Summary
Apple smart ring.. The wearables industry is always changing. It all began with wrist-worn fitness trackers, then in 2015, smartwatches like the Apple Watch were introduced. These days, smartwatches are widely available, but the smart ring is about to usher in a new age of wearable technology. The Oura Ring, which debuted in 2015 via a Kickstarter effort, was among the first smart rings to be sold. The second generation of the Oura Ring was launched in 2018, and the third generation was introduced in 2021.
While I have been using the Oura Ring for a number of years, a number of rivals, including the RingConn Smart Ring, the Ultrahuman Ring Air, the Circular Ring Slim, and Movano’s Evie Ring, have lately entered the market. After its January 2024 Galaxy Unpacked event, Samsung even gave a sneak peek at its own future Galaxy Ring.
For a time now, there have been rumors that Apple may potentially join the smart ring market, mostly since the corporation has filed a few patents. Though the business doesn’t seem to be actively working on the product, Mark Gurman of Bloomberg’s Power On newsletter suggests that the Apple smart ring is still simply a concept.
Even yet, Apple may have one trick up its sleeve that will make the device worthwhile to wait for, even if it is just a possibility. Permit me to clarify.
Apple’s secret to smart ring success
Even before the Apple Watch, I had worn fitness and health trackers for a very long time. I had a Jawbone UP at first, but when Jawbone went out of business, I switched to Fitbit. I was dubious when the Apple Watch first launched in 2015, but a few months later, I gave in and became enamored with it.
Despite the Apple Watch’s initial simplicity, the company has added health-tracking capabilities with almost every iteration since then. At first, it just tracked steps, calories burnt, and heart rate. ECG, fall detection, sleep monitoring, blood oxygen saturation, and even body temperature are now included in its evolution. Your iPhone’s Fitness and Health applications will get a sync of all that health and fitness data.
I’ve had my Apple Watch for a long time, and since I use iCloud to backup and restore my data, I have several years’ worth of data in my health and fitness applications. I always check to see whether a new health wearable can sync monitored data back to Apple Health so that everything is in one location when I test it out.
In the unlikely event if Apple developed this smart ring, it would come pre-installed with Apple’s Health app, which is very feature-rich and keeps improving. Unlike many third-party choices, there wouldn’t be a need for a separate app that has to sync back to Apple Health. There are situations when there is no Apple Health connectivity at all, meaning that the data is isolated inside the software that comes with your smart ring.
You wouldn’t have to worry about any of this if you had an Apple Ring. It would count toward your activity rings and challenges in the Fitness app, connect easily with your Apple Health app, and most likely interact with Apple Fitness Plus. When you combine that with the Apple Watch’s comparable fitness monitoring features, it’s easy to see why this would be so amazing. There’s a reason why so many people have faith in Apple’s fitness and wellness products. Apple would undoubtedly have a winner on its hands if it could condense all of that into a ring.
Why bother with a ring when there’s the Apple Watch?
That’s fantastic, but let’s also think about this: Given the existence of the Apple Watch, why would anybody want an Apple ring? You make a valid argument.
Many purchase Apple Watches in order to check their health, blood oxygen saturation, steps done, calories burnt, body temperature for family planning, ECG, and blood pressure around-the-clock. However, not everyone enjoys wearing a watch on their wrist, and not everyone uses their wrist to make phone calls or access apps. In addition, the Apple Watch is usually another gadget that requires nightly charging.Wearing a watch is far more noticeable than wearing a ring, particularly before bed. For instance, I own an Apple Watch Ultra, but I don’t sleep with it because it’s too big; instead, I wear my Oura Ring, which is hardly noticeable. Furthermore, a smart ring’s battery life might range from a few days to a week, depending on the functionalities that are activated.
The absence of a display, which is a feature of many of the smart rings that are presently on the market, is another advantage of a smart ring. This would also help lower the price of a smart ring relative to the $399 starting point of an Apple Watch. The ring would still be less of a distraction throughout the day and be able to collect the essential health data that you would wear an Apple Watch for while not having a screen.
A perfect Apple smart ring for iPhone users?
As was previously said, Apple has patents that suggest that a smart ring may be developed in the future, but there is never a guarantee. Patents are registrable by companies, although they may never be implemented. Furthermore, it seems that Apple is not actively developing the concept of a smart ring, thus it is still just a concept.
In any case, the Apple Ring could be worth waiting for if you wear an Apple Watch regularly and are looking for a smart ring that syncs smoothly with your iPhone and Apple’s health app.
Apple may build or shatter a new product category, even if it isn’t usually the first in it. These days, smart rings are great, but what about one that connects smoothly to your years’ worth of Apple Watch data, functions perfectly with the Apple Health app, and has access to the whole Apple Fitness suite? That seems very amazing.
All we have to do now is wait for Apple to produce the dang thing.
