I fell sick wearing a Pixel Watch 3 and Oura Ring 4; only one of them got it right

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’t 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.

The next day, I woke up feeling more off and feverish. I considered using my Pixel 9 Pro’s built-in thermometer 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 and my Oura Ring 4 have a temperature sensor — let’s see what they’re saying. And this is where I was surprised.

Upon opening the Oura Ring app, I was greeted with a big Major signs card at the top, under Symptom Radar. It’s not a card I’d 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?

Tapping Learn more revealed that my respiratory rate had been higher than usual while sleeping, and my body temperature had shot up by 1.1°C (2°F), even though I’m supposed to be on the follicular phase of my cycle, where it should’ve been a bit lower than my baseline. So I wasn’t just hallucinating my fever, after all?

Despite a good sleep score and a decent readiness score, Oura had still noticed that I wasn’t 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. Just don’t exert yourself today, Rita, take the day off until you recover.

I love everything about this. Oura’s “humanity” and “compassion” have surprised me many times over the two+ years that I’ve 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.

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’t 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?

Of course, it did. The Major signs warning was still there, this time warning me about heavily decreased heart rate variability and slightly elevated body temperature (0.5°C or ~1°F).

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?

Not if you looked at my Pixel Watch 3 and the Fitbit app!

Over the last few years, I’ve noticed so many times where Fitbit just refused to acknowledge how worn down I was feeling. There’s no compassion built into its algorithm. My colleague Kaitlyn nailed it when she said Fitbit is like a drill sergeant, 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.

Thursday morning, when Oura had blared its Major signs card at me, Fitbit greeted me with a Ready to hit your target today? card. No, Fitbit, no, I was not ready to hit any target. I was sick.

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’t alert Fitbit’s algorithms.

The only sign that I wasn’t 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’m either recovering or at risk of undertraining. Guess which one, Fitbit; guess which one.

Friday morning, when Oura was still giving me the warning signs, my Pixel Watch 3 greeted me with this peppy Morning Brief: “Moderate readiness. After some lighter intensity days, it’s a good time to push.” Narrator: No, it wasn’t a good time to push. Supposedly, despite my readiness score being a measly 35, I should’ve been thinking about hitting my cardio load.

Looking at my Fitbit app, the same Ready to hit your target today? 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.

So you’re 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?

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

What I learned the most from this experience is don’t take Fitbit’s Health Metrics at face value if they say they’re within the normal range. The range is too wide, and Fitbit doesn’t 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.

I know I’ve waxed lyrical about Oura’s app and hardware here, but there’s one aspect that keeps disappointing me about it: important notifications. Or the lack thereof.

Like any smart ring, the Oura Ring 4, by design, doesn’t 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’t. I had to manually open the app to discover the Major signs card; if I didn’t, I would’ve 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’m sick?

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 — just like the one for the Apple Watch — would be the cherry on top of the cake.

Meanwhile, this is one more reminder not to trust the Pixel Watch 3’s and Fitbit’s vision of health and wellbeing. Sure, I’ll 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’t hit your cardio load, Fitbit.