We’re all about to be in wearable hell

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I had a big problem while unboxing my device Meta Ray Ban offer Review unit. To control the glasses’ display, you need to wear a separate nerve strap on your dominant wrist. This isn’t an issue for most people, but I test wearables for a living. I always use dual wrist smartwatches. On this particular day, my dominant wrist was busy with the Google Pixel Watch 4. If the Neural Band and Pixel Watch 4 couldn’t work well together, you were in real trouble.

Fortunately they are an act Play well together. the Oura ring 4 On my right index finger, however, this did not happen. It interfered with swipe gestures, so I had to switch it to my other hand.

Cue a face palm that would make Captain Picard proud.

Later that day, I took care of the dumpster fire in my inbox. Many wearable companies have laid siege. Have you finished testing their devices? Would I be interested in another test? It’s just anecdotal, but in 2025, I’ve been shown more wearables than any other year in my entire career. I wanted to scream. I only have two wrists, and 10 fingers (of which only six fit). For smart rings), ears, chest, neck, and face to test an ever-growing number of gadgets meant to be worn 24/7, 365 days a year.

For most of my career, I have completely accepted that this is a rare problem that I volunteer for and get paid to deal with. Except for the last couple of years, I’ve had an overwhelming feeling that big tech companies increasingly want more people — maybe everyone — to live like me.

This fear first crept into my mind when I tested the Samsung Galaxy Ring last year. As I wrote in my country reviewThis was not a device designed to stand on its own. While you He could Use it as a smartwatch replacement, intended as an accessory for your Galaxy Watch. It’s a way to suck you into Samsung’s orbit. As smart rings become more powerful, an increasing number of friends, family, co-workers, peers, and readers have asked me to read Oura Ring. The majority were looking for something more convenient and had longer battery life than a smartwatch, but rejected the idea of ​​giving up quick notifications or tactile alarms. Many people were surprised when I said that the Oura Ring works best with a smartwatch, not instead of it, because most the people.

Now sprinkle the final flow of AI devices over this.

Humane’s ill-fated AI pin It was something you wore on your lapel, but you couldn’t replace a phone or a smartwatch. When I tested beean AI-powered wearable that is always listening, I had to decide whether it took up limited space on my wrist or was attached to my neck. She was somewhat relieved that despite all her faults, friend It was something I wore around my neck, a relatively unused part of the body in wearable technology… until now.

It’s clear to me that in searching for what comes after the smartphone, tech companies decided they had to move on – and eventually, in -Our bodies. (See: Brain-computer interfaces and continuous glucose monitors.)

I wish I could write this off as my own paranoia. Unfortunately, you can see signs of this in the way technology executives talk about this next wave of hands-free computing.

Earlier this summer, I spoke with Sandeep Waraich, Google’s product manager for Pixel Wearables, and Rishi Chandra, Google’s vice president of Fitbit and Health. They both told me in clear terms that Google envisions “The future will be a variety of accessories“Integrated with artificial intelligence. The appeal of smartwatches and headphones, they told me, is that they are existing products that you already use.

Likewise, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, recently said sources“There are between 1 and 2 billion people who wear glasses every day to correct vision. Is there a world where, in five or seven years, the vast majority of those glasses will be AI glasses in some capacity?” At the same time, it is also said that Apple Pivoting towards smart glassesIts position on the product ecosystem is not ambiguous. The more you buy, the better.

Add Samsung gaming with Galaxy Ring plus Whatever Sam Altman and Jony Ive of OpenAI are doingand you have compelling evidence that the powerful players at the big tech companies are all working to make as many tools available to us as possible. It would be nice if it could be simplified one They can be worn, but the challenge is that no two bodies are ever the same. You’ll never fall asleep using smart glasses to track your sleep, smart rings aren’t recommended for weight lifting, and smart watches simply aren’t comfortable for some people.

Call me sarcastic. I fully believe that these companies will promote that you will have a choice in what accessories you use, and at the same time what they will make for you feel As if you are missing out if you don’t buy everything.

And it’s not just big technology companies. A few months ago, Health Minister RFK Junior, while talking about continuous glucose monitors and fitness trackers, said He wants a wearable device all American In four years. Can this be combined with this trend towards smart watches, smart rings and smart glasses? Welcome to my life, my love.

This existential crisis brought to you A vertcast Hotline I helped with the answer earlier this week. The caller asked if they should embark on a smartwatch life. Their Apple Watch is no longer enough for their strength training tracking system and Run. To get the best possible performance, should they add a Garmin device and combine both products?

My answer remains profound: “Not at all.”

My tolerance for this multi-device scene is pretty high, but it’s still a hell of a scene. look at me. I live a life full of perpetual tans, ignoring AI necklaces, and 30-minute data review sessions every morning when I wake up and after every workout. My eyes hurt from constantly looking at smart glasses screens. (They are rarely Ideally!) When I wear CGMs, I end up checking the impact of every bite of food that passes my lips. Anytime I receive a notification, my body vibrates from various devices eager to let me know that a neighbor has walked by the Nest Doorbell. As I wrote in Modern MohsenI have to build in detox days to be sure I Use these tools, not the other way around.

If the point of all this is to make life better, I need big tech companies to think long and hard about whether the problems they’re trying to solve are actually problems at all. Take it from me, I’m a wearable extreme: I’m exhausted, out of body parts, and feeling more robot than human with each passing day. If we race blindly towards the future where… everyone feel it? We’ve lost sight of why any of us would love technology in the first place.

Photography by Victoria Song/The Verge