Aina's $399 AI Ring Adds a Screen, Joystick and Mic for Agents

Lessons from Mirage

Aina previously made Mirage, a three-key controller for Mac that mapped buttons to the app on screen. In a Google Meet call, for example, keys could toggle the camera, mute the mic or leave the meeting. The ring carries that idea further: the joystick handles navigation, and gestures can trigger different actions depending on what is open on a Mac or phone. It can also control music and smart home devices such as Apple TV. The screen shows phone notifications and which app is being controlled.

The category is already busy, with rings such as the Pebble Index 01, Sandbar Stream, Oasis and Natura on the market. Extra controls and functions are Aina's way of standing out.

After several days of use, our impression is that it feels like a smartwatch in ring form, with more controls. It shows and lets you reply to notifications, surfaces meetings and can call an Uber. Using it as an Apple TV remote is less convenient than the real remote, though it helped a couple of times when the remote could not be found. Much of the software is still being developed, so its place in daily use remains unclear.

"Phones and laptop screens were designed for an age of browsing where you think about opening apps. For interacting with proactive agents, we need a better interface, and that is what we had in mind while designing Aina," founder Apoorv Shankar said.

Price and availability

Preorders start Thursday at an early-bird price of $399, rising to $499 once that period ends. Shipping is planned for January 2027. Aina joins other companies, including OpenAI with an experimental keyboard and Rabbit, in betting that people running several agents will pay for dedicated hardware to monitor them.