Ōura, maker of a health-monitoring smart ring, announced that it will use AI to track and analyze two new metabolic health features: meals and glucose.
With these new product capabilities, Ōura’s smart ring will add an AI-driven approach to metabolic health by combining meal insights with glucose data from Stelo by Dexcom, the first FDA-cleared glucose biosensor available without a prescription in the United States, directly in the Ōura App.
These new features empower members with personalized insights and actionable guidance and are a major milestone in Ōura’s journey toward becoming a fully integrated health solution. I’ve tried out Stelo by Dexcom and it does a great job telling you your glucose levels — a great thing for those with a borderline diabetic condition.
“Our product roadmap for this year is built on a robust investment in AI-forward offerings that enable a deeper understanding of the dynamic interplay of key health factors,” said Holly Shelton, chief product officer at Ōura, in a statement. “The addition of nutrition-focused features to our product experience was a natural next step, especially considering how personal diet—and its impact on health—can be. Our bodies all process food in different ways, which is why we’re leveraging a unique combination of Ōura’s extensive biometric tracking, generative AI, and Stelo glucose data to address a critical need for more individualized and accessible metabolic health solutions. By integrating nutrition information with activity, stress, and sleep, we’re empowering members with a deeper understanding of how their daily habits influence their wellbeing.”
Metabolic health plays a critical role in overall vitality, affecting everything from energy levels and mood to long-term disease risk. While conditions such as Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and obesity are on the rise–with over 800 million people globally living with obesity and nearly half a billion adults living with prediabetes–metabolic dysfunction can impact individuals even in the absence of a formal diagnosis. Poor metabolic health has been linked to increased risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, kidney disease, and more, and may also contribute to everyday symptoms such as fatigue, brain fog, and decreased physical performance. As a result, supporting metabolic health is essential not only for managing disease but also for optimizing how individuals feel and function in daily life.
Proactive management through lifestyle changes can dramatically reduce these risks and symptoms; however, metabolic processes are intricate, and factors like genetics, hormones, and environmental influences can play a role. This complexity can make it difficult to pinpoint the most effective strategies for optimizing metabolic health.
Through its new Meals and Glucose features, in addition to its existing feature set spanning sleep, stress, activity, heart health, and more, Ōura provides a comprehensive and integrated metabolic experience, setting it apart from existing offerings and directly responding to the growing demand for more personalized and holistic metabolic management tools.
Meals
After months of testing and supportive feedback in Ōura Labs, Ōura’s innovation hub, Meals has transitioned to a permanent feature in the Ōura App. By simply taking a picture, members can quickly log their food and see how effectively their meals and snacks fuel them through AI-powered food recognition and comprehensive nutrition analysis. Unlike traditional meal tracking apps that emphasize calorie counts, Meals focuses on macronutrients and is designed to help members better understand how their dietary choices affect their health, empowering them to develop sustainable habits aligned with their goals.
When members take or upload photos of their meals in the Ōura App, ŌuraA analyzes the dish to provide an immediate overview of its contents. Once analyzed, Ōura Advisor provides guidance and feedback on nutritional choices so members can learn how to build satiating, nutrient-dense meals to avoid energy slumps and cravings.
Meals also includes a Nutrition Breakdown component, which categorizes key nutritional elements like protein, fiber, processing level, added sugars, total fats, and total carbs to provide an informational, at-a-glance summary. Ōura’s guidance avoids penalizing food choices, instead presenting non-judgmental insights that help members make informed choices based on their health objectives, whether that’s improving energy levels, maintaining metabolic health, or enhancing dietary balance.
Glucose
Through Ōura’s strategic partnership and integration with Dexcom, a global leader in glucose biosensing, Ōura members can now purchase a Stelo directly from ouraring.com to receive 24/7 glucose insights and gain a better understanding of their metabolic health. Stelo, a small biosensor worn on the back of the upper arm, leverages Dexcom’s most accurate glucose sensing technology and reveals how lifestyle factors can affect glucose.
