Users of Oura Ring can now share their sleep data with friends

(Image credit- Digital Trends)

Oura is expanding the functionality of its intelligent sleep-tracking ring. You may now make or join “Circles,” which are exclusive groups where you can share your preparedness, sleep, and activity scores for the last two weeks.

Additionally, the business is now releasing its brand-new sleep staging algorithm for both iOS and Android users, albeit you may or may not agree with what it has to say.

Any user can create an Oura Circle and share a link with other users to ask them to join, so long as both parties are Oura members.

You can also decide whether you want the other members to only view weekly averages or daily scores. It primarily depends on the type of trend graph you see that the data in both cases spans the last two weeks.

Because there are more data points daily scores may appear more squiggly, but weekly averages will be flatter. The only other interactive feature is the ability to use emoji to respond to other players’ scores if you’re so inclined, but that’s about it.

As the new sleep staging algorithm exits beta, Oura users will also start to notice a change. Technically, it has been around for a while, but since it wasn’t the final version yet, you could toggle it on or off.

The new algorithm, according to Oura, “achieves 79 percent agreement with gold-standard polysomnography” for wakefulness, lightness, deepness, and REM sleep. The accuracy of sleep trackers is still up for debate, but Oura has a solid track record of conducting clinical research in the digital wellness industry.

Also read: Oura Rings Gets A More Accurate Sleep Staging Algorithm for Users

It claims that the new algorithm was developed using two years of data spanning 500 users with a range in age, gender, and skin tone. It published its findings on the algorithm in the peer-reviewed Sensors journal last year.