Galaxy Ring works with non-Samsung Android phones but without these features

Summary

• Samsung’s Galaxy Ring, initially believed to only support Samsung smartphones, can also pair with non-Samsung Android smartphones.
• Non-Samsung Android phones may miss some features when pairing with Galaxy Ring, but essential functions like step counting still work.
• Samsung’s expansion of Galaxy Ring compatibility to all Android smartphones running Android 11 or higher adds value to the product.

Samsung launched its Galaxy Ring at the Unpacked event earlier this month. Although the smart ring isn’t available to purchase yet — it will be widely available starting July 24 — several issues about its compatibility arose at launch. It was initially believed that the Galaxy Ring only supported Samsung smartphones, and many online reviews stated the same. But, it turns out, you can pair the Galaxy Ring with non-Samsung Android smartphones as well.

YouTuber M Brandon Lee posted a video on X/Twitter showing the Galaxy Ring paired with what looks like a Nothing smartphone. While we haven’t tested the compatibility yet, it seems the Galaxy Ring works similarly to other Samsung wearables, requiring the user to install apps like Galaxy Wearable, Samsung Health, and SmartThings to set up the device on a non-Samsung smartphone.

Samsung has also updated its official press release to reflect that the Galaxy Ring supports all Android smartphones running Android 11 or higher with at least 1.5GB of RAM. A previous version of the press release (shown in the screenshot above) mentioned that the Galaxy Ring was only compatible with “Galaxy smartphones with Android 11.0 or above”. It seems this is not the case, as you can pair the Galaxy Ring with other Android smartphones. Some rumors even suggest that Samsung may add iOS support to the Galaxy Ring in the future.

Here are the features non-Samsung phones don’t support

Like other Samsung wearables, users will miss some features when pairing their Galaxy Ring with a non-Samsung Android smartphone. Features such as Energy Score, Galaxy AI health recommendations, Find My Ring, and gestures to control the camera and dismiss alarms will not work on these devices. However, other essential features like step counting, sleep tracking, heart rate monitoring, wellness tips, automatic workout detection, and more are still available on non-Samsung Android phones.

While most popular smart rings, like the Oura Ring and Ultrahuman Ring Air, support both Android and iOS devices, Samsung’s Galaxy Ring seemed limited at launch with claims of compatibility only with Galaxy devices. It seemed that this would limit the product’s usefulness, popularity, and overall value. Thankfully, it now appears that Samsung has expanded support to include other devices.