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This is the full transcript for season 7, episode 2— Smart Rings: Digital digits — of the Quartz Obsession podcast.
Gabriela: I have a confession. I’ve never put on a wearable. Not a fitness tracker, not a smartwatch, certainly not smart glasses. And before I started talking to Flo Ion, I had barely even heard of a smart ring.
Florence: Well, actually, Gabby, you’re wearing a wearable right now because you have headphones on.
Gabriela: Wait, wait, wait, I’m wearing a wearable?
Florence: You’re wearing a wearable.
Gabriela: OK, I had no idea that headphones could be classified in the category of wearables.
Florence: I’m saying it right here, right now. My professional opinion is that you are wearing a wearable.
Gabriela: We’re just in the cold open right now, and you’re already teaching me something new.
Florence: That’s what I’m here for.
Gabriela: I’m Gabriella Riccardi, the host of Quartz Obsession Season 7, where we’re taking a closer look at the technologies and ideas that define our lives. And today I’m ringing up Florence Ion from Gizmodo to talk about smart rings.
How did you get into smart rings, Flo?
Florence: Well, I actually haven’t technically gotten into them because I still haven’t worn one, but I have been researching them out of curiosity for so long. It started when I was pregnant five years ago. Back then, the only option that I really had that was affordable was just a regular, like Samsung smartwatch.
And so I really needed that to help me pick up metrics on how my body was faring with pregnancy, how it was doing, you know, with heart rate and with body temperature. Actually, we didn’t have body temperature tracking back then, and that was kind of a bummer. So smart rings can do a lot more now. And, you know, I’m thinking of converting this year.
I’m thinking of converting specifically because Samsung announced that they’re going to be launching the Galaxy Ring this year. They made a big to-do about it when they launched the Galaxy S24 series earlier this year. And I was there in person. And so, of course, my interest got piqued. “Oh, oh, we’re getting rings in the wearable zeitgeist. What does this mean for me as a wearables user in the future?”
Gabriela: I mean, we should also step back and say when we’re talking about smart rings, we’re talking about the thing that goes on your finger.
Florence: Mm hmm.
Gabriela: A little bling, but a little smarter than that.
Florence: Mm hmm.
What was the original smart ring?
Gabriela: I’m trying to think when I even first heard the term “smart ring,” they have to be relatively new, right?
Florence: Super new. In fact, the first Smart Ring, as we think of it now, actually launched around 2015, I believe, and that had NFC in it, and so that was like a big deal, because NFC let you do the contactless payments, it let you, you know, you could hit little nodes with it, and have, you know, actions sprout off as you program them, if you knew, that sort of thing.
Gabriela: So, NFC, you’re saying, is sort of like the original sensor that appeared on the first Smart Ring, is that right?
Florence: It was like the original small sensor that you could bundle in and since then, you know, with all these smartwatches that we’ve had over the last couple of years — not just from Apple, Apple’s been doing that for a long time — but on the Android side, everyone has been kind of catching up with them.
So Google and Samsung in particular, and as they’ve been working on getting their smartwatches to be thinner and smaller for people like you and I with smaller wrists who want to wear smaller things, the sensors themselves have become smaller. And so as they get smaller, naturally they’re going to find other form factors to use those sensors because that means new device categories to sell upon the rest of us.
But also it means maybe a more comfortable wearable coming through in the future. And how does it become more comfortable? I mean, wearing a ring for some people will be way more comfortable than wearing a watch. For instance, I’m wearing this big honker of a OnePlus Watch 2 right now, testing it, it does all of these, you know, fitness health tracking things, but it’s so big and bulky on me and I just think about how much nicer it would be to sleep with a ring on instead of a loose smartwatch, which is how I usually track those metrics.
Now the rings are getting way more sophisticated because they are bundling in all of these sensors and they’re not quite round. Apparently it’s an engineering feat to get a perfectly round ring! So if you can get one, you’re lucky.
