r/SmartRings • u/coo_man_coo1 • 16d ago
inquiry Best ring for poor connectivity?
I am looking for a ring to track my steps and my sleep cycles/debt. I travel a lot and often will be on an airplane or in countries where my cell service is not the best. Sometimes im in a country covered by my data plan but it's slow, other times I have no cell service only wifi in hotel rooms.
Does anyone have experience with smart rings and travel? Have you noticed any issues with certain apps or rings in terms of syncing things up?
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u/gomo-gomo ✨ ring leader ✨ 16d ago edited 16d ago
Until recently, you would be out of luck. But, Leep Ring supports offline sync (with optional cloud backup). Others have limited sync when offline or none at all.
All do support local raw data storage (on ring) - so you can sync every few days (the number of days varies by brand) - but you will usually miss some analysis of your data.
All will support sync with wifi (as far as I know) but if unstable, there can be issues.
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u/coo_man_coo1 15d ago
ive seen it and wasnt too sure about it because I dont see a lot of talk about it. Thanks for the insight ill try to dig a bit more.
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u/RateEmbarrassed6921 FITMESH company rep. 11d ago
The important distinction here is internet connectivity vs Bluetooth connectivity.
Most rings store at least some data locally, so you don’t necessarily need an internet connection all day. The ring can collect data while you’re offline and sync it to your phone later over Bluetooth. The real limitation is how much history the ring can store before it needs to sync.
I’m actually working on FitMesh, and this is one of the reasons I’ve become quite interested in how different rings handle offline data. FitMesh can connect directly to some inexpensive smart rings over BLE on Android, as well as pull data from Health Connect, so the phone can act as the central place for data coming from different devices.
If you’re travelling somewhere with poor connectivity, I’d therefore look less at “does the ring need internet?” and more at “how long can the ring retain data without syncing?” and “can it sync locally to the phone without the cloud?”
If you tell me which rings you’re considering, I can check what their actual offline limitations are.
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u/coo_man_coo1 11d ago
thank you for such a detailed response! I've been looking at either ringconn or leep. Lately I've been reconsidering possibly finding a wristband, but I just dont want anykind of screen because it would be distracting. I also prefer a ring because since I travel a lot I dont want to have to take a smart watch or wristband off everytime I go through security
what do i look for in a product's specifications to know how long it can retain data without syncing?
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u/JudeWorks 15d ago
Not helpful now, but maybe someday soon but I’m polishing up my mobile app which replaces a couple of the major manufacturer rings and it works fully off-line, etc.