A number of voice-based hardware devices are emerging for companionship, productivity, or personal growth purposes. These include Plaud and Pocket card-like devices. Friend, Limitless, Taya pendant. And Bee wristbands, which are now part of Amazon.
Now, two former Meta employees who worked in interface design have launched Sandbar, a startup that created a ring called Stream for a similar purpose. The company calls this ring a “voice mouse.” This is because it can take notes, help you interact with an AI assistant, and control your music.
Sandbar’s CEO, Mina Fahmi, has extensive experience designing human-computer interfaces. He worked at Bryan Johnson’s Kernel and then at smart glasses startup Magic Leap. Before joining CTRL-Labs, Kirak Hong, Sandbar’s CTO, worked at Google, where the two met. Meta acquired the startup in 2019, and its work eventually led to the tech giant’s neural interface for smart wearables.
Fahmi said he built an experimental journaling app a few years ago when large-scale language models started emerging. However, I found that the app was an obstacle to understanding my thoughts. Given his experience building hardware interfaces, he started looking at conversational hardware interfaces instead.
“A lot of my ideas come to me when I’m walking or commuting. I don’t want to take out my phone to interrupt the moment. I don’t want to scream into my earphones for the whole world to hear to talk about an idea. Kirak and I were trying to figure out what it takes to actually capture an idea in the moment it comes. That’s how we came up with Stream,” Fahmi said in an interview with TechCrunch.
The ring is designed to be worn on the index finger of your dominant hand and includes a microphone and touchpad.
In the virtual demo, Fahmi wore a stream ring on his index finger and recorded his thoughts by pressing and holding the touchpad. By default the microphone is turned off and is only enabled with this gesture. We found this microphone to be sensitive enough to pick up whispers and transcribe them with a companion iOS app. Other apps like Wispr Flow and Willow similarly allow people to silently record their thoughts.
Stream’s app includes an AI chatbot that speaks to users while recording their thoughts. You can organize these into individual notes that you or the AI can edit. The app also lets you pinch to zoom out and see what you’ve talked about over days or weeks. Sandbar adds a layer of personalization, so your assistant’s voice sounds somewhat similar to your voice.
Fahmi said that in crowded spaces, users can wear headphones and have private conversations with the assistant. Even without headphones, the ring provides haptic feedback when a note is successfully registered, so you can silently add to-dos, take notes, or check items off your grocery list.
Beyond audio functionality, the ring’s flat surface also acts as a media controller, allowing you to play, pause, skip tracks, and adjust volume. Many headphones offer similar controls, but this ring can be useful when your hands are full or when you’re on the go.
The company opened pre-orders for Stream on Wednesday, with the silver version priced at $249 and the gold version priced at $299. Sandbar aims to begin shipping next summer. The Pro subscription tier (3 months free if you pre-order, then $10/month) offers unlimited chats, notes, and early access to new features.
Fahmi said the company provides encryption both at rest and in transit, giving users complete control over their data at every tier. He added that Sandbar does not believe in walled gardens and will support data export to apps like Notion.
Sandbar has raised $13 million in funding from True Ventures, Upfront Ventures, and Betaworks.
Toni Schneider, a partner at True Ventures, said she was skeptical of the AI device because the demo she saw before Stream was unimpressive.
“I think a lot of people would agree that voice and AI go really well together, and (and they agree) it’s kind of hard to interact with AI on your phone or laptop when all you need is voice. So there has to be some new form factor. We looked at a lot of them, and a lot of them just didn’t hit the mark. Mina came in and showed us a demo, it made sense to us,” he told TechCrunch.
The voice AI hardware space is highly competitive, with many builders exploring rings as a form factor. Fahmi said he doesn’t want Stream to be an assistant or companion, but rather an interface for users to express their ideas while maintaining full control.
AI hardware has yet to achieve mainstream success. Humane was sold to HP, Rabbit is looking to improve user experience and engagement through software updates, and Friend is looking to capitalize on user backlash to drive growth. Sandbar needs to prove that its ring shape offers true convenience and value that pendants, pins, and wristbands cannot provide.
