A New Era in Wearable Tech

Smart rings are quickly becoming one of the most interesting trends in wearable technology. These small, screen-free devices offer a simple way to track your health and fitness throughout the day. They look and feel like a regular ring but contain sensors that monitor key wellness metrics without the bulk of a smartwatch.

Between 2023 and 2024, global sales of smart rings nearly doubled. Popular models like the well-known Oura Ring, as well as newer entrants such as the Ultrahuman Ring Air, RingConn, and Nova Smart Ring are catching the attention of health-conscious users who want insights into their well-being without constantly checking a screen.

Smart rings are also especially popular for sleep tracking since they’re more comfortable to wear overnight than wrist-based devices. Even major tech brands like Samsung have joined the space, launching the Galaxy Smart Ring in 2024. It’s clear that smart rings now have a place in the wearable market alongside watches and fitness bands.

What Makes Smart Rings Different?

A smart ring is a small wearable device that tracks your health by collecting data through sensors inside the ring. It syncs with a smartphone app to give you real-time insights into things like heart rate, sleep, stress and more.

Unlike smartwatches, smart rings have no screen and no buttons. They’re designed for quiet, passive tracking. You check your stats on your phone when it’s convenient for you.

Here’s how smart rings stand out:

• They look like normal jewelry and can easily blend in with professional or dress attire unlike a sporty watch

• They’re light and comfortable enough to wear all day and night (usually weighing just a few grams!)

• They’re ideal for people who don’t want constant screen notifications and value digital detox

Smart rings don’t fully replace a high-end smartwatch, they typically have fewer sensors and a smaller battery so you won't get features like screen notifications, music control or builti-in GPS. But they’re a great option for users who prefer simplicity and low-distraction tech and yet would like data on their core health metrics. Many people even wear a traditional analog watch on the wrist during the day and a smart ring to handle their wellness tracking 24/7. It’s a subtle wellness companion rather than a full-blown smartphone on your wrist.

What Can a Smart Ring Track?

Despite their size, smart rings can track a surprising number of health metrics. Here are the key features most smart rings offer:

1. Heart Rate and HRV

Smart rings use optical sensors to track your heart rate continuously throughout the day and night. Some also monitor your resting heart rate and exercise heart rate.

They often include HRV tracking as well. HRV, or heart rate variability, measures the variation between each heartbeat. This is a key sign of your cardiovascular health and how well your body is recovering from stress and workouts. Rings like Nova, Oura, and Ultrahuman all track both heart rate and HRV.

2. Sleep Quality

Smart rings are popular for their sleep tracking features. They automatically detect when you fall asleep and wake up, show your overall sleep duration, and can often estimate how much time you spent in light, deep, or REM sleep.

Each morning, you’ll get a sleep score or summary in the app. The detailed sleep data is usually presented in clear graphs. Because they’re so small and don’t have screens, rings are much more comfortable to sleep in than watches or fitness bands.

3. Body Temperature Trends

Many smart rings include temperature sensors that monitor changes in your body (skin) temperature. Tracking slight temperature shifts overnight can help identify signs of illness, recovery status, or even predict menstrual cycle changes. This became notable during the COVID-19 pandemic as a way to potentially detect fever early.

For example, Nova and Oura use temperature data to give wellness feedback and help users spot early signs of stress or sickness.

4. Blood Oxygen Saturation (SpO₂) Monitoring

SpO₂ tracking is a useful feature for understanding your sleep, overall recovery, indicating potential breathing issues. It measures using infrared LEDs and it’s becoming more common in newer models.

The Oura Ring Gen3 added an SpO₂ sensor to measure blood oxygen levels and flag breathing disturbances at night. Similarly, RingConn monitors blood oxygen continuously and even touts sleep apnea detection by analyzing oxygen drops during sleep. Not all rings have SpO₂ (for example, Ultrahuman’s Ring focuses on other metrics), but this feature is becoming common for advanced sleep analysis.

5. Daily Activity and Movement

Smart rings usually include accelerometers used for step counting and movement detection. You can view your daily steps, calories burned, and active time in the companion app. Some rings also automatically detect basic workouts like walking or running. While a ring won’t replace a GPS watch for detailed exercise stats of an athlete, it still gives a good overview of the daily physical activity of an average user.

Many rings provide an overall activity score or allows you to you set daily step goals, which can usually be synced to Apple Health, Google Fit or Strava. Nova's ring, for example, supports over 128 types of sports and activities, leveraging your phone’s GPS for distance-based activities.

6. Stress and Wellness

By combining sleep, heart rate variability, and activity data, some rings generate a daily score. This gives you a simple number that reflects how well your body is prepared your body is for the day.

Oura was one of the first to offer a Readiness Score. Nova's app emphasizes AI-generated wellness tips and recovery insights based on your data, while Ultrahuman offers a similar score focused on recovery and performance. Not every ring has this, for example, RingConn’s app currently lacks a readiness metric, relying only on the raw sleep score from the previous night.

7. Other Useful Features

Different brands add their own extra features to stand out. Here are a few examples:

• Guided breathing and meditation (Nova)

• Menstrual cycle tracking (Nova, RingConn)

• App-based gesture controls like camera shutter (Nova)

• Sync with Apple Health and Strava

• Water resistance: most models are safe for washing hands, showers and swimming

• Long battery life: average rings last 4 to 7 days on a single charge

Choosing the Right Smart Ring

Here’s how four of the leading smart rings compare:

Ring Highlights

All four devices offer the basic health tracking functions: heart rate, step counting, sleep analysis, etc. Notably, Oura and Ultrahuman provide advanced guidance with Readiness/Recovery scores, whereas RingConn delivers the core data without a premium subscription or much interpretation. Nova aims to offer the best of both worlds: comprehensive sensors with AI-backed insights, but no subscription fees. In terms of hardware, all are water-resistant enough for daily wear and swimming, and battery life generally spans several days on a charge, making them practical for 24/7 use.

Final Thoughts

Smart rings offer a thoughtful and low-profile way to stay in touch with your health. Whether you’re looking to improve your sleep, monitor stress, or simply track your daily movement, a smart ring can help you do it without the noise of traditional wearables.

Interested in trying one? Nova Smart Ring offers full tracking features, detailed wellness insights, and a screen-free design that fits seamlessly into your routine.