Home security cameras are no longer content to watch in the background for burglars; they want to be video cameras for your family, and Ring just announced a Smart Video Search feature to track down special moments in your Ring video history.
Naturally, the feature is AI-powered and only available to those with a Ring subscription (particularly those on the most expensive Ring Home Premium tier, which costs $19.99 / £15.99 per month), because otherwise recorded clips won’t be are available. But if that includes you, it certainly seems like a useful addition to the security cameras – if you’re happy with the camera intruding into your home life.
Smart Video Search is apparently powered by Visual Language Modeling (VLM), which allows text queries to be quickly linked to images. If you tend to scroll through your footage a lot, the benefit may be saving time – and perhaps some helpful reminders about where you left your keys or if the cat might be hiding.
Ring’s sample usage shows that the feature is clearly aimed at those who use the best home security cameras as a wider family camera rather than as a burglar deterrent. It suggests you could use it to ‘find out who ate the last ice cream’ or to find out ‘why the bins are being knocked over’.
If this sounds a bit niche, Ring also suggests searches like “red bike in the driveway” to find the moment your child first learned to ride a bike. Again, the real benefit will be for those who are happy to sacrifice their privacy for searchable memories.
The Smart Video Search feature is now rolling out in public beta for “select customers” and works with all Ring video doorbells and cameras. A wider rollout will take place from November 5, when Ring says it’s launching a “refreshed subscription service” called Ring Home. That new service will bring features like Smart Video Search and 24/7 recording to Ring Home Premium subscribers, initially only in the US.
One step for Nest
While Google beat Ring to the punch in August by announcing AI-powered video search for its Nest home security cameras, Ring has become the first to roll out the feature — if only to select beta customers.
Google previously said it would look at a similar feature for Nest later this year, ahead of a full release in 2025, so the two rivals are on a roughly similar timeline. Still, the feature’s popularity may depend on how many people see value in a searchable family video history.
AI-powered search is being pushed as a powerful replacement for our faltering memories in everything from Google Photos (with its new ‘Ask Photos’ feature) to Apple Intelligence (such as its Memory Movies feature).
That puts these features in a controversial, sensitive spot, which could leave many weighing the potential benefits against the undisputed invasion of privacy. It’s clear that the tech giants see AI-powered searches in our personal photos and videos as a cash cow for subscriptions, but we’ll find out just how popular they are when Ring’s Smart Video Search and Google’s Nest equivalent are properly rolled out later this year . .