‘Long overdue but so glad to have it’: Surprise move from Oura sees these key Ring 5 features come to its older devices alexblake.techradar@gmail.com (Alex Blake) | usagoldmines.com

• Oura is bringing key features from its Ring 5 wearable to older models
• The features include Health Radar, live activity tracking, and more
• They’re now available on the Oura Ring 4 and Ring 3

Oura has just released its Ring 5 wearable, and we were pretty impressed with what was on show when we reviewed it. But if you haven’t been tempted to upgrade and are instead rocking an Oura Ring 4 or Ring 3, you might wonder if you’ll miss out on the new features packed into the latest model.

Well, the good news is that plenty of the new features have just been rolled out to those older products. Specifically, Oura is bringing Health Radar, live activity tracking, numerous Oura Labs tools, lost device locating, and a lot more.

Live activity tracking is a notable addition, as it adds real-time workout metrics to the Oura app, allowing you to monitor your progress as you’re keeping fit and active. It turns the Oura Ring into much more of a workout partner than before.

Health Radar, too, is a sizable update. With it on board, your Oura Ring can assess your long-term health signals in the background, including changes to your heart and breathing rates, to spot any emerging patterns in your health and wellbeing.

You’ll be able to find the full list of updates in Oura’s blog post. If you’ve been mulling over whether to upgrade, it could prove to be an insightful read.

A welcome change

Changes like this are very welcome, especially since the Oura Ring 4 is less than two years old at this point. It’s never nice to see relatively recent tech missing out on key software features that could feasibly be backported to it, so the fact that this has happened will be great news for owners of the Oura Ring 4 and Oura Ring 3.

The update seems to have gone down well with customers, too. Posting on Reddit, user beanizzle noted that their Oura Ring can now recognize long-haul travel without any status needing to be manually entered. Speaking of the change, the user said: “This is definitely a great new feature as I sometimes struggle to remember to give my body more grace after traveling through time zones.”

They weren’t alone. Further down the thread, other commenters remarked how their readiness scores went haywire after taking red-eye flights, while another Redditor declared that the feature is “long overdue but so glad to have it!”

If these are the sorts of features you’re looking for in a wearable, Oura’s latest update means you might not need to upgrade to an Oura Ring 5 if you already have a Ring 4 or Ring 3. And anything that can eke extra life out of your existing wearables is good with us.