Does Oura Ring Track Steps? Perhaps They Do!

Does Oura Ring Track Steps Perhaps They Do!

Oura Rings might seem like a sci-fi device to many the truth is that they are not. They are as real as are you and me. Which means that you can buy them and you can use them for various tasks. However, given they are made for the tracking and keeping in touch with your body or if we are more specific - they are meant to provide insights regarding your physical status. It is no surprise that people often wonder can Oura Ring track steps?

After all, steps are the most basic and easy to monitor physical stat. It is not like blood pressure or AFib tracking which requires heavy duty algorithm and sensors at the back. Keeping the track of steps is pretty and easy which means Oura should've done it right? Well, you are about to find out!

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Oura Ring can track steps they have the 3D accelerometer which the smart ring uses to track your movement. However, it should be noted that Oura is noted to overestimate the results - especially steps.

Welcome To Oura World

Oura Rings are pretty powerful and they can be put in the same category as the likes of Apple & Fitbit. You can track heart rate with them. You can use them to connect to your phone. Honestly, there is not much difference between the working model of Oura Rings to that of WHOOP or Bellabeat. They work on same principal.

Yet what we need to understand is that there is a fundamental difference between an Oura Ring and a tracker like Bellabeat. Unlike the Bellabeat tracker which has a lot of room (not a lot but more than a smart ring) Oura has very little space which means it is not easy to include everything inside the ring. However, you would be pleased to know that while Oura Ring has its issues what is important for us to know is that the Oura Ring can track steps.

Question for now is: Are these Oura Ring steps reliable?

Oversensitive Wearable Is Called Oura?

You can put your Oura Ring Gen 3 on one hand and on the other hand an Apple Watch. Which means that when you would come back from your walk your both wearable would be showing something. Well, what really happens is that Apple Watch is most likely to show you 3x time less steps than Oura Ring. So, if for instance your Oura is showing you 3,000 steps then your Apple Watch would be presenting 1,000 steps.

Now, the question we need to ask is why is this the case? Is there something wrong with the way Apple monitor steps? Or is there something that we don’t know about Oura? To find the answer we need to understand how Oura Ring track the steps!

How Oura Ring Tracks Steps!!!

Your Oura Ring uses a 3D accelerometer for activity tracking which measures how your ring moves up and down, side to side, and back and forth. It is very much like Fitbit. So, in a way you can say that Oura count any activity or any kind of movement towards your step counter – which perhaps is not the wisest way to do things, but it is what it is.

This system captures most of your daily activities well, however, all accelerometers have more difficulty with activities that involve limited hand movement in one direction (e.g., an elliptical, lifting weights), no hand movement (e.g., cycling), or intense movement that is isolated to your hands (e.g., drumming). Hence the skewed data which Oura has so far not been able to address.

According to Oura it is recommendable that in order to improve the accuracy of your activity tracking, you should make sure that the sensor bumps of your ring are on the palm side of your finger. This will also help in achieving greater degree of accuracy while measuring the non-step based activities. Although, in practice this doesn’t change much, personally I have tried this and the results were not very encouraging.

Basics You Should Know About Oura Calculation

All Oura Ring calculates your daily energy expenditure using METs or Metabolic Equivalents. To understand the MET better think of it as a common metric used to express the energy expenditure and intensity of different physical activities. Once again how Fitbit deals with Active Zone Minutes. So, if for example the MET value of a specific activity is 4, it means that you’re burning 4 times as many calories as you would burn while resting.

The time you spend doing different activities with specific MET values can be expressed as MET minutes. For example:

  • 30 min x brisk walking (MET value=3) = 90 MET minutes
  • 30 min x jogging (MET value=7) = 210 MET minutes

Our Suggestion For You!

Since Oura Rings are sensitive and generally don’t put up numbers that seems believable it is our suggestion to anyone who is reading this: Don’t rely 100% on your Oura Rings for steps. In this time and age your mobile phones are equally able to keep track of it. Not to mention that if you are already an owner of a wearable like Apple & Fitbit then you don’t need to worry about it. Just use them for step tracking.

For sure our opinion doesn’t suggest that Oura Rings are not to be believed or never. But it is true that while these little devices can go a long way. They for sure struggle when it comes to step monitoring. Perhaps this is something which Oura Ring Gen 4 can change but for now it is what it is.

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes but not very great at it.

Ezhan Javed

CMO At Chronoat

“What am I if not the words I write?” is something I’ve asked myself quite often. So, I feel it is my duty being CMO at Chronoat to not only write to inform but inspire.

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