What the smart rings of today can do
Gabriela: This also brings up something so interesting. As we’re talking like the more sophisticated models get more sensors, the sort of, like, more entry level accessible ones may not be as outfitted as the sophisticated ones.
Run me through the full gamut of everything that a smart ring can track. What additional, like, bells and whistles do you get with more sensors, more technology embedded in it? Is it just more accurate and more sophisticated or are you getting additional metrics with, like, a more outfitted smart ring?
Florence: Well, you are certainly getting additional metrics. At the end of the day, metrics are just numbers that you bring to the doctor.
Gabriela: Mm hmm.
Florence: And this is, I’m speaking this very anecdotally from my own personal experience, wearing the wearables and trying to use them to figure out, like, why I have certain chronic pain.
And it’s honestly been a lesson in frustration because I have all of these numbers. I have things like, what is my blood volume? You know, my blood oxygen levels at night, like I’ve been pretty nice and consistent. OK, that’s great. That’s good to know. My body movements, my step count. Again, I’m very nice and consistent as it is, but how does that sort of, like, factor in with the exercise I’m actually doing?
Did you know, too, that these things can track your sweat production of your finger? And actually because the ring is on your finger, it’s just slightly more accurate than it would be the watch on the wrist. And this makes sense. Because as I told you, with this big watch that I’m showing you on our camera, this watch, I have to wear it loosely at night so that I can be comfortable with it in my sleep.
And as a result, I maybe am not getting as much accurate data as I’d like to. Granted, it’s only a couple points off, but when you are dealing with chronic pain, when you are dealing with, when you’re dealing with pregnancy, you know, things like that, you want something as accurate as it can be. And so the smart ring brings a little more accuracy because it’s so much closer to your body.
Do smart rings actually look good?
Gabriela: Mm. That’s fascinating.
Let’s talk aesthetics now. If I’m ever going to try one of these, I want it to feel like me and to fit with how I present myself. So what kind of materials are they using today? How does design, like form, fashion fit into the smart ring picture here?
Florence: So buying a smart ring is like buying a ring for yourself, right?
You would go out and you would get it sized to your ring size to make sure that you didn’t have something that was too loose or too tight. There are some rings now that are developing a sort of open circular design so that you’re not so tied to that original ring size and then you know if you’re fluctuating like for instance When you’re bloating during that time of month, you have a little bit of flexibility to, you know, expand and contract.
And so these are things that you have to kind of take in as you’re shopping for the smart ring. I will also say smart rings are now coming in a variety of finishes. So some of them are made with a more silicone base. And those are more geared toward, like, the athletic type of folks, you know, you’re sweating a lot.
You don’t want to have something that’s, again, constricting as your body is moving and doing all that. Or there’s the more traditional smart rings, which, you know, they appear to be stainless steel, or they look rose gold, or they look like a deep onyx black, to sort of look more like a ring that you would wear from the store as a fashion accessory.
Except the ring is shoved with a bunch of sensors like an accelerometer, an EDA sensor, an oxygen sensor, a PBG sensor to figure out how your heart rate is changing and all that. And it’s really quite an amazing feat of engineering when you think about it because it just looks like a regular ring from up top.
Gabriela: You know, I have to laugh and think, how many years until we see partners start to propose to each other or show a commitment of love with a smart ring rather than like a honkin’ diamond.
Florence: I will say that it will bring promise rings a little more of a two-for-one special so that when, you know, you’re promising yourself to somebody, I guess you’re also maybe surveilling them.
Gabriela: The age of Big Brother. It’s coming soon to a ring box near you.
Florence: It’s here. It’s here!
Gabriela: So Flo, tell me too, we’ve talked style. Tell me, like, what kind of prices are we talking about here? Like out there on the market, what does a good starter ring look like? And then what’s, like, sort of a mid tier or high tier ring.
Does the health data collected from wearables benefit you?
