The smart ring is looking to be the next mainstream category in the wearables genre, with popular options like the Oura Ring setting things up. A major surprise at Samsung Unpacked on January 17th was that Samsung teased the release of their smart ring: the Galaxy Ring. This will make them the first major tech company to have a horse in the race, beating out the long-whispered Apple.
If you waited until the very end of Samsung Unpacked a week ago, beyond the new S24 smartphones and the usual sustainability promises, you would have caught a substantial surprise. Samsung announced its intention to dive into a new device segment — smart rings — with the Galaxy Ring.
This is incredibly interesting, as Apple has been rumored to be working on a smart ring for years now (though Samsung has too). The first solid pointers to this were seen nearly 10 years ago when a patent application for a “ring computing device” was submitted by the company. In 2019, a continuation application was filed, showing that Apple wasn’t ready to let the concept go.
Despite a huge headstart, Samsung has beaten Apple to announce a smart ring. It’s not certain whether Apple has anything cooking up, but I’d love to see what they come up with. Competition is great for innovation after all.
When Can We Expect More About The Galaxy Ring?
The Galaxy Ring was merely teased by Samsung at its Unpacked event, so there’s pretty much nothing official known about it, beyond a little hint on what it will look like and that it’ll be a new part of the Samsung Health ecosystem.
It’ll probably be some time before there’s any official information on the Galaxy Ring, but it will likely be released at some point towards the end of the year — perhaps making another appearance as the Galaxy Z foldables are shown to the world.
This smart ring should be able to handle similar health features as the other smart rings currently on the market. That means it’s reasonable to expect it to measure heart rate, blood oxygen, and body temperature. Samsung may be more likely to keep higher-end features like blood pressure monitoring for their Galaxy Watches.
Will Smart Rings Take The Stage As Smartwatches Did?
When smartwatches first came to the scene, I’ll admit that I questioned their usefulness quite a bit. But flash forward to today, and that device segment is fully fleshed out with several major brands competing for the top spot.
So, the question is, will smart rings eventually ever become as mainstream as smartwatches are right now? If you ask me, the answer is yes. The Oura Ring is the best-known product in the segment right now, and it is incredibly popular. The moment a player as huge as Samsung enters the game, things are sure to speed up significantly.
On top of that, smart rings are likely to be more convenient and comfortable to wear in all settings, so that alone might be the key to them hitting it big.
