Giving up on smart rings • Hacker News Board

Re: Giving up on smart rings

#21

Post by rolisz » Tue, Sep 15, 2026, 4:39 PM UTC

dcss_gardener wrote: post #11

Supermancho wrote: post #3

None of these 3 problems have anything to do with it being a smart ring. Same problems that regular rings have, yet people still wear them. 1. Adulting: buying rings that are the right size. eg My tungsten wedding ring cannot be resized either. 2. Most people don't even lift. Those that do, dont mind taking off jewelry. I can see how this would be a problem for someone who wants to wear a smart ring for lifting. Soun…

Most people do not wear tungsten wedding rings. A wedding band can be resized and it's typical to have it resized several times during a long marriage. This is a legitimate downside of smart rings that is only shared with one niche-but-overrepresented-here option.

Cobalt Chrome ring wearer here (and my wife). Not so niche I guess

Re: Giving up on smart rings

#22

Post by Aurornis » Tue, Sep 15, 2026, 4:41 PM UTC

Supermancho wrote: post #3

None of these 3 problems have anything to do with it being a smart ring. Same problems that regular rings have, yet people still wear them. 1. Adulting: buying rings that are the right size. eg My tungsten wedding ring cannot be resized either. 2. Most people don't even lift. Those that do, dont mind taking off jewelry. I can see how this would be a problem for someone who wants to wear a smart ring for lifting. Soun…

Agree. I thought this article was going to be about smart rings, but it was a rant about rings. His first exposure to rings was a smart ring, but that's it.

Re: Giving up on smart rings

#23

Post by post-it » Tue, Sep 15, 2026, 4:42 PM UTC

autoexec wrote: post #8

I can't bring myself to send a corporation a constant stream of extremely personal data when I know they absolutely will sell/leak all of it along with the countless assumptions they'll make about me using that same data. It'd be nice to have the information a ring or watch gathers as long as it stayed local. I haven't seen many products offering that though. The thought of not being able to continuously profit from…

Colmi smart rings have a reverse-engineered Bluetooth protocol, so you can use Gadgetbridge instead of the official QRing app and keep everything local.

Re: Giving up on smart rings

#24

Post by ChrisClark » Tue, Sep 15, 2026, 4:43 PM UTC

rolisz wrote: post #21

dcss_gardener wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people do not wear tungsten wedding rings. A wedding band can be resized and it's typical to have it resized several times during a long marriage. This is a legitimate downside of smart rings that is only shared with one niche-but-overrepresented-here option.

Cobalt Chrome ring wearer here (and my wife). Not so niche I guess

True, a sample size of 1 means it is extremely common

Re: Giving up on smart rings

#25

Post by post-it » Tue, Sep 15, 2026, 4:46 PM UTC

All of these problems are solved by buying a CA$35 Colmi ring off Aliexpress.

1. If your finger changes size, spend another $35 for a second one.

2. If it gets scratched to shit, buy another one. Though I lift with my plastic R09 and there's only a bit of scratching around the edge. Other models are metal and should resist scratching better.

3. If it eventually breaks, get another one. Personally I fidget with mine a lot, so removing it before or after washing my hands happens unconsciously.

On top of that, the protocol has been reverse engineered so you can use Gadgetbridge or make your own app instead of using the stock one.

Re: Giving up on smart rings

#26

Post by Supermancho » Tue, Sep 15, 2026, 4:46 PM UTC

ChrisClark wrote: post #24

rolisz wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cobalt Chrome ring wearer here (and my wife). Not so niche I guess

True, a sample size of 1 means it is extremely common

Rings that can't be adjusted are ubiquitous. Walk into almost any store that sells rings, most open-air stands that sell rings, and you will find some. It's true they aren't usually preferred, but they are common.

Re: Giving up on smart rings

#27

Post by post-it » Tue, Sep 15, 2026, 4:48 PM UTC

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #7

Assuming I made this stuff. It is useless to have smart rings do the primary stuff of what a smart watch does, so not monitor your pulse or that crap because anyone who has a smart ring should have a smart watch for that and the few people who don't want smart watches but do want smart rings would be such a small outlier group I wouldn't care. The only way the concept of a smart ring makes sense to me is as a form of…

> It is useless to have smart rings do the primary stuff of what a smart watch does

Not for me. I like wearing a normal watch, and I don't want to wear two watches.

Re: Giving up on smart rings

#28

Post by rtkwe » Tue, Sep 15, 2026, 4:50 PM UTC

world2vec wrote: post #20

Supermancho wrote: post #3

None of these 3 problems have anything to do with it being a smart ring. Same problems that regular rings have, yet people still wear them. 1. Adulting: buying rings that are the right size. eg My tungsten wedding ring cannot be resized either. 2. Most people don't even lift. Those that do, dont mind taking off jewelry. I can see how this would be a problem for someone who wants to wear a smart ring for lifting. Soun…

People wear wedding rings but take them off for pull up bars and so on. But a fitness tracking device you need to take off to... Do some fitness exercises... Is not a smart idea in my book.

I'd question the utility of the data from a ring for weightlifting, cardio sure but just lifting weights there's not a huge need to track your heart rate, you're not moving a lot for steps, etc.

Re: Giving up on smart rings

#29

Post by atldev » Tue, Sep 15, 2026, 4:50 PM UTC

I like my Oura ring and find it one of the least fussy fitness trackers I've used. To me, the battery question is more about time between charging. I can travel for a week on a business trip without taking the charger, no problem. The sizing issue is real and as I dropped weight, the ring became loose and would fall off. I've added a small eva tab on the inside to increase friction and reduce risk until I buy the next version sized down.

The most important metric to me was the sleep score and related components. I've noticed my performance (mentally and physically) is tied to sleep in a huge way. I was skeptical that it would capture sleep metrics accurately, but after about a year of use, I can say without question that the number it presents as my sleep score is a very good proxy of how good I feel throughout the day.

My goal for this past year has been to focus on improving sleep health and for that, the ring has been a very useful tool.

Re: Giving up on smart rings

#30

Post by itsmeduncan » Tue, Sep 15, 2026, 4:50 PM UTC

I was an early adopter of Oura, and have recently stopped wearing it. I've reverted to the Apple Watch & EightSleep for all of the tracking I could ever need. I found the experience with Oura to be overly optimistic numbers wise, as well as borderline dark patterns in the app to drive my anxiety around getting good scores.