Ultrahuman Ring Pro: The Challenge of Bringing Contactless Payments to Smart Rings

Ultrahuman is moving to secure its future in the smart ring market. A trademark filing for the forthcoming Ultrahuman Ring Pro explicitly mentions “software for contactless transactions via wearable devices”, a clear statement to bring NFC payment functionality to the finger.

Industry speculation places the launch of this Pro model and the new feature in mid-2026.

This move keeps Ultrahuman directly in competition with other companies aiming to embed identity and financial features into their hardware. Rival Oura has already acquired a digital identity firm, Proxy (via the MOTIV acquisition), to enable similar utility on their ring, a feature this site expected to appear in Oura’s current generation of ring tech.

TAPSTER Ring (Image above) already has NFC payments, not bioauthenticated

However, the novelty of ring payments is tempered by the difficulty of maintaining security over the owner’s bank balance. A ring’s small, screenless form factor, unlike a smartwatch, cannot display a passcode or require a user-initiated biometric check for authentication. Thus, more ingenious methods are needed.

Where a smartphone can use a camera to scan its owner’s facial features, a ring must monitor the wear status (when last taken off the finger) and the wearer’s movement patterns, such as walking. Failing that, a smartphone app could authorise the ring for payments until it is removed from the finger. However, that method is slightly more cumbersome and ultimately not sufficiently user-friendly.

You might then wonder which company has the patents to detect movement patterns on the ring. The answer, of course, is Oura (Patent: US11868178B2)! Expect more patent lawsuits to follow.

Tap-to-pay will be a key part of the future of smart rings. The uncertainty lies in which company will be the first to incorporate it into the premium tier of smart rings in the most user-friendly way.

Last Updated on 28 January 2026 by the5krunner

the5krunner

tfk is the founder and author of the5krunner, an independent endurance sports technology publication. With 20 years of hands-on testing of GPS watches and wearables, and competing in triathlons at an international age-group level, tfk provides in-depth expert analysis of fitness technology for serious athletes and endurance sport competitors.