[Feature Request] Add "button-only" mode for ring (no audio recording) and open-source firmware

[BitSmith365]

Summary

Index 01's battery is only 15hrs continuous recording. Can we add support to use it as just a button so that it doesn't burn the life of its precious single use battery on recording? This is especially needed during long idea capture sessions.

Motivation

For idea capture sessions or extended usage, I'd like to use my Index 01 ring solely as a low-power button that triggers recording on a paired phone or Bluetooth headset—without the ring itself recording and transferring audio. This would greatly extend the ring's single-use battery life, making it more suitable for heavy note-takers or users who prefer to leverage higher-quality microphones (e.g., headsets, Pebble watch, or phone mic).

Currently, all button presses on the ring result in local recording and BLE transfer, which depletes the battery even when the phone (with a better microphone and replaceable battery) is available.

Feature Request

• Firmware Addition:

  • Add a "button-only" or "trigger mode" to the Index 01 ring firmware, where the ring only advertises/button-pushes but does not record or transfer audio; it simply signals a press/release to the app.
  • The app should recognize this advertisement and immediately start recording on the phone/headset (behavior appears already supported app-side).
  • Ideally, allow the user to select this mode from the app.

• Open Sourcing Firmware:

  • Please consider open-sourcing the ring's application firmware, or at least publishing the relevant source files that enable this (and other) community modifications. The openness of the platform is a key draw, and user-developed firmware variants would benefit everyone.

Additional Context

• The SiFli SDK and BLE libraries are already open source, so most of the hardware and lower-level pieces needed are public.
• The ring already supports OTA firmware updates, so distribution of new/experimental firmware is feasible.
• Feature request is motivated by contexts like taking long idea notes, journalism, interviews, or accessibility use cases where absolute minimum wearable power consumption and best possible mic quality are desired.

Thanks for your work and for considering more power-user and developer-oriented features!

[ericmigi]

Ring fw is not mine to open source (I licensed it from a friend).

The ring already sends single button presses to phone, this is already exposed in the mobile app as single/double presses to control music on Android). If you look at those code paths, you'll see how you could do whatever you'd like on the mobile app with a single button press. Happy to accept a PR if you do something cool with that, or you could run a local-compiled version of the mobile app that does whatever you want with the button input. Does that sound sufficient?