Apple is working on a wearable smart ring with an expandable design that could offer similar uses to the Apple Watch, except that it would be worn on the finger rather than the wrist.

AppleInsider discovered a patent for an "expandable ring device" granted to Apple by the USPTO, suggesting that when Apple releases a smart ring, its size will not be fixed.

The expandable design allows the ring to stretch accordion-style, from a jewelry-like shape to a finger tube. Larger settings would also make room for things like sensors and foldable displays. Whatever forces are unleashed, there is no denying that this design is bizarre.

In other words, Apple has a different wearable approach in mind than what we've seen from the Amazon Echo Loop.

While the Echo Loop is not yet a full consumer product and can only be accessed by invitation from Amazon itself, it shows a push toward wearable experimentation, and it makes sense for Apple to pass its hat into this ring. (In Apple fashion, however, the patent images we are seeing suggest something more advanced. The expandable ring appears to have the potential to serve as a controller for some sort of iOS device. For example, Apple's Smart Ring could serve as a replacement for the haptic glove that can communicate with a future iPhone 12.

Haptic sensors could be embedded within an expandable frame that could be converted into gestures to control external devices by bending and stretching the fingers. In addition, Apple proposes in the patent to include rotatable buttons and other physical input elements in the main ring enclosure.

Keep in mind that Apple is constantly patenting these kinds of ideas, but few of them actually make it into the hands of consumers. But we already have the Echo Loop and the tactile Tap Strap 2 Keyboard with gesture controls, and there's no denying that Apple's Smart Ring is the company's next big thing.

That said, it would be a stretch to call this a replacement for the Apple Watch 6.