Oura releases redesigned app and “Cumulative Stress” feature

Oura on Monday announced the release of a newly redesigned app experience and “Cumulative Stress” feature. The company also said it is seeking FDA approval for a blood pressure feature that would allow users to assess whether they may have high blood pressure.

The redesigned Oura app introduces even more personalization across three main tabs. The Today tab shows the most relevant insights for your daily decisions, while the Vitals tab provides an at-a-glance view of sleep, stress, cardiovascular trends, and more. The My Health tab provides insight into a user’s long-term health, highlighting strengths, trends, and opportunities for proactive care. This tab also includes a Habits and Routines section that shows you the impact of your daily actions.

The redesigned app provides enhanced insights into your menstrual cycle, including a 12-month view of your period and fertile window predictions, up from the previous 1-month view.

The new Cumulative Stress feature helps users understand how their bodies accumulate and respond to chronic stress over time. Stress measurements are provided based on data from the past month and updated weekly. A person’s cumulative stress is determined by five factors: sleep continuity, cardiac stress response, sleep microtremors, temperature regulation, and impact on activity.

“It’s more than just aggregating time spent during stressful times,” Jason Russell, vice president of consumer software products at Oura, told TechCrunch. “We’re actually measuring a variety of bodily functions that indicate the cumulative stress that’s putting a strain on the body. So things like how your heart rate and heart rate variability respond after a period of stress are indicative of cumulative stress. Thermodynamics, how you regulate your body temperature throughout the night, the continuity of your sleep, whether you experience so-called sleep, and whether you experience tremors, which means not only large movements during sleep, but also twitching. There are no small signs that tell you that.” Your body is experiencing high cumulative stress. ”

This new feature will be rolled out globally in the coming weeks.

In preparation for the development of FDA-approved blood pressure capabilities, Oura announced the introduction of a new blood pressure profiling study to explore ways to identify early signs of hypertension by passively tracking important signals in the background.

Professor Oura has received Institutional Review Board approval for the study, which is scheduled to begin later this year at the Oura Research Center in the United States. Users participating in the study will be informed of their possible current hypertension through a combination of Oura Ring data and a short check-in questionnaire about family history, medications, and lifestyle habits. They will undergo an evaluation that will tell them if they have no, moderate, or significant signs of high blood pressure.

Members with severe symptoms are encouraged to seek professional medical care. Oura said the algorithm also tracks changes over time, prompting regular reviews throughout the study.

Monday’s announcement comes a week after Oura raised $900 million in new funding led by Fidelity Management & Research Company, with participation from new investors ICONIQ and investments from Whale Rock and Atreides.

This also comes as Oura recently launched the Oura Ring 4 ceramic collection, the company’s first charging case, and a new health panel feature that allows members to schedule blood tests directly in the Oura app.