How many of you have changed pulse ox setting as COVID-19 measure or thought about it?

Sure I thought that may be helpful too, but it isn't. I've had mine on continually and hoped it would show useful patterns, but instead they are always questionable changes. Daily I'll have unexplained readings, for example today while sleeping it ranged from 96 to 85?, for no apparent reason, back to 94%, I woke up and it dropped to 91%?, then it climbed one percent per hour and my highest daytime reading was breathing through a p100 filter mask 93%, now its dropped again now that I've taken off the mask and relaxed?...just random unexplained not correlated to activities values...

Mine usually reads from 93-96%, but accuracy is not important to me, as long as it could indicate a downward trend that might indicate Covid. 

I understand, But I'm just trying to get across that you arent going to get a reliable downward trend, as I showed in my previous post, I'll have downward and upward trends all over sometimes lasting days, all baloney when checked vs external pulse ox. Highly recommend using a cheap pulse ox instead! Good luck!

Well during sleep the levels are supposed to change without apparent reason, if they change too low, then you might have sleep apnea.

When being awake, the levels should be pretty constant. 

If it raised up only one percent per hour that sounds weird. But then again, it's not a medical device and so on.

And by your description your trend seems to go up and down.. Would worry if they won't go up anymore, otherwise can't say that the trend can't be used.

I activated it. For sure it is not the complete answer but it can help i think. Because of or things i have heard SpO2 is quite common to get low early while having covid

Well no, its not supposed to act the way it does at night either, and it doesnt stay constant during the day, occasionally it will record like 87% during the day sitting, or while working (no idea why and no activities match).. It shows no apparent reliable pattern, but most common at night is a couple blocks with little variation, lowest early in the night and getting better gradually later, some nights no real lows into light green values too... With sleep apnea you would tend to see periods of lower values, then you partially wake/move and it gets a little better, over and over, OR a relative low rate all night since it doesn't necessarily measure too often. If there would be a tendency, it would be higher when you first go to sleep since you will naturally be in a easier to breathe position, and I wouldn't commonly see drops to 90% on waking, and on waking they are also not constant, its rating me at 90% right now, down from 93% last night...there is very little sense that can be made from the graphs, and I think the majority of changes are all related to exact position on wrist rather than a real change in oxygenation. This is why I'm asking if any work is being done on it to improve!

I have access to several cheap and one better pulse ox machines, watch is never close when I measure (which used to be often when I was trying to figure out what was wrong with the watch), lowest values I've gotten using the cheap $19 pulse ox 96% sitting at the computer in a full face mask. From what I know comparing to the better pulse ox to the $19 version, this one is 1-2% low standardly, so...97-98% perfusion. Watch is way worse than the $19 pulse ox though, and was reading at 91% at the same time real 97-98%.

Watch also proves to have a very high error margin when you compare to other reader ranges, since it ranges 87-96, and 90% real pulse ox is a reading to start to be concerned something is happening medically. Ive never seen a 100% perfusion on real pulse ox, and 97-99 is the accurate reader's observational ranges. So watch showing a range of 9 points while the good reader is showing 2 points range. But lets say 3 for benefit of the doubt..this means it has 3x the variability. If watch can read me at 90% right now writing this while fingertip reader shows 97, its 7 points off at least. Watch rarely, but can pick up a 96% reading since I've seen that on the watch before when I was at 97% fingertip reader. So, if we assume the reading is several points low, its also got to have a large error margin, something like -7% to -1% at LEAST from comparing to fingertip pulse ox...kinda useless when you need a 5-10% point drop to assess a real oxygen perfusion issue, and this will usually be well within error margin of the watch... 

I'm not talking measurement here and there. I'm talking about trends, to be more precise daily trends. How's that? When I had it on, it was pretty constant, +-2% for the daily numbers what I looked at the old data. Periods where there where 5 days in a row with the same percentage. So I think that with those daily number I could see a trend happening and for that reason I don't see the problem.

Of course it's optical measurement which are really YMMV thing, but it's not so broken generally at least. Of course it would be nice if it would be better but again for what I've seen I think I could use it as indicator for something bad happening. 

And what comes to comparing other readers, yes, it sucks, I don't think anyone here has been saying anything that it doesn't? It's not a medical device.

But well, I think it works for me, you don't think it works for you, so let's just leave it there.

Respiration rate is the metric I would be following:

https://www.whoop.com/thelocker/podcast-80-pro-golfer-nick-watney-covid-19/

https://www.whoop.com/thelocker/podcast-67-respiratory-rate-covid-19/

Well I was also talking about trends, and my readings have no discernable reliable trends, and against a known reader, its been wide rangingly always bad, also missing ups and downs, so I'm just generally saying I'd strongly advise against really using this pulse ox for much of anything that matters.. 

You’ve never stated any info to look at so interesting hearing you say staying the same percentage 5 days in a row...is this all day? Mine has never stayed the same all day ever.. In fact just the past 4 hrs its climbed 1% every hour from 90% to 94%, and this has been 99% sit on my butt at the computer time.. meaning...well no discernable meaning can be taken really unless computer time increases pulse oxygenation slowly hour over hour, at least the "trend" is "good"!

Anyways, would just like to confirm you got 5 days in a row of the same reading all day??

SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish said:

it ranged from 96 to 85?,

Your range is quite large and the lower end of 85 is way too low. This seems more like a defective sensor or how it's worn issue.  I've had recordings of 97 to 93 with 95 the norm.  In fact, my 93 was when I had a respiratory virus.  I know my watch isn't spot on but it's consistently  2% lower when I compare it with a medical device, making a trend something easy for me to track.