The Motiv fitness tracking ring just got a little smarter and accessible, with the company announcing that it will finally work with Android smartphones. An Android beta is now open for users to go download, with promise to offer a more complete experience "by the end of the first half of 2018".
But that's not all: Motiv is also adding Alexa support too, though you won't be able to bark orders at your finger. Instead you'll be able to download the Motiv skill to your Echo or other Alexa-powered device for a stat checkup. At first you'll be limited to questions about data syncing and heart rate, while later updates this year will allow you to ask Alexa about your sleep duration and other metrics.
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Thirdly, Motiv says it's making the ring more widely available. The ring is now purchasable on Amazon and will be rolling into b&ta stores in the US where you can get one fitted and taken home in a day. That's also good if you want to actually try one on before you buy.
It sounds like there's plenty more to come for the $200 smart ring, which tracks heart rate, movement and sleep in an impressively tiny package. We got on well with the Motiv ring in our review, though one main bit of criticism was that the health data in the app felt lacking. Hopefully we'll see that fleshed out more this year.
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By Hugh Langley
Now at Business Insider, Hugh originally joined Wareable from TechRadar where he’d been writing news, features, reviews and just about everything else you can think of for three years.
Hugh is now a correspondent at Business Insider.
Prior to Wareable, Hugh freelanced while studying, writing about bad indie bands and slightly better movies. He found his way into tech journalism at the beginning of the wearables boom, when everyone was talking about Google Glass and the Oculus Rift was merely a Kickstarter campaign - and has been fascinated ever since.
He’s particularly interested in VR and any fitness tech that will help him (eventually) get back into shape. Hugh has also written for T3, Wired, Total Film, Little White Lies and China Daily.