The ring’s the thing as Pebble launches a discreet device for memo-taking, Index Ring 01

Devotees of discreet wearable tech just got another option. The new Pebble Index Ring 01 is a smart ring intended as a low-profile aide memoire, a recording device that pairs with your smartphone and has nothing whatsoever to do with AI companions or assistants.

Described by its creator, Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky, as an ‘external memory for my brain’, Index 01 is simply a ring with a button and a microphone. The button activates recording, and the voice note is sent to your phone. Simplicity is the watchword here – there’s no charging (the onboard silver-oxide battery is good for around 12-14 hours of use, after which you send the Index 01 in to Pebble for recycling), and there’s no data collection or AI transcription going on.

Migicovsky says that using Index 01 is about activating ‘muscle memory,’ a device that has to be physically turned on with a click and has a single, dedicated function with no subscriptions or even a web connection required. Water resistance also comes as standard. The ring is available in three colours – polished silver, polished gold, and matte black – and eight (American) ring sizes, from six through to 13.

Inveterate list makers will relish the chance to have one more way of creating reminders. Whilst the newer agentic AI systems might use such capabilities to set forth a cascade of multi-step tasks, Index 01 users are those that want to action things themselves, relying on the ring for taking snippets of their daily thought processes as and when they happen.

These notes are automatically transferred to the Pebble app (on both Android and IOS) where open-source speech-to-text (STT) translates your thoughts into text (the raw audio is also preserved). Up to five minutes of audio can be stored on the ring for transfer at a later date.

There’s no health tracking but hacking types will appreciate Pebble’s open-source approach that allows the Index 01 to be used as a controller for all sorts of different applications with single and double button clicks, from music playback to web searches.

Pebble Index 01, $75, rePebble.com