If I had to bet on the next big trend in wearable tech, my money would be going on the smart ring. Popularised by brands like Oura, these devices bring health tracking and metrics to a much smaller form factor.
We've heard rumours in the last few weeks about both an Apple Smart Ring and a Samsung Galaxy Ring. That's a big deal – once the big players get involved, it tends to be adopted by the masses a lot quicker.
Now, more details have emerged about the latter – and it might suggest a launch is in the pipeline. According to a report from the Dutch publication, GalaxyClub, Samsung have trademarked a host of potential names for the device.
The Galaxy Ring name has been held for a while, but they've recently added a host of extras. Those include One, Pulse, Rhythm, Circle, Index and Insight. Now, another three have joined the fray – Feel, Curio and Glia. No, we're not really sure either.
Putting the odd deluge of names aside for a moment, this does feel like a good sign. While I wouldn't like to guess when it might appear, the brand are clearly putting some effort into it. It certainly seems possible that a release may come in the not too distant future.
I'm personally really excited for that. I love the health data that you can get from a smartwatch, but hate having to wear one. Being able to wear a ring to get the same insight would be really handy.
There's no official word yet on what the device might look like. Previous leaks have spoken about the development process, but we've yet to uncover drawings or renders.
That's not the case for the Apple ring. Several patent applications have given us a good idea of what that device might look like. The latest render includes a static inner band, with a rotating outer band which can move to navigate an associated app.
I wouldn't necessarily expect anything like that on the Samsung model, though. If something like that was in development, I think we would have heard about it from one source or another.
We'll just have to wait and see what comes. We'll certainly be keeping our eyes peeled for more details over the coming months.
