Samsung’s Galaxy Ring Gets FDA-Cleared Sleep Apnea Detection This Fall

The Galaxy Ring may not have taken center stage at last week’s Galaxy Unpacked, but it did receive an important update. Buried amongst news about the Galaxy Z Fold 8’s new foldable form factor and spec bumps to the Galaxy Watch and Watch Ultra, Samsung announced a key new software feature for its smart ring: Later this fall, the Galaxy Ring will be the first smart ring to support FDA-cleared sleep apnea detection. Samsung’s sleep apnea risk detection feature uses the sensors on Galaxy Watches (and now Rings) to monitor for signs “that may indicate moderate to severely obstructive sleep apnea,” the company writes, connecting changes in data like blood oxygen levels to disrupted breathing. The feature received approval from Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in 2023 and De Novo authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration in 2024. That doesn’t mean it can diagnose sleep apnea, but it does mean it can be advertised as a novel medical tool doctors can consider as part of treatment. Since then, every new Samsung smartwatch starting with the Galaxy Watch 7 has included sleep apnea detection, and a similar feature has been available on Apple’s wearables starting with the Apple Watch Series 9. Adding it to a smart ring is a first, though. For example, the Oura Ring 5 supports a feature for tracking breathing disturbances in your sleep—a symptom of sleep apnea—but it isn’t FDA-cleared. RingConn’s Gen 2 smart ring includes a feature the company calls “sleep apnea monitoring,” but the company makes no mention of any kind of official approval. Samsung mentioned that the Galaxy Ring will support its sleep apnea risk detection feature as part of a larger update on the improvements the company was introducing to the Galaxy Watch 9 and Ultra 2, so it remains to be seen if the feature will work the same way on the ring that it does on the watches. Still, the fact the feature is available should make it more accessible to people who don’t like wearing a smartwatch to bed or who don’t own a Galaxy Watch in the first place. It’s also a consolation prize to anyone still waiting for a Galaxy Ring 2. Samsung didn’t reveal a follow-up smart ring at its event, which certainly suggests it won’t announce one until 2027 at the earliest. That matches with rumors about the company’s wearable plans, but it does mean there could be three years or more between the first Galaxy Ring’s launch in 2024 and the second. Maybe that’s reflective of the level of interest in Samsung’s smallest wearable, but it also might just be the reality that on a screenless wearable, software support is more meaningful than hardware updates.