I recently updated my Ring video camera to the Ring Wired Doorbell Elite (2).n.d. Gen) and have had a Pro subscription for a while. One of the latest upgrades with a compatible camera and Pro subscription provides basic motion alerts as well as descriptive alerts. Powered by Gen AI, introduced a year ago, these updates provide more insight into what’s happening on your doorstep. So you can see not only that motion has been detected, but also what exactly is happening. This is often useful, especially with the lock screen preview feature. But it’s certainly surprising me. I found it jarring at first, but over the past few weeks I’ve gotten used to this feature, but I’m still not sure how I feel about it.
Alerts are (most of the time) eerily accurate
Describes the event in detail
The most common explanations I receive are “a person is walking on the sidewalk” or “a person is walking on the sidewalk with a dog.” But as more things happened and the explanations became, well, more descriptive, I found myself feeling a little uneasy. It said several times that a person was walking down the sidewalk with a golden retriever. (Apparently, my neighbor has this type of dog). Another time, he announced that someone was walking onto the porch carrying a brown box. He was a delivery person. As my son and I were about to leave in the morning, the alarm went off: “Two people walking on the porch.”
It’s harmless, but I can’t help but feel like someone, or something, is watching me more than I would with a basic “motion detection” alert. Things don’t always go well. For example, every time I arrive home, it says a black car is pulling into my driveway, when in reality my car is dark blue. I think my hair is splitting. One time, it said someone was walking in the driveway, but when I checked, it was a family of three walking on the sidewalk. That incorrect explanation might have scared me if it was midnight.
I love the preview on the lock screen
No need to open the app
My creepy feelings aside, these detailed alerts come in handy for this smart home gadget that I can’t imagine living without. If you’re working on your laptop or away from home and receive a notification, your phone’s lock screen will tell you that it’s just someone walking down the sidewalk with a stroller, or a dog or animal running around on the lawn, so you don’t have to worry. You can also tap and hold a notification to open a preview window to see what’s going on, which is very useful. Not only does it eliminate the need to unlock your phone and open the app, but live footage often takes a few seconds to load. Yes, even with a very fast internet connection. It doesn’t sound like a big deal, but by the time the window opens to show you what’s going on, the person walking by or the delivery driver is already gone and you have to scroll back in time.
With these previews, if you see someone coming up the stairs, you can quickly check the video footage to see if it’s a delivery person or a lawyer. I was a little surprised because it saves me so much time, but this feature and detailed instructions are actually helpful.
Reviews will be faster if there is an explanation.
Scrub events easily
This explanation is also useful for people like me who like to reflect on daily events. Typically, one of the first things I do in the morning is check for overnight disturbance alerts, especially since car break-ins are on the rise in many cities in my province in Canada. We want to make sure that nothing untoward happens overnight. You’ll see small text explaining each motion alert below the loading video to help you know what you can scroll through and what you should stop, load, and check again.
Sometimes the updates are cute, such as “A cat is walking down the path and entering the lawn,” or “A person is walking down the sidewalk with a lawnmower.” Wait, what? It turned out to be a man with a child in a rideable toy car. This feature is creepy, mistakes and all, but it adds even more value to an already expensive subscription.
Is this feature worth it?
Yes, but it’s still creepy
My app’s motion alerts almost always include updates like “A person is walking on the sidewalk,” “Two people are walking on the sidewalk,” or “A person is on the porch and coming down the stairs.” (That’s me). I’m still creeped out, especially since Ring’s privacy policy states that recordings can be stored for up to 180 days. Video description refers to detailed records that identify people’s comings and goings and street activities. This means that Ring, which is owned by Amazon, probably knows that my city has a lot of dog owners and parents with babies in strollers, and there are a lot of deliveries (maybe Amazon already knows that!) What’s the trade-off? I can instantly tell if someone is looking at my car in the driveway or walking toward my house.
Ring said in its initial announcement that this feature will be further developed. As you learn the routine, it gets smarter and only delivers notifications when you need them (you can also set geofenced boundaries and the types of notifications you want to get). That’s not the only clever feature. Ring added video search a few years ago. This allows you to type in keywords or phrases like “cat” or “delivery” and it will show you all clips related to those prompts. There’s also a Familiar Faces feature (currently in beta) that I haven’t set up yet, which allows you to record specific faces of family members, house cleaners, grandparents, babysitters, etc., making your descriptions more specific. Instead of just “people,” it might say “Christine is walking up the stairs” or “Patrick is walking on the lawn.” I’m still confused about the settings for this feature. Baby steps, I guess.
- video resolution
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retina 4k
- Wi-Fi connection
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Dual band (2.4GHz, 5GHz)
- battery
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Native Power over Ethernet (PoE)
- field of view
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140° vertically, 140° horizontally, head to toe
- measurement
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2.85 x 1.89 x 5.36 inches
- live view
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yes
A video doorbell like the Ring Wired Doorbell Elite gives you clear 4K video, 10x enhanced zoom, and low-light visibility to fully cover your front door, porch, driveway, sidewalk, or street. Get advanced features like video descriptions and familiar faces (currently in beta) with a Pro subscription. These are useful, but admittedly a little creepy.
