{"id":54960,"date":"2025-04-27T14:27:17","date_gmt":"2025-04-27T14:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/54960\/"},"modified":"2025-04-27T14:27:17","modified_gmt":"2025-04-27T14:27:17","slug":"i-fell-sick-wearing-a-pixel-watch-3-and-oura-ring-4-only-one-of-them-got-it-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/54960\/","title":{"rendered":"I fell sick wearing a Pixel Watch 3 and Oura Ring 4; only one of them got it right"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Rita El Khoury \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n

This past Wednesday, I woke up feeling a bit off. I shook myself, took a hot shower, and got to my desk, hoping it was temporary. Throughout the day, though, it became clear that I wasn\u2019t at my best. I hit my 10,000 steps on my treadmill while working, but my energy level was scraping the bottom of the basement garage. Getting up and down the stairs at home felt more exhausting than running a marathon, and by 4 PM, I dragged myself up to bed, swallowed an acetaminophen pill, and took a short nap. I dragged on until nighttime and collapsed in bed, it would go away.<\/p>\n

The next day, I woke up feeling more off and feverish. I considered using my Pixel 9 Pro\u2019s built-in thermometer<\/a> to measure my temperature, but I knew forehead thermometers rarely work for me. My fever manifests differently: my body gets hot, my hands get icy cold, but my forehead remains at a normal temperature. Then it occurred to me: Both my Pixel Watch 3<\/a> and my Oura Ring 4<\/a> have a temperature sensor \u2014 let\u2019s see what they\u2019re saying. And this is where I was surprised.<\/p>\n

The Oura Ring 4 figured it all out<\/p>\n

\"oura<\/p>\n

Rita El Khoury \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n

Upon opening the Oura Ring app, I was greeted with a big Major signs<\/strong> card at the top, under Symptom Radar. It\u2019s not a card I\u2019d ever seen before, but it said my biometrics showed major signs of something straining my body. The recommendation was to take extra care and rest. Interesting, I thought, so what are these signs?<\/p>\n

Tapping\u00a0Learn more<\/strong> revealed that my respiratory rate had been higher than usual while sleeping, and my body temperature had shot up by 1.1\u00b0C (2\u00b0F), even though I\u2019m supposed to be on the follicular phase of my cycle, where it should\u2019ve been a bit lower than my baseline. So I wasn\u2019t just hallucinating my fever, after all?<\/p>\n

My Oura Ring 4 immediately knew something was wrong when my temperature shot up and my breathing accelerated overnight.<\/p>\n

Despite a good sleep score and a decent readiness score, Oura had still noticed that I wasn\u2019t at my best and adjusted my daily objectives accordingly. You know, like any logical health tool should. It lowered my activity goal from 8,500 steps to 5,500 steps, told me not to worry about my stress signs for the day because I was clearly off, and even went the extra mile to offer me to turn on Rest Mode<\/strong>.\u00a0Just don\u2019t exert yourself today, Rita, take the day off until you recover.<\/p>\n

I love everything about this. Oura\u2019s \u201chumanity\u201d and \u201ccompassion\u201d have surprised me many times over the two+ years that I\u2019ve been wearing the Ring 3 and then the Ring 4, always noticing how worn down I was during exhausting events like MWC or IFA, or after spending two weeks moving houses, and always adjusting my objectives or offering to turn on Rest Mode when I was clearly scraping the bottom of my energy levels.<\/p>\n

No worries about hitting any targets, Oura’s Rest Mode option was there to turn off all activity expectations.<\/p>\n

I spent all of Thursday resting and battling the symptoms of a bad gastroenteritis. I thought I was getting better, but come nighttime, my body decided that it wasn\u2019t fully on the mend yet. A meds cocktail and another middling night later, I woke up a little better on Friday, but not fully recovered. Would Oura know this, too?<\/p>\n

Of course, it did. The\u00a0Major signs<\/strong> warning was still there, this time warning me about heavily decreased heart rate variability and slightly elevated body temperature (0.5\u00b0C or ~1\u00b0F).<\/p>\n

Once again, the recommendation was to rest, even though my readiness score had shot up to 81 and showed signs of recovery. My activity goal was still turned off because the app was still in Rest Mode. Another day to avoid exerting myself and take care of my recovery. Only logical, right?<\/p>\n

Not if you looked at my Pixel Watch 3 and the Fitbit app!<\/p>\n

My Pixel Watch 3 and Fitbit were clueless<\/p>\n

\"fitbit<\/p>\n

Rita El Khoury \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n

Over the last few years, I\u2019ve noticed so many times where Fitbit just refused to acknowledge how worn down I was feeling. There\u2019s no compassion built into its algorithm. My colleague Kaitlyn nailed it when she said Fitbit is like a drill sergeant<\/a>, relentless, always pushing you to achieve your goals, regardless of your exhaustion level or any sickness. And nothing proves this more than what happened to me this week.<\/p>\n

\"pixel\"pixel<\/p>\n

Thursday morning, when Oura had blared its\u00a0Major signs\u00a0<\/strong>card at me, Fitbit greeted me with a\u00a0Ready to hit your target today?<\/strong> card. No, Fitbit, no, I was not ready to hit any target. I was sick.<\/p>\n

Fitbit said all my metrics were within the normal range and teased me about hitting my daily goals.<\/p>\n

