfe May 10, 2024

Oura announces new heart health features. — Oura

Oura will soon release two new heart-monitoring tools that will benefit all Oura Ring users. The tools will be available through a firmware update before the end of May, and they both focus on your heart health.

The first new tool will measure a user’s cardiovascular age and compare it to their chronological age. The goal is to help users identify behaviors that can positively impact their health plan.

The cardiovascular age is calculated by analyzing age-related observations within a photoplethysmography (PPG) signal. This signal carries information about estimated arterial stiffness and pulse wave velocity (PWV).

According to Oura, this calculation provides an easily understandable glimpse into how someone’s vascular system might be aging and what that could mean for long-term health. The Oura app uses 14 days of data to calculate the user’s cardiovascular age.

Screenshot showing the new heart health features for the Oura Ring. — Oura

Oura is also introducing cardio capacity, which reflects a body’s efficiency in supplying oxygen to muscles during exercise. It serves as a benchmark for cardiovascular and respiratory system health. Typically, the higher someone’s cardio capacity, the better their long-term heart and organ health.

To calculate cardio capacity, the Oura app will ask the user to take a walking test to establish a baseline VO2 Max, the maximum amount of oxygen a person can use during intense exercise. With the update, Oura hopes to reposition VO2 Max from a sports metric to a benchmark of health and longevity.

The Oura Ring has received several updates this year, while the industry eagerly anticipates the release of the Samsung Galaxy Ring, which is expected to challenge Oura’s dominance in the smart ring market. In March, a new feature called Pregnancy Insights, which provides useful information to expectant mothers, was added to the Oura platform. In January, Oura also added a stress management tool called Resilience. This is all on top of Oura’s new partnership with Amazon and ones with Target and Best Buy, which makes it easier to purchase the product. In other words, it’s been a pretty busy year for Oura.

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Bryan M. Wolfe has over a decade of experience as a technology writer. He writes about mobile.

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