Why build a relationship based on trust and loyalty when you can just build one based on suspicion? That’s what the RAW wearable loyalty ring appears to be offering. The dating scene has been extremely disheartening for most people in 2025, with dating apps no longer offering satisfactory results and platforms meant for women being hacked with abandon. It doesn’t necessarily inspire confidence.
Banking on the popularity of AI and smart wearables, RAW, a dating app, is working on a smart ring designed to track the emotions and physical reactions of a partner. The idea is to buy a pair of rings so you can be in sync with your partner, constantly aware of their mental and physical state of mind. While this sounds somewhat sweet in theory, the intended use is a tad bit more nefarious. The RAW smart ring may be used to catch cheaters, helping one determine if their partner is excited over exercise or other lustful activities.
If this sounds dystopian to you, you’re not alone in feeling this way.
The RAW Wearable Loyalty Brings a “Fundamentally New Form of Human Connection”
If you were planning to give your partner a diamond ring or something of equal value, RAW’s wearable loyalty ring proposes that its functionality could make you rethink the choice. “Like a bestie on a finger—keeping tabs on heartbeats, body heat, and interactions around your partner. When something’s up, you’ll know. Simple as that,” says Marina Anderson, the co-founder of RAW. While the ring is still a concept and isn’t available for purchase, it is one that has raised some eyebrows.
Powered by the RAW dating app and Queens Tech, the smart wearable is supported by AI and is designed to track true love by giving you a glimpse into your partner’s vitals. It can measure heart rate and its variability along with skin temperature, and should have an accelerometer and gyroscope as well, to help with tracking movement.
Additionally, it is also set to feature a microphone to analyze voice tones and will be backed with dual on-device and cloud AI support to process the data it gathers. The ring is expected to feature customizable LEDs to help you receive alerts on the ring, which you can better understand through the app. The website also promises that the smart ring will support Qi wireless charging with up to 7 days of battery life with 30-minute quick charging.
The specs are solid and contain a lot of features that we’ve seen in other rings before. So what is the purpose of the specialized ring?
RAW Is a Smart Ring to Track the Emotions of a Partner—or Is It?
In theory, if you’re looking for 24/7 relationship tracking, this smart ring could help you learn when your partner is stressed, allowing you to comfort them or support them more effectively and work through the stress together. Bought in pairs, the RAW ring could be a way for couples to check in on each other without having to ask for it, which could be particularly useful for long-distance couples.
Unfortunately, this is not all the ring will do. The RAW loyalty ring’s AI capabilities are expected to be advanced enough to distinguish between when a partner is anxious or aroused, and while this information might also be very useful in a relationship, the difference in interpretation could be enough to have you jumping to conclusions about your partner having an affair.
Now, RAW doesn’t market itself as a tracker or surveillance device—the brand knows that those inclined to cheat will stay away from its technology. However, there are growing concerns around how such technology could be very detrimental to building a healthy relationship based on trust, especially with how current AI technology is known for getting things wrong quite frequently. Despite claims that the RAW ring wearable is not specifically designed to catch cheating partners, it doesn’t help that the brand’s marketing material states, “When something’s up, you’ll know. Simple as that.”
Is the RAW Ring as Dystopian in its Partner Tracking Agenda as the Outrage Will Have Us Believe?
RAW gets many things right about its product. Rings have always been seen as a sign of commitment to your partner and a way to let the world know not to get in the way. Using a more advanced ring to deepen that connection can be a blessing in the modern world, where the pressures of work and adulthood have most couples spending more time apart than together.
The RAW ring could be very useful in picking up on the right time to send your partner a care package full of unhealthy snacks when they are upset or a healthy snack when they might need a boost of energy after a particularly grueling workout. It could help in deciding to make a quick call during the work day to see what has them so stressed, or help determine when your partner is in the mood for something more hands-on. The applications are endless.
However, when you come to the heart of the matter, it does open up more opportunities for misuse. Snapchat and Apple’s friend and family tracking features have been overused to keep tabs on romantic partners to an unhealthy degree. Neither app intended to have the feature misused, but once a product is on the market, it can be impossible to control its use. What’s most concerning about the RAW wearable loyalty ring is its AI-based arousal determination feature, which could easily mislead users and cause more anxiety and misunderstandings than intended.
Relying on 24/7 Relationship Tracking with a Smart Ring Does Not Sound Healthy
The RAW dating app’s approach to online dating has always been one of unfiltered communication and honesty, and it appears to be doubling down on these qualities with the ring it proposes to bring to the market. While there are many healthy applications of its capabilities, what’s concerning is that it promotes an unhealthy overreliance on technology rather than honest, up-front communication.
The RAW smart ring could well catch cheaters in the act and put an end to relationships that are already breaking down, but it’s easy to see how it could also lead to obsessive checking and monitoring to ensure your partner doesn’t stray. It also blurs the boundaries between people, forcing them to talk about their stress when they may not be ready. Anderson told The Verge that the team is working to put controls in place to ensure that users can decide what metrics to share with their partners and what they don’t want communicated, which is a good sign.
Unfortunately, this could also be interpreted as secrecy instead of health boundaries by some partners, but that’s the way things go with technology—much of its capabilities depend on the users.
Things Are Bleak In the Dating Sphere Right Now
The Tea dating app recently gained notoriety for allowing women to conduct more thorough background checks on potential partners and see if previous partners had marked any red flags alongside them. The platform provided many women with a sense of safety, allowing them to vet their dates and feel more comfortable about meeting them. It was also a way for women to stay away from married men and those with a recorded history of abuse, making them more comfortable about online dating.
While there were legitimate concerns regarding privacy and inaccurate information being shared on these platforms, all of which should have broadened the debate on where matters stand today, the conversation turned vitriolic quite quickly. The app was recently hacked, and a huge data breach was reported as a result, after many angry men began pushing to have the platform taken down.
This sense of dislike and mistrust is where most people in the modern dating world are operating from, and matters could get worse when incomplete tools are entrusted into the hands of insecure partners. Just one wrong feature could make or break a product’s reputation, and just like the Tea app, the RAW ring could slip down the wrong path quickly.
When Will The RAW Ring Be Released?
Ultimately, the RAW ring wearable could be used to catch cheating partners, but it could also be used to build deeper relationships between two individuals. The ring is still being tested, and research is reportedly being conducted with couples to understand the best way to handle the device’s features and release. We could see a prototype in September, where more should be revealed about the device. This will likely be useful in understanding the ring better.
The company is looking at a 2026 launch for the finished device, and the final product may be starkly different from what we’ve seen so far. It’s going to be interesting to see how potential customers react to the device and just how many takers there are once it is launched. Is this just another gimmicky fad, or could the RAW ring truly change how we approach relationships in the future? It will soon be time to put a ring on it and find out.
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