Florence: OK. Let’s talk about the Oura ring because that’s the one that you can buy with your FSA.
For those who are unfamiliar, that’s your flexible spending account. Some companies offer this as a benefit. And I was on our FSA store the other day, and I noticed that I could buy the Oura ring with, you know, what I had set aside, pre-tax dollars. And so that’s kind of neat, but then I saw that it was 400 bucks, which is quite a big chunk of the budget that I set aside at the beginning of the year.
But it’s also kind of nice to see that because it means that you can actually take this data in to your doctor. You know, this is something that your hospital system, your PCP, is going to take as legitimate data, and it’s not that it wasn’t before, it’s just to have this extra validation really helps to bring that data with you into the office.
There are some smart rings that are so much cheaper, like they’ll be around a hundred dollars, but then they’re not packed with all those sensors that you might want. And so if you want a ring that’s capable of oh, so much plus it has like the four to seven-day battery life, then yeah, you’re starting at least at 400.
I also noticed that if I wanted a different finish, like if I wanted to go from stainless steel to maybe a gold finish that would actually match the jewelry I usually wear, then that would be, you know, an extra hundred dollars because I’m paying for that. You’re paying for, paying for the aesthetics.
Gabriela: You can say in some way we’ve technically been looking to our fingers for answers for decades. When we think about the predecessors to the smart rings, I know we’ve talked about mood rings before.
Commercial Voiceover: You are about to witness the most amazing man made jewelry ever created. The original multicolor mood ring. This is the ring that senses your deepest feelings. Scientifically developed, the incredible Chroma-Stone senses thermal changes deep within your body. Reflects all your mood changes in a fascinating kaleidoscope of color. Only five dollars while supplies last.
Florence: Thank God for the 70s. I mean, you’re making a joke, but there’s material out there that, you know, changes colors with certain temperatures and stuff. So I can imagine, you know, because, like, think about us Millennials as we age, like our elderly care, like, these gadgets are what is going to be on us.
Gabriela: Mmm, totally.
You’ve also mentioned before how smart rings can become a tool for, you know, self advocacy in your health. Tell me a little bit more about that.
Florence: Absolutely. For instance, I, for instance, I’m a woman and so, and I have a lot of male doctors. And male doctors…some of them try to do their best with giving you advice, but oftentimes most of the problems that I individually, you know, me personally, have has to do with my hormones.
And so the smartwatch data that I’ve been bringing to the doctor has really helped me, sort of show them that, you know, on the weeks where I have really high heart rates, that’s what’s leading up to these debilitating migraines that I’m getting, right? So we can already see that my stress levels are raised.
It’s probably because of what’s going on internally. You know, I can cross reference it with what was going on externally as well. You know, think, was that a stressful week? Did I eat well that week? Did I eat enough nutrients actually? I noticed that’s a thing that affects me. And so having something passive like that with an app that you can tap into and sort of give you that background data, but that you could also export? I mean, I’ve brought a folder of printouts to a doctor before just to show them that, “Hey, I’ve been doing my own research. I’m really invested in my health. Please help me figure out what’s going on.” At the very least. That’s what helps with that.
Gabriela: I hadn’t imagined that sort of like this compilation of personal data that you’ve been collecting on yourself can equip you so much when you go to the doctor’s office and you are in these high stakes situations with, you know, like, your health and your medical care.
Florence: And when you give them more data, and again, this is all anecdotal just through my own journey that I’ve been through the last couple of years. But I found that when I bring my data in, it makes them kind of sit with you and take you a little more seriously. Because it’s like, yes, I looked into this. And I’m honestly really thankful for all that data, because it’s helped me understand my body more.
What are the limitations of smart rings?
Gabriela: So tell me, Flo, what are they still limited in? What can they not do?
