Pebble Is Making a Smart Ring for Saving All Your Fleeting Thoughts

Pebble’s next act is a smart ring with a built-in microphone for recording your thoughts. Pebble smartwatch maker Eric Migicovsky, who recently reacquired the Pebble brand (now under his new company Core Devices) and revived the e-paper-based wearable, calls the $99 Index 01 smart ring an “external memory†for your brain.

Unlike the Oura Ring 4 Ceramic, Samsung Galaxy Ring, and countless other multifunctional smart rings designed to track your health and fitness, Pebble’s Index 01 is a single-purpose wearable.

In a blog post detailing the Index 01, Migicovsky says it’s as “small as a wedding band,†made of stainless steel, is water-resistant, and comes in three colors.

The smart ring has a single button that you can press and hold to activate the microphone. It doesn’t require an internet connection or a subscription fee. After activation, you “whisper your thought,†which is then sent to your phone and “added to your notes, set as a reminder, or saved for later review.â€

As you may have guessed, the name “Index 01†is named after the finger—your index—you wear it on. This lets you use your adjacent thumb to press and hold the microphone button, which Migicovsky says has a “satisfying click-feelâ€â€”perfect for one-handed use. He says that he had initially made it an app for the Pebble smartwatch, but it couldn’t be used with one hand and he also found “lift-to-wake gestures and wake-works†to be “too unreliable.â€

Here’s how the Index 01 works, according to Migicovsky. Audio recordings are first saved to the internal memory, streamed to the Pebble app on your phone (iPhone or Android), converted to text, and then an on-device large language model (LLM) turns that into an action such as adding it to your note and reminders.â€

What the Index 01 is not is an “AI friend thingy or always-recording device,†notes Migicvosky. Clearly, he’s not a fan of AI devices like the controversial (and sucky) Friend pendant.

It’s a simple gadget built with privacy at its core. Migicovsky says the “connection between ring and phone is encrypted,†and because all audio is processed on-device and sent to your phone, no recordings are ever stored in the cloud. He says, “an optional cloud storage system for backing up recordings is available,†but it hasn’t been built yet.

As I scrolled down Migicovsky’s detailed FAQ on the Index 01, a few things stood out to me. I love that the smart ring’s battery can last “for yearsâ€â€”about 12 to 15 hours of battery life, if you use it 10 to 20 times a day for 3 to 6-second thoughts. But it’s bizarre that the Index 01 is a single-use device, meaning it doesn’t have a rechargeable battery. Migicovsky says that adding charging circuitry would have made the Index 01 bulkier and also more expensive. Instead, users are expected to send the smart ring back to Pebble for recycling; they’ll be notified via the Pebble app to order another ring. Migicovsky estimates, based on the aforementioned usage frequency, the Index 01 should last around 2 years before it needs recycling. If you use it less often, the battery may last longer.

Pre-orders for the Index 01 start today at a discounted $75, but that will increase to $99 after shipping starts in March 2026.

As I said earlier, the smart ring will come in three colors (polished silver, polished gold, and matte black). You’ll get eight sizes to choose from (6 through 13).

This being a Pebble device—built on the principles of open source and DIY—users will be able to hack and customize the Index 01. Migicovsky says you’ll be able to program the button for single and double presses, add your own voice actions, and even send audio recordings to your own app or server. It’s all very much in the Pebble spirit.