Smart rings promise invisible wellness tracking, but the recent news of the Galaxy Ring scare that made people sick with a new, deadly disease has caused me actual nightmares about what happens when a ring gets stuck on your finger and won’t come off — and I won’t share those because no one would be able to sleep tonight.
A popular so-called ag-tech creator alleged his Galaxy Ring battery swelled while it was on his finger and he had to go to the hospital to have it removed — a reminder that one brand isn’t the only risk.
“It is a design problem just waiting for standards to catch up. The entire category has no emergency exit,” she said.
Why wearable convenience can quickly become a trap
Watches unclasp. Bands unbuckle. Rings have only one exit route: back off the knuckle. That’s great until biology or hardware goes awry. Fingers swell from heat, salt consumption, working out, and air travel all the time. Toss in the very occasional detonation of a lithium-ion cell, and a well-fitting ring can become a tourniquet.
In this recent situation, the user said that stereotypical tricks — soap, moisturizer, patience — simply didn’t help. They were refused boarding by airline staff and, finally, clinicians were forced to use ice and medical lubricant to extract the device. Ring removal is a common procedure, and emergency doctors have string-wrap techniques or specialized cutters for the job. But electronics can make it more difficult. Lancing a live battery is not what any ER wants to have to deal with.
A design blind spot for the smart ring industry
This ain’t one ring to rule them all. Existing models such as Oura and Ultrahuman, and future products like Evie, are made of unyielding metals and hard ceramics meant to offer a tough outer shell that is water-resistant and easy on the eyes. They are powered by tiny cells hidden in narrow bands that are usually 2–3 mm thick, but the battery life is impressive, often lasting between 4 and 7 days. But all of them come without a built-in means of quickly opening the loop in an emergency.
That the industry’s stress safety net comes entirely down to sizes? A box of trial sizes, that is. It helps on day one, not on day 101 when you’re on a red-eye, dehydrated, and your hands puff up. We’ve spent our energy trying to jam photoplethysmography sensors and temperature diodes and antennas into a gem; we haven’t made mechanical fail-safes for the worst day the user might have.
What safety standards and emergency medicine say
One root phenomenon of swelling is the reaction of lithium in a battery with electrolyte, causing gases to form.47 Lithium-ion batteries have been shown to swell as a result of heat, over-discharge, and internal impairment. This behavior has been widely documented in the literature on battery safety and addressed by standards like IEC 62133 or UL 1642. Those standards direct safer cells, but they don’t get around the form-factor trap of a sealed loop of human tissue.
For the clinical folks, the American College of Emergency Physicians instructs us on how to remove a ring, primarily because swelling and strangulation are predictable. Hand surgeons, like the ones at the American Society for Surgery of the Hand, caution that rings can make injuries worse and, in very few cases, lead to bad, all-encompassing degloving injuries.
In short, the physics of a hard circle and the biology of an inflamed digit are in conflict. Wellness wearables that cling to the skin exacerbate this tension.
How manufacturers can close the safety gap
Some sort of emergency release hardware should be table stakes. There are practical possibilities: a micro hinge with a low-profile latch; a sacrificial polymer segment meant to shear under predetermined force; or a magnetic clasp that locks during normal use but can be pried open with an unambiguous tool. Any fix would have to retain water resistance and structural integrity, but mechanical engineers solve more trying trade-offs in medical implants and aerospace challenges every day.
Battery diagnostics can definitely use improvement. For example, a ring could perform cell health monitoring with impedance tracking, coulomb counting, and temperature deltas to spot anomalies before swelling. If the device detects abnormal voltage sag or a rapid decline in capacity, the user should be warned, charging slowed down, or a low-risk state entered. Consumer safety organizations have continued to flag small-cell thermal events across types of products, and preventative firmware can help reduce potentially risky failure modes.
Finally, component layout matters. One option is splitting the battery into smaller cells around the band and isolating them with fire-retardant barriers, or adding a claspable module for energy storage, either of which could decrease both swelling pressure and cutting risk in the case that removal is needed.
What smart ring users can realistically do now
Before safer designs arrive, think of treating a smart ring like taking off tight shoes on a long flight: don’t wait until your finger starts swelling. Opt for a slightly looser fit if you lift weights frequently, fly often, or live in a very hot climate. Pay attention to early warning signs: sluggish charging, surprisingly quick draining, and odd warmth are things that may alleviate while the battery fills up; if they become more pronounced than you’re used to, perhaps something isn’t working. Turn rings frequently to give skin a chance to recover, keeping your environment dry to avoid irritation — advice you’d get from the dermatologists at the American Academy of Dermatology on wearing wearables.
If a ring sticks, raise and cool the hand; then it may be lubricated with soap or oil. If that doesn’t work, visit an emergency department or a jeweler. Do not try to saw your way through a device at home — electronics and batteries present hazards that professionals with spot welders are prepared to handle.
The wake-up call smart rings and makers needed
Smart rings are among the classiest wearables going, recording sleep, temperature, and heart rate without screen burnout. But elegance should not mean peril. The Galaxy Ring fiasco is not a death sentence for the category; it’s an unpacking of the brief. Build an emergency exit. Add smarter battery health checks. When something feels off, let them know in no uncertain terms. Otherwise, the tiniest wearers, too, will feel the least safe.
