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Wearable health trackers like Oura Rings, Apple Watches, and Fitbits are hugely popular. They're also supposed to promote health by monitoring stress, not by causing it.
But one Oura Ring owner got a much more literal warning sign than the device is designed to give.
‘It just exploded, I guess'
Content creator Emily (@litmami831) shared what happened when her Oura Ring malfunctioned while she was wearing it. Her video has since accumulated more than 121,000 views.
“My Oura Ring exploded,” Emily said, showing her damaged Oura Ring to the camera. “Just exploded on my finger; it kind of hurt.”
According to Oura Ring's website, the rings are supposed to give users “unlimited access to accurate data and information about [their bodies].” One commenter joked that Emily's ring was reporting “MAJOR SIGNS OF STRESS.”
Emily, who tagged Oura Ring in her caption saying she “smelled the melting metal before [she] felt it,” added that she had no plans to pursue legal action.
“Not gonna sue or anything,” she said. “I love my Oura Ring, I just want a new one.”
So how did the ring even explode? Emily wasn't sure.
“I don't know how it happened,” she said, showing the damaged ring again. “I felt something super hot on my index finger, and I took it out, and it just exploded, I guess. Look at it, it's like burnt off.”
Emily ended her video with a direct appeal to Oura Ring. She said she'd “love it” if the company sent her a new ring. The Oura Ring official TikTok account commented under her video.
“We're so sorry to see this and take it very seriously, Emily,” the company wrote. “Please send us a DM with your ring serial number so we can help you.”
Has this happened to other Oura Ring owners before?
Emily's incident isn't an isolated one. According to Tom's Guide, multiple Oura Ring owners posted to the r/ouraring subreddit in December 2025 describing similar overheating incidents.
One post, titled “Ring started smoking,” included “images of an Oura Ring 4 with burn marks showing on the metal case as well as a blister on the owner's finger.”
“I felt a fire on my finger tried to get the ring off fast but [wasn't] fast enough,” the owner wrote in their post. “I gotta blister[,] and my hand smells like electronic fire.”
Oura left the owner a comment similar to the one they'd written under Emily's video, offering to help. In a statement to Tom's Guide, the company said there is no “wider pattern” of exploding Oura Rings.
“We take any safety-related report seriously and are actively reviewing the recent posts on a case-by-case basis,” Oura told Tom's Guide. “While Reddit discussion threads can create the impression of scale, the two reported cases appear to be isolated incidents rather than a wider pattern, and we're conducting thorough investigations — including third‑party analysis — to understand exactly what happened and support the members involved.”
However, according to Android Police, a search of r/ouraring turned up reports of Oura Rings with “expanding batteries” going back “at least a year” before the December 2025 posts.
Other TikTok users have also posted their own accounts of Oura Rings burning them. One creator said she “used to wear [her] ring on [her] middle finger 24/7” until it burned her finger.
What actually causes this explosive battery failure?
Oura is not the only smart ring company dealing with this problem. Komando.com reports that a Samsung Galaxy Ring owner ended up in the hospital after his ring's battery swelled. In the emergency room, “doctors had to cut the ring off” his finger.
“Smart rings use lithium-ion batteries, the same type found in your phone or laptop,” Komando writes. “But in a ring, the battery is packed into a tight metal band that wraps around your finger with no room for expansion. When that battery degrades or malfunctions, it can swell. In a phone, it pushes out the back. In a ring, it pushes into your skin. It's not about body size or hand shape. It's about a flawed design.”
Komando also notes that Oura Ring users, not just Galaxy Ring owners, “have reported similar problems such as swelling, cracking and sudden battery drops from days to hours.” Because of the design, “once the battery starts to fail, you can't replace it.”
According to Banner Health, these batteries can degrade because of “physical damage,” such as dropping or crushing the device. Using faulty or incompatible chargers can also harm the battery.
Buzz News has reached out to Emily via TikTok comment, as well as Oura Ring via email.
