Amazon is transforming its subscription services for Ring video doorbells and cameras with the introduction of Ring Home Premium. This innovative service will feature 24/7 recording and AI-driven video search capabilities, launching on November 5 in the U.S. for an introductory price of $19.99 per month. Additional tiers, Ring Home Standard and Ring Home Basic, will offer a variety of functionalities but will not include the continuous recording or enhanced search features.
Under the direction of its new CEO Liz Hamren, a former Microsoft executive, Ring is experiencing significant growth—as evidenced by its status as the second-largest seller of security systems in the U.S., according to research firm Parks Associates. Hamren noted to Bloomberg in May that Ring recently turned profitable, six years after Amazon acquired the company for $1 billion.
New Subscription Plans for Ring
The existing Ring Protect Basic plan will transition to Ring Home Basic for $4.99 per month. Ring Protect Plus will be rebranded as Ring Home Standard at $9.99 per month. Ring Protect Pro customers will have the option to choose between Ring Home Standard—offering professional alarm monitoring for $19.99 per month—or Ring Home Premium.
Subscribers to the revamped Ring Home plans will receive person and package alerts, video preview notifications (short GIF previews of camera activity), and access to 180 days of recorded video history. Those on Ring Home Standard can enjoy live video streams for up to 30 minutes via an “extended live view.” Moreover, both Ring Home Standard and Ring Home Premium users will benefit from “doorbell calls,” which display as phone calls when a visitor presses the doorbell.
While these enhancements are promising, they come with trade-offs for some current Ring users. Starting November 5, subscribers to Ring Protect Pro will lose local video storage, internet backup, and access to Amazon’s Eero Secure suite. Additionally, without a Ring Alarm or Ring Alarm Pro device, they will forfeit the SOS emergency response feature within professional monitoring.
Many features, including Amazon's household robot Astro’s monitoring capabilities, will now be exclusive to Ring Home Premium. For new users with a Ring Alarm or Ring Alarm Pro, Amazon will charge $10 monthly for alarm professional monitoring starting November 5; however, this service is part of the Ring Home Premium package, which also includes SOS emergency response. Current Ring Protect Pro users subscribed to the Virtual Security Guard plan—Amazon’s $99-per-month corporate security offering—will continue to receive this service at no additional cost.
Owners of Ring Alarm and Alarm Pro devices who subscribed to Ring Protect Plus before 2021 will automatically transition to Ring Home Standard with alarm professional monitoring on March 1, 2025. This change effectively doubles the subscription fee for those previously paying $10 monthly but allows customers to cancel the add-on before the transition.
To ease the impact, Amazon is granting existing Ring Protect Pro customers a one-year trial of Ring Home Premium that includes alarm professional monitoring. After this trial, subscribers will need to pay the full $29.99 monthly fee to maintain this service.
Smart Video Search Powered by AI
A standout feature of Ring Home Premium is Smart Video Search, designed to help users readily locate specific moments within recorded video footage. This capability, set to begin in public beta on Wednesday for selected Ring customers, enables users to type key queries into the Ring app to find significant incidents.
As explained by Eric Kuhn, Amazon’s GM of Ring Experiences, you might input a search like “raccoon in the backyard last night” to uncover the cause behind any overturned trash cans. Alternatively, searching for “red bicycle in the driveway” might yield heartwarming videos of your child teaching a sibling to ride.
Initially, Smart Video Search will support queries focused on animals, locations, packages, people, timeframes, vehicles, weather conditions, and activities such as jumping and running. Amazon assures that it has implemented safeguards to restrict searches for potentially offensive content and is committed to refining this feature over time.
While Amazon has not disclosed specific measures to address potential biases in the AI models used for Smart Video Search, it is important to consider findings from a recent MIT study, which highlighted biases in commercially available models like OpenAI’s GPT-4. These models were found to more frequently recommend police intervention for videos captured in minority neighborhoods compared to footage from predominantly white areas.
Kuhn emphasized Ring's commitment to privacy and responsible AI development, stating, “We have a long history of listening to and learning from our customers.”
The roll-out of Smart Video Search comes at a critical time, coinciding with Google's anticipated AI updates for its Nest cameras and doorbells, which will introduce enhanced captions for camera footage and similar natural language search functionalities.
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