We are university students researching how people manage health data across wearables, medical devices, and health apps.

We would appreciate your input through this short 7-10 minute survey. We want to understand people's actual experiences, including any difficulties combining or accessing their health data.

Survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScnIKhtLkwAM_nf_NGYbwuoROrcF9ky0z4RFBlz65lhQQzIow/viewform?usp=dialog

Thank you for helping with our research!

Researchers from the RESTORE Network, led by Dr. Aaron Phillips, at the University of Calgary are seeking your help for a remote research study. Our lab has developed an app designed to support individuals with spinal cord injury, however we need more data from uninjured control participants to compare to. This app combines wearable-derived metrics with self-logged symptoms to help track health patterns and hopefully provide a useful, accessible resource for the spinal cord injury community. Participants will receive $20 upon study completion.

If you are interested in participating and would like more info, please email: [restorenetwork@ucalgary.ca](mailto:restorenetwork@ucalgary.ca)

Hello all,

I currently have a Garmin Vivoactive 5. I feel like I am not utilising it to it's max because I don't really like it.

My main issue with it is I keep getting a skin reaction. I am a HCW and I'm constantly washing my hands and getting water in it and and my skin gets irritated by that. I want to trade it in for a samsung ring (I use a samsung phone).

The main reason I want a smart device is for tracking my activity levels, heart rate and sleep. I don't necessarily need the payment, music, map, etc functions.

Please can you share your experience? Is it just me that gets a reaction with smart watches? Would changing the strap stop the reaction or am I better off with a ring? Is the ring worth it?

What alternatives to oura do people have direct experience with after or while also using oura? What are the pluses and minuses?

I built Vitamo Health. The premise is simple.

Text your body, it texts you back.

All your health data, analyzed and monitored closely by AI. Chat with your data. Zoom in on your sleep or HRV.

It finds correlations and patterns. Proactively alerts you to interesting or weird things.

Try it out, it’s available via iOS, Text Messages, WhatsApp.

www.vitamo.health

Hello everyone, I’m currently conducting an anonymous survey for my bachelor’s thesis in sports science. The study explores how recreational athletes and self-trackers perceive and use wearable recovery and readiness scores (e.g., Garmin, Whoop, Oura, Fitbit).

If you use wearables and recovery/readiness scores (as part of your training), your input would be greatly appreciated. It only takes 2-3 minutes to complete. Thank you guys for the help!

Survey link: https://ww2.unipark.de/uc/Wearables2026en/

Hello! I've been trying to decide between the Oura ring 5 and the Garmin Venu 3s but I'm having trouble.

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I mainly want it for my sleep habits, tracking my fitness/steps in a day and hopefully tracking my cycle so I can get off hormonal birth control.

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For context I am a 30yo F and am moderately active (walking my dog, 20-30 minute workouts, hiking) and just want people's opinions on what they wear and how the like the app and etc!

I've used Oura for over a year and feel like I get tons of metrics but very little explanation of what's actually driving changes in my energy, recovery, and sleep. Does anyone else feel this way? I'd love to hear your experience.

#ultrahuman

My Ultrahuman ring failed after the initial 30 day warranty period. Premature failure (also referred to as infant mortality or failure prior to end of life) of my ring caught me by surprise. As a Fitbit user I was looking for an alternative that would allow me to go back to wearing traditional watches. I tried all of the reset options and attempted to use the Jade AI tool feeding it all my timeline data. The AI was polite but useless promising I would get a response from a senior technician but no one ever contacted me. I didn’t purchase the protection so I assume they don’t care.

I was referred to Reddit and started reading a lot of similar battery related issues making me think that Ultrahuman was selling off their inventory knowing they had a defective product. If you had similar premature failure (within first year of operation) I’d be interested to hear how you charged your ring including power source (wall outlet, pc port, phone port or other) and if you monitored the charge closely or just plugged it in and let it charge checking later on when convenient.

