Follow ZDNET: Add us as a favorite source On Google.
ZDNET Highlights
- Oura Ring measures your stress in a new way.
- Cumulative stress measures multiple contributors to chronic burnout.
- Ora also announced an app redesign and several other new features.
Your Aura Ring may soon be able to tell you when you’re burnt out. Oura unveiled Cumulative Stress, a new stress-tracking feature, on Monday along with several software updates.
cumulative stress
Aura validated cumulative stress against the Perceived Stress Scale and Copenhagen Burnout Inventory to measure stress contributors such as sleep continuity, heart rate response, sleep micromotion, temperature regulation, and activity effects.
Too: I wore the Ora Ring 4 Ceramic for a week, and it busted the myth of ugly fitness tech
These five factors reflect the body’s long-term response to stress in a way that Daily Stress, which is effectively Ora’s graph of the user’s daily heart rate, cannot. “These findings highlight the often ‘hidden toll’ of unmanaged stress before it manifests as fatigue, burnout, or illness,” Ora writes in a press release.
The feature measures the past month of Oura biometric data and will launch alongside stress management. This view shows patterns of stress on a daily and long-term basis.
More Oura App Updates
Oura on Monday unveiled several new features that will be available on the Oura app in the coming weeks. Here’s what else is new and when you can expect to see it on your smart ring app.
Too: Why is your Ora Ring’s battery draining quickly (and what Ora is doing about it)
The Today tab, the first page a user sees when opening the app, now looks a little different. Instead of bombarding a user with points and numbers, Oura will now focus on “One Big Thing” – that is, the most relevant scores and two magazines. The information varies throughout the day to provide useful information about the previous night’s early morning sleep or midday activity levels.
Cycle Insights, its fertility and menstrual tracking feature, has also seen some changes. The feature is expanding from a one-month view to a 12-month view, and users can increasingly get personalized information on their cycle phase and prediction data. This data requires them to wear the ring for only one night of sleep instead of 60 nights of sleep.
Too: The Ora Ring is the Defense Department’s not-so-secret weapon
Finally, it looks like Oura is rolling out a blood pressure feature of its own — and it’s working with the FDA to do so (will it rival the Apple Watch’s new hypertension detection feature?).
However, before the feature launches, it is launching a blood pressure profile study that detects early signs of hypertension through passive monitoring of the smart ring, which it plans to launch in the coming months. The investigation study will be launched through Ora Labs, through which users can be informed about possible high blood pressure. Users fill out a questionnaire about their medical and family history and receive feedback on whether they have minor, moderate, or major symptoms of high blood pressure.
Availability
The app’s new design and new feature rollout will be available globally in the coming weeks.
Too: I’ve tested the Apple Watch, Ora Ring, and other sleep trackers – 5 tips to get the best results
Get our top stories delivered to your inbox every morning Tech Today Newsletter.