I dug in to see if there were any signs that my Pixel Watch 3 and the Fitbit algorithms had detected that something was off, and if I were to believe them, I was all peachy. All five health metrics were within my normal range, including my breathing rate and skin temperature, which was supposedly lower than my normal range. What?! The graph clearly showed that it was slightly higher than Wednesday, but nothing too drastic. And the normal range is large enough that this change didn\u2019t alert Fitbit\u2019s algorithms.<\/p>\n

\"pixel\"pixel<\/p>\n

The only sign that I wasn\u2019t all that good was my readiness score, which at 45 hinted that my heart rate variability was lower than usual. Nothing else. Like the drill sergeant that it is, Fitbit kept my daily targets, and even told me I should hit my cardio load because I\u2019m either recovering or at risk of undertraining. Guess which one, Fitbit; guess which one.<\/p>\n

Friday morning, when Oura was still giving me the warning signs, my Pixel Watch 3 greeted me with this peppy Morning Brief: \u201cModerate readiness. After some lighter intensity days, it\u2019s a good time to push.\u201d Narrator: No, it wasn\u2019t a good time to push. Supposedly, despite my readiness score being a measly 35, I should\u2019ve been thinking about hitting my cardio load.<\/p>\n

\"pixel\"pixel<\/p>\n

Looking at my Fitbit app, the same\u00a0Ready to hit your target today?<\/strong> card was on the home screen, taunting me. All five of my health metrics were within normal range. Even though my heart rate variability had clearly plummeted, the normal range is so wide that Fitbit deemed this fine, and my body temperature was still higher than the start of the week, but always within the normal limits.<\/p>\n

So you\u2019re telling me I spent 24 hours fighting body chills, stomach spasms, diarrhea, and vomiting, without any vital sign alerting my Pixel Watch 3 or the Fitbit algorithms that something was off?<\/p>\n

According to my Pixel Watch 3, after 24 hours of fever, diarrhea, and puking, this was a ‘good time to push.’<\/p>\n

Worse yet, despite noticing my super low readiness, the two decided that I should still hit my targets and exert myself. Sure, Commander, I\u2019ll put your cardio load target above what my body is clearly telling me. Lack of compassion, as I said.<\/p>\n

What I learned the most from this experience is don\u2019t take Fitbit\u2019s Health Metrics at face value if they say they\u2019re within the normal range<\/strong>. The range is too wide, and Fitbit doesn\u2019t seem to take any sudden change into consideration if it remains within the global range. Oura, by comparison, looks at the historical range and the recent data, too. If a metric suddenly rises or falls, that triggers a red alert that something is off. Common sense, you know? Fitbit should learn from that.<\/p>\n

Oura still has to improve one thing<\/p>\n

\"oura<\/p>\n

Rita El Khoury \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n

I know I\u2019ve waxed lyrical about Oura\u2019s app and hardware here, but there\u2019s one aspect that keeps disappointing me about it: important notifications. Or the lack thereof.<\/p>\n

Like any smart ring<\/a>, the Oura Ring 4, by design, doesn\u2019t have any screen or any way to alert me of any changes in my vitals. The Oura app should take the mantle, but it doesn\u2019t. I had to manually open the app to discover the Major signs<\/strong> card; if I didn\u2019t, I would\u2019ve never realized that Oura detected something was off. Why not pop a notification when something significant like this happens? And why does the app only offer basic notifications to remind me to charge the ring or go to sleep, but not when it detects I\u2019m sick?<\/p>\n

Oura let me down by not notifying me something was wrong until I opened the app to check.<\/p>\n

Fitbit and the Pixel Watch have it right with the Morning Brief idea (well, aside from the fact that they analyzed all my data wrong). I just want Oura to pop a notification every morning with my scores, and if that seems too much, then at least offer an option to alert me of significant changes. Without that, it feels like the Ring 4 and the app are doing all the work and keeping it to themselves. An Oura app for the Pixel Watch \u2014 just like the one for the Apple Watch \u2014 would be the cherry on top of the cake.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, this is one more reminder not to trust the Pixel Watch 3\u2019s and Fitbit\u2019s vision of health and wellbeing. Sure, I\u2019ll keep tracking my steps and sleep there, like I have for the past decade, but if my body feels run over by a truck, then I won\u2019t hit your cardio load, Fitbit.<\/p>\n

Oura Ring 4<\/a>\"Oura\"AA<\/p>\n

Oura Ring 4<\/p>\n

Thinner design \u2022 Refreshed app experience \u2022 Smarter health sensing<\/p>\n

The top smart ring gets an upgrade.<\/p>\n

The Oura Ring 4 is the biggest rival to the Samsung Galaxy Ring. The new generation features upgraded hardware and a sleeker design and pairs with a refreshed Oura app for an improved software experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rita El Khoury \/ Android Authority This past Wednesday, I woke up feeling a bit off. I shook…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54961,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3160],"tags":[18949,1685,867,22029,29197,27362,9844,53,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-54960","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gadgets","8":"tag-fitbit","9":"tag-gadgets","10":"tag-google","11":"tag-google-pixel-watch-3","12":"tag-oura","13":"tag-smart-rings","14":"tag-smartwatches","15":"tag-technology","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114410399296236376","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}