Prior to Stelo’s launch in August 2024, glucose biosensors were only available with a prescription, and often involved significant out-of-pocket costs for those without insurance coverage. Since receiving FDA-clearance, Stelo has expanded access to this technology, giving more people valuable information about their health. Members who integrate Stelo with Ōura will see their daily glucose readings in the context of their meals, sleep, stress, and activity through a new Glucose feature in the Ōura App.
“Personalized guidance and insights are essential for helping people understand how their lifestyle choices affect their body, while also encouraging them to make informed health decisions that can improve their overall quality of life,” said Jake Leach, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Dexcom, in a statement. “By integrating with Ōura, we’re bringing the first glucose biosensor and smart ring integration to the market, providing a one-of-a-kind and personalized metabolic health experience that allows users to better understand the link between activity, sleep, stress, nutrition, and their glucose. Through this partnership, we’re once again redefining the wearable technology category in the pursuit of empowering people to take control of their health.”
Within the Glucose feature in the Ōura App, contextual graphs and insights from Ōura Advisor help members understand the interplay between meals, stress, daily movement, tags, and glucose so members can learn lifestyle habits that help them maintain or achieve optimal glucose levels. The feature will also provide a new key metric, “Time Above Range,” which tracks how long glucose stays above the target range and provides an AI-powered analysis of glucose trends for that day.
“Our approach to metabolic health and glucose monitoring is uniquely ŌURA,” said Shyamal Patel, senior vice president of science at Ōura, in a statement. “Meal-induced glucose spikes can vary significantly due to factors like sleep, stress, exercise, and meal timing, which is why it’s important to approach metabolic health holistically rather than focusing exclusively on diet. Instead of avoiding specific foods based on one spike, we encourage members to observe patterns, experiment with habits, and discover what helps them maintain better glucose balance over time. With this approach, members can maintain a healthy relationship with food while building long-term habits that support metabolic health.”
AI-Powered Health Insights
Meals and Glucose join the suite of features supported by Ōura’s AI-powered health coach, Ōura Advisor. Ōura Advisor is a holistic LLM designed to give Ōura members personalized, contextual, and empathetic guidance. In addition to integrating with various features in the Ōura App, Ōura Advisor can answer general health questions and pull in charts of a member’s Sleep, Readiness, or Activity data to guide and support them in making changes that align with their health goals.
“AI has been part of the Ōura experience since its inception, powering our core features and driving the personalized experience our members have come to know and love,” said Shelton. “With the launch of Meals, Glucose, and Ōura Advisor—and the strategic integration of AI across all three—we’re taking a pivotal step forward in connecting the dots to deliver the most personal and holistic health platform available. This launch is a significant milestone in our goal to continuously innovate and give members agency over their health.”
Pricing and Availability
At launch, Meals and Glucose will be available on iOS and Android for Ōura members based in the United States, with plans to launch Meals internationally later this year. Ōura Advisor currently provides the most personalized responses about Ōura data related to Sleep, Activity, Readiness, and Resilience. Ōura Advisor intelligence will be released across additional Ōura features in the coming months.
New and existing Ōura members will be able to purchase Stelo directly from ouraring.com for $99. Each Stelo order includes two sensors for a wear-time of up to 15 days each. Stelo can be purchased bundled with or without a ring and will be available in the United States only. Stelo is cleared by the FDA for adults not on insulin who are 18 or older in the United States interested in tracking their glucose, and for people with Type 2 diabetes not using insulin or those with prediabetes. Both Ōuraa Ring and Stelo are eligible for purchase with FSA/HSA funds.
Ōura said it is building the most scientifically validated wearable; the lightweight and comfortable Ōura Ring is validated against medical gold standards and driven by continuous monitoring of 50+ individual health and wellness biometrics and insights. Thousands of teams, research organizations, and concierge medical practices manage the health of their populations with Ōura, and its ecosystem includes 800+ partners across women’s health, metabolic health, fitness, behavioral health, and more. Ōura was founded in 2013 in Finland.
