Oura Launches Symptom Radar Feature to Detect Illness Early

Oura’s latest feature ensures its customers are more prepared for illness. 

On Dec. 9, the company, best known for its health-tracking ring, will roll out its Symptom Radar feature — it was previously available via the company’s beta testing platform Oura Labs. It is the first feature on Oura Labs to become a permanent offering. 

Oura’s latest feature follows several recent announcements for the brand, including the launch of its sleek Gen4 Ring and new app experience; a $75 million series D investment and partnership with continuous glucose monitor company Dexcom, and acquisition of health tech company Veri. 

Symptom Radar tracks the wearer’s data, particularly resting heart rate, heart rate variability and temperature, to detect strain early on that could be indicative of respiratory-related illnesses, like colds or the flu. 

“The stress of these types of illnesses is reflected in changes in your heart rate, heart rate variability, respiration rate, temperature and even sleep,” said Oura’s senior vice president of science Shyamal Patel, adding that these are often changes that a user may not notice. “The algorithm behind symptom radar is taking your long-term baseline of these physiological metrics and looking at changes that reflect the potential for this type of impending illness.”

Each morning Oura will provide a score for any detection of oncoming illness — no signs, minor signs and major signs. If a user has major or minor signs, the app will recommend they turn on “Rest Mode,” a feature that prioritizes recovery and turns off activity-related tracking. 

“Getting an early warning of illness is really valuable and helpful,” said Patel. “Maybe you can take some precautions: start hydrating better, sleeping better, try to be mindful… so that your immune system is better prepared to deal with whatever you’re going to deal with.” 

The level of interaction provided by the feature is based on consumer feedback on the beta version. Originally, notifications from the feature would only be triggered when data changes suggested a potential illness. But consumers were seeking daily feedback from Symptom Radar whether or not they were getting sick. Additionally, per feedback, the feature will include more information on what biometrics were changing and how, should a user show signs of illness. 

While not all Oura Labs experiences will eventually make it as a permanent feature, this one was a no-brainer. 

“The feedback was overwhelmingly positive,” Patel said. “There is a lot that this feature could evolve into.” 

While Oura users have taken to Reddit to note that the feature helped them detect COVID-19 and the flu prior to having symptoms, this is not a diagnostic tool. 

“We would not be able to tell you what you might be getting,” said Patel. “The intent is really for us to give you an early warning of a physiological change.”