GoKawiilI’m a well-known grump when it comes to subscription apps, so when you find me endorsing a relatively expensive piece of hardware that requires an annual subscription for full functionality, then you know it has to be good.
2024 was a bit of an eventful year for me on the wearables front: after nine years of use, I ditched my Apple Watch in favor of dumb watches, and reinstated smart health and activity tracking by using the third-generation Oura Ring. I’ve recently upgraded to the latest 5th-gen model …
The real secret sauce is the Oura app
I’ll come on to talk about the hardware, but the thing that most sold me on the Oura Ring was the Oura app – despite the fact that it requires a subscription.
I’ve long tried to avoid subscription apps. While I can understand developers seeking a sustainable recurring income, and I can see arguments that this allows them to better develop and support their apps, I definitely found myself suffering from subscription fatigue. I carried out an audit of all my subscriptions and ditched a number of them.
I would always rather pay a higher one-off fee for an app, with fresh costs for major updates if desired, than a recurring subscription. However, the Oura app sold itself to me for several reasons.
Simple but astonishing metrics
The Oura ring collects a lot of health data and makes it possible for you to dig into this in as much detail as you like. However, it condenses a lot of this information into four numerical scores:
Readiness
Sleep
... continue reading