There are plenty of wearables you can strap to various parts of your body to monitor activity and fitness, but the Happy Ring wants to be the first to prioritize monitoring your mood and stress levels.
The smart ring is the first product from Happy Health, a technology company founded by, among others, Dr. Dustin Freckleton and Sean Rad. Freckleton has already experimented with wearable tech, having been part of the troubled hydration monitoring LVL wearable project, while Rad is best known for founding the dating app Tinder.
What does the Happy Ring do? Paul Berns, another Happy Health co-founder and managing director at ARCH Venture Partners, which has invested $60 million in the firm, explained it like this:
“We’re all experiencing more stress than ever before, yet we lack the tools to better understand and improve how we feel. And while there are many wearables that help you on your fitness journey, they widely ignore the mind and its effect on your overall wellbeing. The ability to measure and understand our emotional state will help us identify the habits that result in better health.”
The ring will do this using a custom Electrodermal Activity (EDA) sensor, a version of which is also used on wearables like the Fitbit Charge 5 to assess stress levels. That’s also joined by four skin electrodes, two temperature sensors, and a three-axis accelerometer. In addition to stress, it will also monitor your heart rate and sleep. There’s no mention of blood oxygen or any fitness tracking ability, though.
The Happy Ring will come in two colors, gloss black or gloss white, and it’s made from ceramic with a resin underside to make it skin-friendly. The battery will apparently last for three days before it requires recharging. The accompanying app — which appears to be iOS-only at launch — presents all the data, and also provides guided breathing exercises and wellness prompts based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).
Unlike most other wearables, the Happy Ring is not purchased outright, but through a subscription system that provides both the smart ring and access to the app and its services. This starts at $20 per month, but there will also be options to pay on an annual or bi-annual basis. At this time, there’s no release date, but anyone interested is encouraged to join the waitlist. The Happy Ring will only be sold in the U.S. for now.
The Happy Ring joins a line of next-generation smart rings already available or coming soon. The Oura Ring is probably the best known and tracks similar aspects to the Happy Ring, plus it includes guided meditation sessions as part of its subscription app, while the Circular Ring is expected soon. The Movano Ring is set to launch in the near future and is aimed specifically at women. The Happy Ring aims to potentially fill another niche in this growing space.
