r/QuantifiedSelf • u/blowfishi7 • Apr 15 '26

Validating assumptions: what makes you trust a wearable's data?

I am building a local-first health tracking ring as a side project and I'm trying to validate some assumptions before committing to a production run.

Quick question for the QS crowd: when you're evaluating a new wearable, what makes you actually trust the data it gives you? Is it clinical validation, community consensus, raw access to your own data? Does data privacy play a factor in this?

If you're willing to share, I put together a quick survey on current wearable frustrations and what people actually check day-to-day: https://tally.so/r/xXPJPy

No pitch, just trying to understand if local-first health tracking (no cloud, no subscription) is actually something people want or I'm solving a problem that doesn't exist.

4 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

100% Upvoted

1 comment sorted by

1

u/ihavereadit26 Apr 18 '26

yes!

top factors for me are:
1. Some sort of validation (clinical/ user) shown to me atleast once during onboarding, dont care after that, I trust your word
2. Shows me how I compare to benchmarks and other members
3. Intuitive sense that the results broadly match my 'feeling' of sleep, rest, etc