Pebble is reinventing voice assistants and smart rings in one device — meet the Pebble Index 01

• Pebble has unveiled the Pebble Index 01, a new smart ring
• It's comprised of "a button and a microphone, a little bit of memory, and a Bluetooth chip"
• It records voice notes and uses an on-device LLM in the open-source Pebble app to interpret instructions or transcribe

Core Devices, the company relaunching the original Pebble smartwatch, has revealed the Pebble Index 01, a smart ring very different from the likes of the Oura Ring 4, Samsung Galaxy Ring, and the rest of the best smart rings on our list.

With no heart rate sensors or motion detectors, it's not a health tracker. Instead, it's designed as "external memory for the brain", using a button-activated microphone to send voice notes to the Pebble app.

Once the voice note arrives, the on-device LLM in the Pebble app (an open-source app so you can read the code and see how it works) interprets the instruction in a similar way to most voice assistants: as a voice note, timer, alarm, or reminder. The raw audio can also be played back within the app, and you can set the note, alarm, timer or reminder to play on a Pebble smartwatch, or another device.

Otherwise, there's no actual output on the ring – no speaker or vibrating motor, just a small RGB LED. A blog post by Pebble and Core Devices founder Eric Migicovsky reveals that users can "configure single/double button clicks to control whatever you want (smart home, Tasker, etc)," and you can "add your own voice actions via MCP". MCP stands for 'model context protocols', a framework AIs use to perform actions and connect to external systems.

Priced at $75 (around £56 / AU$113), the Pebble Index 01 is available in Black, Gold, and Silver, in eight sizes. It's not designed to be recharged, either – the battery reportedly lasts years, and the device can be sent back to Pebble for recycling.

Back to basics

At its core, it's a very simple device. It's just "a button and a microphone, a little bit of memory and a Bluetooth chip", according to Migicovsky, along with the battery needed to power it. There's also no personality attached to the LLM in the app, like those found in Siri or Alexa; it just records, transcribes, answers questions and organizes without inserting itself into the process.

"We made a lot of decisions, driving towards the idea of being a reliable external memory for your brain," said Migicovsky, who spoke to me from New York. "If you take it off, and you don’t have it, you’ll fall back into these other habits. If you’re recharging it, even if it’s a half-hour or overnight, you forget to put it back on."

That drive for frictionless use is why Migicovsky chose a button to activate it, instead of a more modern system such as raise-to-speak or a wakeword like an Apple Watch. "If there’s any friction in the system, a wakeword or whatever, you’ll stop using it."

Migicovsky isn't wrong: people get frustrated when sensors don't respond the right way, as you end up shaking your wrist or repeating yourself to Alexa. On the other hand, I use the voice assistant on my Garmin Venu 4 to execute simple commands like setting timers and reminders once per day, because it's button-activated and reliable. For Migicovsky and his Core Devices company, 'reliable' was a must, with 'fun' a close second.

"To me, a gadget is something that doesn’t take itself too seriously, that brings a little bit of joy to my life. It’s something I get excited about – I loved reading gadget magazines and blogs, it’s fun and joyful and brings a little slice of positivity.

"In the tech world right now, there’s just not enough chance to get that. The company that I started, Core Devices, is basically going to build cool gadgets that I want and sell them to people like me."

Migicovsky tells me he's been using the Pebble Index 01 for months, and it has reportedly become part of his routine, easy to use through gloves thanks to the button, and less awkwardly placed than a smartwatch, making it able to function with only one hand in a very natural way.

For now, though, we'll have to wait until Marc to find out if the Pebble Index 01 can earn its place as a simple, reliable gadget in a world of complex devices.

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The best smart rings for all budgets

➡️ Read our full guide to the best smart rings
1. Best overall:
Samsung Galaxy Ring
2. Best premium:
Oura Ring 4
3. Best budget:
Amazfit Helio Ring