Vital Signals, founded by former Android team member Tom Moss, has opened pre-orders for the Signal Ring, a smart ring that performs continuous blood pressure monitoring. Priced at $399 on signalring.com, the device is expected to ship later in 2026. Engadget

Moss brings a deep hardware and platform background to health-tech. He was an early member of the Android team at Google, co-founded the cloud-first smartphone company Nextbit (later acquired by Razer), and served as COO at drone manufacturer Skydio before departing to found Vital Signals in 2023. The Signal Ring was developed over three years by Moss alongside two engineers recruited from pulse sensor company Masimo, a firm known for its work in pulse oximetry, the non-invasive measurement of blood oxygen levels.

The personal motivation is direct. Moss was hospitalized with a systolic blood pressure reading of 250 mmHg before founding the company. That experience shaped the product's design philosophy around continuous, passive monitoring rather than episodic cuff-based measurement, the kind you get at a doctor's office or with a home blood pressure cuff.

The Signal Ring performs passive continuous blood pressure scanning throughout the day and also supports on-demand manual readings. For manual readings, the system instructs users to sit down, get comfortable, and engage in slow breathing while the reading is taken. Afterward, users can append context tags such as workout, eating, smoking, or coffee, providing situational metadata around each measurement.

Moss was sharply critical of existing wrist-based blood pressure solutions, specifically calling out Samsung Galaxy Watch readings as regularly drifting between cuff calibrations and labeling them "less than useless." That critique frames the Signal Ring's approach: a dedicated finger-worn form factor rather than a wrist-based optical sensor inheriting the constraints of a smartwatch. The argument is that a finger is a better place to measure blood flow optically, because the blood vessels are closer to the surface and the hand moves less predictably than the wrist during readings.

On the business model, Moss stated the Signal Ring will not require a monthly subscription. On AI, he drew a deliberate boundary, stating that Vital Signals will not add AI to the product, though blood pressure data is exportable for users who wish to consult AI tools of their own choosing.

The hardware specs are straightforward. The Signal Ring is available in US sizes 5 through 13, requires a sizing kit before shipping, has a battery life rated for three days, and ships with a charging case.

Vital Signals is pursuing FDA regulatory clearance for the Signal Ring, with the stated long-term goal of working with insurers on preventative care. The regulatory landscape is moving in a direction that could matter here. In January 2026, the FDA began the process of crafting broader exemptions for cuffless non-invasive blood pressure measuring devices that use optical heart rate monitors, a category the Signal Ring falls into. Federal Register

The broader context here is that wearable blood pressure monitoring has been a genuinely hard problem. Wrist-based optical approaches have struggled with accuracy and calibration drift, and the idea of continuous cuffless monitoring has been more aspiration than shipped product. A ring worn on a finger, where blood vessels are more accessible and motion interference is more manageable than on the wrist, is a plausible hardware argument. The Masimo engineering pedigree lends credibility to the sensor design.

The decision to forgo built-in AI is worth noting at a moment when every consumer health device seems eager to add a large language model. Moss is positioning the Signal Ring as a data source rather than an interpretation engine, which sidesteps questions about clinical liability for AI-generated health advice while still letting users feed the data into whatever tool they prefer. Whether that restraint appeals to consumers in a market conditioned to expect AI features, or reads as a gap, is an open question.

The subscription-free model is similarly deliberate. Competing health rings, most notably Oura, have built recurring revenue into their core proposition. Vital Signals is betting that a one-time $399 purchase, paired with FDA clearance and eventual insurer partnerships, can sustain the business. That is a bet on the preventative care reimbursement path materializing, and on regulatory timelines that remain outside the company's control.

For now, the Signal Ring is a pre-order product from a startup with no shipping hardware and a regulatory clearance still in process. The technical approach, the founding team's track record, and the regulatory tailwinds all merit attention. The proof will come when devices reach users and independent accuracy data becomes available.