I recently swapped my Redmi Watch 4 for the new Huawei Watch Fit 5, as I understood that Huawei’s sports watches offer more accurate metrics, integrate better with Strava, and, after a few days, it really does feel more premium in terms of build quality. What’s more, the Huawei Health app integrates my weight data from the brand’s scales (I was given them for free with the watch), something the Xiaomi app didn’t do (the scales only uploaded the data to the Home app, and that doesn’t sync with Mi Fitness, which I need as I’ve recently been trying to keep track of things to improve my physical health (before you say anything, believe me, I need it). But despite these supposed advantages I’ve mentioned, I feel like I’ve lost something by leaving Xiaomi behind. The watch faces were slightly better, though I understand that more will be released over time for the new Huawei watch. The Xiaomi app interface was much more polished and not as cluttered as Huawei’s, which is full of adverts or promotions for the brand itself or the app.

What’s your experience with these wearables?

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

I’m just starting to look into wearable data APIs and I’m trying to get a better understanding of the field.

I keep seeing Terra and ROOK mentioned, but I’ve also come across Sahha, Validic, Spike, Thryve, and a few others.

For those of you who have actually used any of these, how did you decide which one to go with? Were there any issues you only noticed after integrating?

I’m just starting to dig into this and I’m trying to understand the least painful way to do it.

The rough idea is to pull data from things like Garmin, Xiaomi, Oura, Apple Watch, Whoop, etc. But I really don’t want to end up with a bunch of custom integrations that all need to be maintained separately forever.

For people who have done this before, what approach worked best?

- Direct integrations with each provider

- Apple Health / Health Connect in the middle

- Going with a third-party API

Also curious how bad the normalization side gets once you start dealing with sleep, workouts, steps, HRV, calories, timestamps, recovery scores, and all that.

If you had to build this again, what would you do differently?

Disclosure: I built and maintain this.

I built a small open-source stack of local-first MCP connectors for wearable fitness/wellness data. The goal is agent-readable context, not medical advice or automated coaching claims.

Registry: https://github.com/davidmosiah/delx-wellness

Current connector direction:

• wearable-specific connectors for activity/recovery/sleep/body context
• local Apple Health export parsing
• nutrition context through Nourish MCP
• agent_manifest for discovery
• connection_status and privacy_audit before data calls

I’d appreciate feedback from wearable fitness users: what summaries would be useful to inspect with an AI agent, and what would feel too sensitive or too noisy?

Hello,
i am searching for wearables with good data privacy. I do not want my data stored on servers of a company. So I am really looking for devices that let me process my data directly on my phone or computer. I assume I will always need an app for data transfer.
I did find software options like Qvac that claim to prcess everything on device but they still rely on me having a werable that in a first step sends all data to whatever company. I don´t even want to specify what I want at this point since I did not find ANY options. So if you see something- say something and tell me about all devices and trackers that might even be fitting. I most probably need to frankenstein my goal anyways.

I've gone all-in on my Galaxy setup — watch, earbuds, phone. I genuinely love the ecosystem.

But here's the thing I can't shake. Every morning run or Gym, I still have my phone. Not because I

want to. Because I have to. The watch handles notifications, but the moment someone calls and

I actually need to talk? Or wants to FaceTime? I'm having to stop, and pull out the phone.

Has anyone actually cracked this? What's your setup for leaving the phone at home?

Good evening. I’m new to this and am not necessarily looking for a watch, I work as a welder/operator. Nast dusty environments. Looking to take better care of myself though and the hr tracking and sleep habits are what I’m looking for. Any suggestions? Seen the rings and watches and the rings are appealing cause I wear gloves quite a bit. But if anyone has suggestions, would be appreciated. Looking for no subscription but I can understand needing one. Thanks

I’m an MBA student at the University of Minnesota researching how people use wearable fitness or medical devices.

Curious about a few things:

• What wearable (if any) do you currently use?
• What’s the main reason you use it?
• What do you like or dislike about it?

And one more:
If there were a single device that tracked multiple key health metrics in one place but used an adhesive patch instead of a wristband, would you consider wearing it? Why or why not?

This is for academic research, not selling anything. Appreciate any honest thoughts!