Florence: So actually there was a big thing about this recently. The FDA warned everybody, “Hey, smart rings cannot measure blood glucose. You cannot use them if you are diabetic. I’m sorry.” Also, there is still no on the spot temperature check. So what happened, for instance, when the Google Pixel Watch 2 launched this last fall, a lot of people were like, “Hey, they said that has a temperature sensor. Why can’t I check my temperature?” Guess what? You can only do passive temperature tracking. So you will get like the aggregated data in the morning after when you’ve had the eight hours of sleep and sweat, but you won’t get it if you go in and check in.
The other thing to also remember is the battery life on these things. It’s still something that you have to factor in. You’re never going to have a 100 percent tracking device. It’s always going to be tracking a fraction of the time. Because eventually you’re going to have to charge it.
Gabriela: And you were saying before some of the higher tier models will last you like four to seven days, right?
Florence: Four days is about average. It’s something that you want to get from a smart ring currently. Seven days is when they’ve figured out a way to, you know, dial down sensor use and all that. So that’s what you’d probably get from a high end smart ring.
Gabriela: Got it. And then what about a low end? It’s just like a one day situation and then you charge it and then you can use it so you can use it every other day or something like that.
Florence: From what I have read, thankfully one day is not the status quo. It looks like we’ve left those behind us. Definitely if you’re tired of charging your smartwatch every day. This is where a smart ring would maybe be a little more accommodating, because you’re not having to charge it as often.
Gabriela: So we’re talking, obviously, about this immense, you know, for some people, treasure trove of data that you can collect on yourself through these smart wearables, and the smart ring in particular. That makes me turn to the topic of safety concerns. I’ve thought about, in particular, after Roe v. Wade was effectively overturned in the U.S. in 2022, we saw period tracking apps and the companies that were building those double down on data security because, you know, a person’s fertility data is very sensitive information and they made public statements committing that that data would remain private amid changing legal standards around pregnancy and being pregnant versus suddenly not being pregnant and abortion as a topic in general.
Florence: Mm hmm.
Gabriela: So how do you think that smart rings, along with other wearables, will address privacy and personal data as they continue to be developed, perhaps become more widely adopted?
Florence: The most important thing right now that the companies are doing behind the scenes is allowing you to encrypt that data.
What Apple does, for instance, with Apple Health, they don’t have a ring yet, but obviously the Apple Watch is the best selling wearable right now in the U.S. And what they do is end to end encryption, and then as long as you are logged in through your iCloud account, which Apple requires that extra bit of security through FaceID, and I do believe they have two-factor as well, as long as you are logged in and the server is pinging you, that data stays encrypted.
So it’s encrypted end to end. Samsung as well, a couple years ago what they did with Samsung Health is they moved all the data to be encrypted on device. So what Samsung does is it will encrypt it on the little encryption chip that it has on its device. And then if you want to move, for instance, your period tracking data, I had to do this recently because I switched Samsung smartwatches.
I had to physically move the data from the one phone that I had previously been syncing with to the new phone that I was now syncing with, with the wearable. And so these are all just like really subtle little ways. I do believe Google with its Fitbit does some of the same encryption. For these smart rings in particular, a lot of the companies that are available are these third party brands.
And so the good thing with Samsung mainstreaming this device type is that it will mainstream the way that this data is, you know, encrypted and taken care of and passed around.
Are there privacy issues around smart rings?
Gabriela: Is this one of the situations where legal standards have been put in place already? Or is this what we often see in tech development where the big companies themselves are setting the standards because the legal system and regulation isn’t keeping up quite as quickly as the development?
Florence: They kind of set the standards. I mean, politically, it is a little scary because if the police have a warrant for your data, for instance, they can go to Google and say, “Hey, we request this data from this person. And so we’ll have to watch very closely to see how current legislation in the U.S., for instance, will affect the way that this data, health data, is handled.
Because even if it is encrypted at the end of the day, like how my security camera footage is encrypted, if law enforcement needs it to figure out what’s going on around me, that would, I imagine, supersede anything that the tech company is doing to protect me.
