A small company might have just shown us the future of smart rings

Smart rings have had an incredible journey, going from an enthusiast’s item to one everyone who wants one now owns. It’s an oligopoly between a few major brands trying to create next-gen fitness trackers. However, with the early adopters converted, is it time for smart rings to be something beyond inconspicuous wellness monitors?
We have mostly accepted that design differentiation on smart rings will be difficult because of size and ergonomic constraints. There’s only so much you can do with a smart ring that must sit comfortably on a finger while accommodating chips, sensors, and a battery. However, the same components can be used in different combinations to create unique experiences.
Form vs. function
Source: QRing
Take the QRing Pro 3, for example. It’s a new product from a relatively unknown company. Still, it’s a fresh take on smart rings, possibly the first one with a notification light and touch input. Instead of being only a fitness tracker, it lights up when you get a notification. There’s no screen to know what the notification is, but there might be an option to toggle which apps can trigger a notification. This could work for users who want to reduce their screen time without missing an alert.
The integrated touch panel enables the QRing Pro 3 to act as an input device. Suggested actions include music control and remote camera shutter, which can be done via gestures or finger movement. We don’t know how well these features work, but the idea has merit and potential. Think about many segments of users who’d use something like this. It’d also be a great antidote for an S25 Ultra user who misses the S-Pen’s Bluetooth functionality.
We have too many fitness rings
Such innovations led me to think about what smart rings could eventually do. I still firmly believe they are the best form factor for fitness trackers, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t do anything else.
There’s a lot of white space for purpose-built smart rings that aren’t designed to be fitness trackers. This is important as the next wave of smart ring adoption will require new and unique features that the current crop of products doesn’t offer. Fitness rings appeal to those who want to track their body in a comprehensive way, but that’s about it.
Their thick designs make them less than ideal for people with thinner fingers. While specific data isn’t publicly available, I strongly feel that most current smart ring users are males. This means that a large segment of the population likely feels today’s offerings don’t meet their needs due to size, design, and functionality limitations.
The next big ring
Targeting new user segments is a common way to grow, and that’s what smart rings need to do next. They must go beyond basic health and wellness tracking. Let’s explore some ideas that could be pulled off with some advancements.
As more countries and segments move to digital payments or plastic money, a ring dedicated to quick payments should attract many buyers. Think about how using phones at POS machines made things easier than pulling out your wallet, finding the correct card, and completing the transaction.
A good example is 7 Ring, a contactless payment ring that requires no charging or management. It enables NFC functionality when the user makes a fist, so accidents or thefts are taken care of. For now, it makes a separate dummy account on which you can load money, so your primary checking account stays untouched. The business model can be adapted to the market, such as connecting your primary credit card in a market like North America.
Smart keys
Operating over NFC or RFID, a minimal, low-power smart ring could be a proxy for physical or digital keys. Think about reaching for your car’s door and having the handle automatically authenticate and unlock for you or unlocking your home by putting your hand on the knob. Such implementations require other products in the ecosystem, but the individual components to create something like this exist.
Professional athletes
Data and tech have become increasingly important for athletes, runners, and sportspersons. However, wearing a smartwatch or equipment is not practical or permitted for most activities. There could be purpose-specific smart rings that track metrics at a higher frequency or have GPS. Currently, most rings don’t offer these because they would strain the ring’s tiny battery. Still, for a user so specific, even two to three hours of battery life should be fine as long as they track the required data.
Personal safety
For the young, seniors, or those susceptible to accidents, a device can monitor falls or trips and alert emergency responders. In practice, this will be similar to the Apple Watch’s fall detection feature, using gyroscopes, an accelerometer, and some wireless connectivity.
We’re just at the start
As rings become more mainstream, they will become parts of ecosystems that work together to create more seamless experiences. For now, most smart rings come from smaller brands (except Samsung) with a narrow focus. These smaller companies with unique ideas will push the envelope and spark creative use cases that will demand new features to evolve.