Before diving into my on-finger impressions of Oura’s Gen3 smart ring, as I’d promised I’d do back in early September, I thought I’d start off by revisiting some of the business-related topics I mentioned in that initial post in the series. First off, I mentioned at the end of that post that Oura had just obtained a favorable final judgment from the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) that both China-based RingConn and India-based Ultrahuman had infringed on its patent portfolio. In the absence of licensing agreements or other compromises, both Oura competitors would be banned from further product shipments to and sales of their products in the US after a final 60-day review period ended on October 21, although retailer partners could continue to sell their existing inventory until it was depleted.

Product evolutions and competition developments

I’m writing these words 10 days later, on Halloween, and there’ve been some interesting developments. I’d intentionally waited until after October 21 in order to see how both RingConn and Ultrahuman would react, as well as to assess whether patent challenges would pan out. As for Ultrahuman, a blog post posted shortly before the deadline (and updated the day after) made it clear that the company wasn’t planning on caving:

• A new ring design is already in development and will launch in the U.S. as soon as possible.
• We’re actively seeking clarity on U.S. manufacturing from our Texas facility, which could enable a “Made in USA” Ring AIR in the near future.
• We also eagerly await the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s review of the validity of Oura’s ‘178 patent, which it acquired in 2023, and is central to the ITC ruling. A decision is expected in December.

To wit, per a screenshot I captured the day after the deadline, Wednesday, October 22, sales through the manufacturer’s website to US customers had ceased.

And surprisingly, inventory wasn’t listed as available for sale on Amazon’s website, either.

RingConn conversely took a different tack. On October 22, again, when I checked, the company was still selling its products to US customers both from its own website and Amazon’s:

This situation baffled me until I hit up the company subreddit and saw the following:

Dear RingConn Family,

We’d like to share some positive news with you: RingConn, a leading smart ring innovator, has reached a settlement with ŌURA regarding a patent dispute. Under the terms of the agreement, RingConn’s software and hardware products will remain available in the U.S. market, without affecting its market presence.

See the company’s Reddit post for the rest of the message. And here’s the official press release.

Secondly, as I’d noted in my initial coverage:

One final factor to consider, which I continue to find both surprising and baffling, is the fact that none of the three manufacturers I’ve mentioned here seems to support having more than one ring actively associated with an account, therefore, cloud-logging and archiving data, at the same time. To press a second ring into service, you need to manually delete the first one from your account first. The lack of multi-ring support is a frequent cause of complaints on Reddit on elsewhere, from folks who want to accessorize multiple smart rings just as they do with normal rings, varying color and style to match outfits and occasions. And the fiscal benefit to the manufacturers of such support is intuitively obvious, yes?

It turns out I just needed to wait a few weeks. On October 1, Oura announced that multiple Oura Ring 4 styles would soon be supported under a single account. Quoting the press release, “Pairing and switching among multiple Oura Ring 4 devices on a single account will be available on iOS starting Oct. 1, 2025, and on Android starting Oct. 20, 2025.” That said, a crescendo of complaints on Reddit and elsewhere suggests an implementation delay; I’m 11 days past October 20 at this point and haven’t seen the promised Android app update yet, and at least some iOS users have waited a month at this point. Oura PR told me that I should be up and running by November 5; I’ll follow up in the comments as to whether this actually happened.

Charging options

That same day, by the way, Oura also announced its own branded battery-inclusive charger case, an omission that I’d earlier noted versus competitor RingConn:

That said, again quoting from the October 1 press release (with bolded emphasis mine), the “Oura Ring 4 Charging Case is $99 USD and will be available to order in the coming months.” For what it’s worth, the $28.99 (as I write these words) Doohoeek charging case for my Gen3 Horizon:

is working like a charm:

Behind it, by the way, is the upgraded Doohoeek $33.29 charging case for my Oura Ring 4, whose development story (which I got straight from the manufacturer) was not only fascinating in its own right but also gave me insider insight into how Oura has evolved its smart ring charging scheme for the smart ring over time. More about that soon, likely next month.

And here’s my Gen3 on the factory-supplied, USB-C-fed standard charger, again with its Ring 4 sibling behind it:

General impressions

As for the ring itself, here’s what it looks like on my left index finger, with my wedding band two digits over from it on the same hand:

And here again are all three rings I’ve covered in in-depth writeups to date: the Oura Gen3 Horizon at left, Ultrahuman Ring AIR in the middle and RingConn Gen 2 at right:

Like RingConn’s product:

both the Heritage:

and my Horizon variant of the Oura Gen3:

include physical prompting to achieve and maintain proper placement: sensor-inclusive “bump” guides on both sides of the backside inside, which the Oura Ring 4 notably dispenses with:

I’ve already shown you what the red glow of the Gen3 intermediary SpO2 (oxygen saturation) sensor looks like when in operation, specifically when I’m able to snap a photo of it soon enough after waking to catch it still in action before it discerns that I’ve stirred and turns off:

And here’s what the two green-color pulse rate sensors, one on either side of their SpO2 sibling:

look like in action:

Generally speaking, the Oura Gen3 feels a lot like the Ultrahuman Ring AIR; they both drop between 15-20% of battery charge level every 24 hours, leading to a sub-week operating life between recharges. That said, I will give Oura well-deserved kudos for its software user interface, which is notably more informative, intuitive and more broadly easier to use than its RingConn and Ultrahuman counterparts. Then again, Oura’s been around the longest and has the largest user base, so it’s had more time (and more feedback) to fine-tune things. And cynically speaking, given Oura’s $5.99/month or $69.99/year subscription fee, versus competitors’ free, it’d better be better!

Software insights

In closing, and in fairness, regarding that subscription, it’s not strictly required to use an Oura smart ring. That said, the information supplied without it:

is a pale subset of the norm:

What I’m showing in the overview screen images is a fraction of the total information captured and reported, but it’s all well-organized and intuitive. And as you can see on that last one, the Oura smart ring is adept at sensing even brief catnaps Read Original