Are You Ready to Say ‘I Do’ to a Smart Ring?

Jewelry with tiny electronics can track sleep and other health metrics

Edward C. Baig,

AARP

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En español

Published May 30, 2024

hands holding a ring box with a gold smart ring inside

Photo Collage: AARP (Source: Shutterstock (2); Getty Images)

In this story

Smart ring trackers • Longer battery life • Samsung debuting a ring • Research into menopause

Most people wear a ring to make a fashion statement or express love for a partner.

If you’re an older adult wearing a battery-powered electronic band known as a smart ring, your motivation may differ. You may want to discreetly track your fitness activities or dive more deeply into your health and sleep patterns. Smart rings tend to be less conspicuous than their cousins, smart watches, that you may be wearing for similar health tracking.

Pro: Use for days between charges. Con: No display

Unlike smart watches designed for your wrist, smart rings lack a display and take up a small amount of space on your finger. No screen means you must view data collected from the ring’s various sensors on a smartphone app, delivered wirelessly via Bluetooth. A few rings include near field communication (NFC) technology, letting you pay for a purchase from your finger.

Smart rings’ light and generally comfortable designs are a large part of their appeal.

“Some people just like wearing rings more than they like wearing watches, particularly [during] sleep,” says tech analyst Avi Greengart, president of New Jersey-based Techsponential. Because a smart ring tends to stay in place compared to a watch that may slip around on your wrist, it may be more accurate at recording certain health metrics.

The absence of a power-draining display also means you may have to charge a ring only once a week compared, say, to every day or every other day with a watch.

Major smartphone maker expected to debut smart ring

While the overall smart ring category is small, what is now mostly a niche market promises to get a major boost in late summer or early fall when Samsung is expected to release its yet-to-be-priced Galaxy Ring. Samsung teased the ring earlier this year and the speculation is it will be made available in up to nine ring sizes.

For now, the best-known smart ring brand is Oura, whose titanium, water-resistant rings start at $349. That’s on top of a $5.99 monthly membership that provides, among other data, ongoing sleep analysis and body temperature readings the company says may detect illnesses early. More limited data is available if you wear the ring without becoming a member.

It remains to be seen if the Galaxy Ring will have a subscription plan.

Oura rings track more than 20 biometric signals from your finger, according to the Finland-based company. This month, Oura rolled out a cardiovascular age feature, using a technique called infrared photoplethysmography (PPG), that shines a light through your skin to measure the speed at which blood flows through your body to estimate your arteries’ stiffness.

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Oura is also adding the cardio capacity feature to gauge your body’s efficiency at supplying oxygen to muscles as you exercise.

Oura members are able to receive an analysis of data the ring collects over three months of consistent use. It taps into your internal biological clock to determine whether you’re more of a morning person or evening person. The company says your chronotype can be used to “create daily routines that are more aligned with your innate propensity for sleep, work, and more.”

Research into menopause, women’s health starting soon

The company is teaming with researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and the Clue period-tracking app to study the effects of menopause on women’s health. Researchers will use the Oura ring to monitor biometric data — including heart rate, sleep changes and skin temperature — of perimenopausal and menopausal participants.

And Oura will be rolling out a Cycle Aware Readiness Score for all female subscribers that factors in changes during the menstrual cycle.

Several other companies produce smart rings. Pleasanton, California, start-up Movano Health markets the Evie Ring as “women focused.” Leveraging artificial intelligence and factoring in hormonal changes, the ring looks for correlations across menstrual health, mood, energy levels and sleep. The cost is $269 with no additional fees, though the ring is temporarily sold out.

Other brands for both sexes are also on the market, including the Amazfit Helio Ring, RingConn and Ultrahuman Ring AIR. More models are likely to swell the market in the weeks and months ahead.

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Edward C. Baig covers technology and other consumer topics. He previously worked for USA Today, BusinessWeek, U.S. News & World Report and Fortune, and is author of Macs for Dummies and coauthor of iPhone for Dummies and iPad for Dummies. Follow him on LinkedIn; Threads; and X, formerly known as Twitter.