The Galaxy Ring might play a part in the Android XR glasses experience

Samsung’s Galaxy Ring hasn’t had the best press lately, but it isn’t going anywhere, and its functionality may soon expand beyond interacting with just your phone. A clue we spotted in a recent app update hints that the wearable could one day help control Samsung’s upcoming Android XR glasses.

While digging around in the APK of the latest Galaxy Ring Manager update, we  found the following string of code:

The reference to a “Ring gesture for glasses” certainly caught our eye, but it’s all we have so far. It’s unclear what this feature might do, but the timing is interesting. Samsung has recently confirmed that it’s developing AI and Android XR glasses in collaboration with Google, Warby Parker, and Gentle Monster, aiming to bridge the gap between fashionable eyewear and spatial computing.

The Galaxy Ring already goes beyond fitness tracking, letting you control your phone to take photos or silence alarms with a double-pinch. That’s just one gesture, but a Samsung patent earlier this year described how the ring could control more screens or transfer data between devices.

Combining these two bits of evidence, it certainly seems that the Galaxy Ring will offer cross-wearable compatibility with the upcoming glasses, and could even expand the gestures for an even more immersive Android XR experience.

As always with our APK teardowns, there’s no guarantee these features will ever launch, but with such functionality offering the potential to boost the sales of both devices, the incentives for Samsung to move ahead with it are clear.