Two former Meta interface designers have surfaced from stealth with a new take on voice‑first wearables: a smart ring called Stream that promises to let users capture whispered thoughts, control music and converse with an AI without pulling out a phone.
What Stream is and who built it
Sandbar — founded by Mina Fahmi (CEO) and Kirak Hong (CTO), both veterans of CTRL‑Labs and later Meta — unveiled the Stream ring after roughly two years of development. The startup has raised $13 million from True Ventures, Upfront Ventures and Betaworks.
The company describes Stream as "a mouse for voice": a compact interface that sits on the index finger of your dominant hand and combines beamforming microphones, a capacitive touchpad and haptic feedback to create a low‑friction way to record thoughts and interact with an AI assistant.
Fahmi, whose résumé includes work at Kernel and Magic Leap, told reporters he created the product to capture ideas that surface while commuting or walking without forcing users to take out a phone or speak loudly into earbuds.
How it works
- Interaction model: By default the ring's microphone is off. Press‑and‑hold on the flat touch surface to record; release to stop. The hardware is designed to pick up low‑volume speech and even whispers for private note capture in public spaces.
- Companion app and AI: Audio is not stored as raw recordings long‑term; the system transcribes speech into text and routes interactions to a companion app that functions as a living journal — organizing notes, creating to‑dos and supporting threaded conversations with an AI chatbot.
- Processing: Sandbar combines on‑device processing, smartphone compute and cloud models. The company said it uses a mix of large language models and audio generation tooling; during demos the assistant's voice was generated to resemble (but not exactly replicate) the user's voice.
- Controls and utility: The ring doubles as a media controller (single tap play/pause, double‑tap skip, swipe volume) and provides haptic confirmation for captured notes. Sandbar says the device will be waterproof and offer "all‑day" battery life, with a small magnetic charger for top‑ups.
- Competition: The field already includes pendants, pins and wristbands from startups such as Friend, Limitless and Taya, plus other ring efforts. Amazon has absorbed Bee’s wristband business, and larger hardware companies continue to eye the category.
- Value versus existing devices: Many consumers rely on phones and earbuds for voice assistants and media control. Stream must prove its ring form factor offers clear, repeatable advantages for daily use.
- Battery and feature tradeoffs: Because Stream is an active interaction device rather than a passive health tracker, its battery life is shorter than many health‑focused rings. It also omits biometric tracking, which is now common in the ring market.
- Safety and design of AI responses: The product sits in a broader debate about how conversational AI should behave. Sandbar frames Stream as a tool — not a companion — and says it curates the assistant's "character" to be curious, compassionate and concise rather than opinionated.
Price, availability and subscriptions
Sandbar opened preorders at $249 for silver and $299 for gold. Shipments are slated to begin in summer 2026. Every preorder includes three months of Stream Pro; after the trial Pro costs $10 per month for unlimited chats, notes and early feature access. A free tier will remain available with usage limits.
Privacy, data controls and integrations
Sandbar emphasizes user control: microphones activate only by gesture, data is encrypted in transit and at rest, and the company plans to support data exports to tools such as Notion so users aren’t locked into a closed ecosystem. Sandbar says it runs safety evaluations to tune how the assistant responds to sensitive or personal prompts.
The pitch — and the questions
Proponents argue Stream addresses a real friction: many thoughts arrive when a phone is inconvenient. Investors who reviewed demos found the interface‑first approach persuasive; a partner at one backer said he had previously been skeptical of AI hardware until seeing Stream in action.
But the device faces familiar headwinds for AI wearables:
Early impressions and outlook
In private demos, reviewers noted that the ring’s whisper‑to‑text capability and tactile controls made for a discreet and surprisingly natural workflow. Critics caution that novelty can fade quickly if the assistant doesn’t reliably add value, if privacy guarantees are unclear, or if ongoing subscription costs accumulate.
Sandbar’s practical stance — limited on‑device audio retention, explicit activation gestures, encryption and export options — addresses some of the common consumer anxieties. Still, the company must navigate a crowded market, demonstrate robust day‑to‑day utility and scale beyond early adopters.
If Stream can sustain frequent, helpful interactions without creating new privacy or dependency concerns, it could carve out a niche as a low‑friction tool for capturing thought and managing brief, context‑sensitive tasks. The broader test for Sandbar will be whether users keep reaching for a ring rather than their phone.
Bottom line
Stream is an interface‑first bet on voice as a daily input: a discreet, gesture‑activated ring that aims to turn fleeting thoughts into organized notes and to give users quick, private access to an AI assistant. Reasonable privacy safeguards and exportability are selling points, but the device will need to prove persistent, practical value against entrenched smartphone workflows and a crowded wearable landscape before it becomes more than an intriguing gadget.