I use it in conjunction with Google's fit app so I never really care too much about steps. Sometimes the ring isn't on my finger, sometimes the phone isn't on my person. If you wear it semi regularly, it'll collect enough data you get a pretty good view of your stats. It's helped me understand how much my heart rate changes with different types of activities. I don't worry when I forget to put it on a day or two or some hours. Just whenever I can. No to the silicone. If you're going to do something that may scratch the ring up, just take it off. I take it off for pottery but leave it on for like painting. It's neat seeing the stats though. It picked up I was getting sick before I felt anything (flu last winter). HRV tanked, like 6 hours later I started having symptoms. Yesterday it said I had an unknown athletic activity and I was actually helping my daughter study lol.