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Try to think of a wearable device. Chances are that you thought of a wrist-worn gadget like a smartwatch or fitness band. The wrist has, for a considerable amount of time, been the centre of health tracking. However, this body part might soon not be the only focus for monitoring one’s health and fitness. In fact, sales for traditional wrist-worn fitness trackers have declined by 6% between 2024 and 2025. 

While interest and growing sales in smart rings could indicate a shift from wrist to finger tracking, another body part points to a more promising and versatile future for health tracking: the ear. This is the upcoming age of earables.

What are earables and what can they do?

With the inevitable neologisms that accompany new technologies, one can easily get mixed up with the terms, so let’s get them right! In the field of health tracking, ‘wearable’ is the general term for a device that is worn, whether as a clip-on or strap. A wearable device that is worn in the ear is called an ‘earable’. Within the group of earable technologies are ‘hearables’, which are ear-worn wearables focused on audio, such as hearing aids.

Now, what makes the ear attractive for health tracking is its anatomy. Being close to the brain, major blood vessels, and nerves, its location is prime for physiological measurements. These include brainwaves, eye movements, cardiovascular signals, respiratory metrics, step counts, and temperature, among others. 

Earables can not only monitor these metrics more accurately than wrist-worn devices, but they are also capable of sensory stimulation via acoustic, electrical, and vibrotactile inputs, thanks to their proximity to a richly innervated and vascularized area.

Health and fitness uses of earables

The bio-sensing and bio-stimulating potentials of earables are being actively investigated in research and practical scenarios. The idea is that the ubiquity of ear-worn devices, such as earpods, will make them easily adopted as the next wave of health and fitness trackers.

Adapting Apple’s AirPods as clinical-grade hearing aids has been among the first wave of earables. Sennheiser iterated on this form factor to double its Momentum Sport earbuds as a fitness tracker with heart rate and temperature monitoring. In 2025, Samsung shared that it is working on the Ear-EEG, a device worn around the ear that unobstrusively monitors brainwaves. Its accuracy is comparable to traditional scalp-based EEG systems, and the company is investigating its use for entertainment and mental health management.

It is not only Tech Giants that are investing in earables, but startups are taking a keen interest in this emerging sector. One example is EarSwitch’s EarMetrics, a sensor that can be integrated into existing hearing aids to monitor several biosignals. 

Another one comes from MindMics, which is leveraging physiological vibrations to provide cardiovascular health insights. This approach can bypass the limitations of light-based technology (commonly used in wrist-worn wearables), where biosignals are dependent on individual features such as skin thickness and skin tone.

In terms of bio-stimulation, companies are investigating vagus nerve stimulation via earables for non-invasive treatment of conditions such as epilepsy and depression. The Neurosym smart earclip is marketed as a “neuromodulation device” that allows users to tailor their vagus nerve stimulation. The ZenBud uses ultrasound to stimulate the nerve to reduce feelings of stress and anxiety.

There are other earables targeting different use cases, such as EarSwitch’s EarControl that allows users to control devices via small movements and STAT Health’s in-ear device that can predict if a person is about to faint. With the possibilities of earables, we are likely to witness a surge of these devices for various use cases in the coming years.

Practical challenges for an earable future

The future of in-ear health monitoring sounds promising; however, as recent research highlights, this is contingent on certain usability factors. Simple activities such as talking or moving can induce artefacts that will impact the quality of biosignals detected and the reliability of readings. This might be addressed with supportive algorithms, but these come with their own concerns of biased training dataset that might impact the performance of earables based on, for example, age and skin tone. Furthermore, earables will require validation to ensure that they can be used as reliable tools in healthcare settings. 

Even if these obstacles are overcome, long-term adoption of earables will depend on factors such as comfort, ease of use and social intrusiveness. If people don’t find such devices comfortable or convenient to use, their health tracking accuracy won’t matter much.

While earables are still nascent as a category of health and fitness trackers, they offer a decent base to build new digital health tools that can further empower people.

Written by Dr. Bertalan Meskó & Dr. Pranavsingh Dhunnoo

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