Does the Ring of Mind Shielding need to be attuned to hear a soul inside?

Question

I have a character that started with the Ring of Mind Shielding because his dead brother is in it. My problem is that if he finds 3 other magic items he would like to attune to, can he un-attune from the ring and still hear his brother?

The ring's text says

As long as your soul is in the ring, you can telepathically communicate with any creature wearing it. A wearer can't prevent this telepathic communication.

Obviously, the other parts of the item's abilities do require attunement, but does that part too? It would make sense to me that the ring occupant can still communicate whether the ring is attuned or not. But that doesn't mean it's meant to work that way.

Answer 1

It works

Without becoming attuned to an item that requires attunement, a creature gains only its nonmagical benefits, unless its description states otherwise. For example, a magic shield that requires attunement provides the benefits of a normal shield to a creature not attuned to it, but none of its magical properties.

The ring won't provide any of the magical properties to the wearer, but the soul inside of the ring does not have any of the above restrictions. Without attunement, then, the ring acts as a mundane ring for the wearer and "magically" for the soul inside.

As such, the soul inside can communicate with the wearer regardless of their attunement to the ring.