Gabriela: So, right here on this podcast, we’ve actually covered a pretty similar topic, smart homes.
And we’ve just uncovered how smart homes and all the smart devices that you can place inside your home are really not secure at all. So it makes me wonder, like, should that make us wary of our wearables? Not to be, you know, too punny, but should we be alert or concerned at least about the security of our smart rings and similar wearable devices.
Florence: You should always be concerned about the security of the internet connected devices that you have around you.
Gabriela: Mm.
Florence: As I’ve experienced covering these things for such a long time, I will end up covering something and saying, “Hey, they’re doing all these great things, two-factor authentication, yada yada.” And then somehow there’s a report afterward that, you know, something got breached.
Right. We don’t have this sort of idea of, like, localized data. Even something like the Oura Ring, for instance, requires that you pay a subscription to have all this stuff aggregated monthly. And so that price is probably paying for storage space. It’s, you know, paying for server space. And so, if there’s a server somewhere, there’s data there that can be tapped. And I wish I could instill this in more people because whenever I talk about data privacy, Oftentimes, folks will brush it off like, “Well, I don’t care about who’s reading about my privacy.” But as we have seen over the last couple of years, when this data gets politicized, that’s when it could be used against you.
Gabriela: So I should be very worried if a hacker can figure out when I sleep and when I’m awake.
Florence: I mean, the hacker will probably just, you know, try and, and serve you ads based on that. “When is she awake? OK, she’s asleep during this time, best time for me to hack into…” I’m kidding. I’m kidding.
Gabriela: My doom scrolls for 3 a.m.
Florence: But if I was a hacker, that’s how I would think, you know, “When are you asleep so I could go into your computer?” I’m sorry.
Gabriela: It makes sense!
The future of smart rings
Gabriela: So Flo, looking into the future, do you think smart rings will become more commonplace, more adopted? Will I be putting a ring on my finger anytime soon?
Florence: You probably will be putting a ring on it because I will be putting a ring on it.
As soon as Samsung announces this Galaxy ring, I’m going to switch to it and dump these watches. Not only do they take up weight on my wrist, but in the summertime when I’m actually outdoors, I get an awful tan and then I will always have the smartwatch part. It’s the most pale while the rest of me is tan.
So I guess I’ll be having it with a ring tan going forward.
Gabriela: That should be the next marketing campaign. “Smart rings. Leaving you with the less embarrassing tan line.”
Florence: Yes, exactly. The least embarrassing tan.
Gabriela: I love it. Flo, I’m so glad that we got to talk about this. You are edging me away from being a total wearable Luddite and giving me a lot more information about what I might be putting on my fingers soon.
Florence: Just use your FSA if you’re unsure about it. Return it if you don’t like it.
Gabriela: I’ll be plugging into that piggy bank right away.
Florence Ion is a consumer tech reporter for Gizmodo. This episode was produced by Ready Freddie Media. Additional support from Quartz Executive Editor Susan Howson and Head of Video David Weinstein. Our theme music is by Taka Yasuzawa and Alex Suguira. If you like what you heard, follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you’re listening.
And tell your friends about us! Know someone who should put a ring on it? Send them this episode right now, so they’ll know how you really feel. Then head to qz.com/obsession to sign up for Quartz’s Weekly Obsession email and browse hundreds of interesting backstories. I’m Gabriela Riccardi.
Thanks for listening.
We’re going to, volley back and forth with as many ring phrases, phrases that use the word ring, as we can.
Florence: OK.
Gabriela: I will start. OK. So we’ve got time on the clock and go. Ring my bell.
Florence: Ring around the rosie.
Gabriela: It rings true, Flo.
Florence: One ring to rule them all.
Gabriela: How about a ringing endorsement?
Florence: The ringmaster.
Gabriela: Um, brass ring? I don’t even know what that means. A dead ringer! A three ringed surface!
Florence: A three ringed circus!