Would an AI-powered search feature encourage you to upgrade your Ring subscription plan?

Regular readers know I'm pretty skeptical of AI. More precisely, I'm skecptical of the promises companies pushing AI make, and the fact that more often than not, the technology does not live up to the hype.

I'm curious about how Ring's new AI-powered Smart Video Search feature will perform. Powered by LLM models, the new feature lets Ring customers use natural language to search for moments within any of their recorded videos.

So if you want to find a video of your kid riding a bike, or you want to win an argument with your teenager about what time they came home at night, you can easily search recordings from your app to get a result.

From the demos I saw at a launch event yesterday, it was quick to respond and pretty accurate as well, pulling up items like "child on a bike with a yellow helmet" and "grey ute".

Smart Video Search means that you no longer need to scroll through a chronological library of every video every recorded to find particular moments in time.

“You’re likely already familiar with our package, person, and motion alerts which help you manage what’s happening at your front door or find out when a package arrived, but historically, finding a specific moment can take more time than you might have.”

“With Smart Video Search, you can now quickly find something you’re looking for – and even some surprising moments – giving you a better sense of what’s happening around your home.”

– Mark Fletcher, Managing Director - APAC, Ring

Basically, each video is analysed as it's saved using Ring's custom AI to allow for near-instant surfacing of results when the feature is used. It can identify animals, locations, packages, people, time, vehicles, weather, and even activities, like jumping, running or playing.

It's also been customised to recognise the Aussie lexicon, so it will pick up on animals like possums or terms like "utes".

Pricing and availability

Here's where the idea kind of falls over – Smart Video Search is available from today in Beta for customers on the Ring Home Premium plan. That's a $29.95/month or $299.95/year subscription.

It's double the cost of the Standard plan and six times the price of the Basic plan.

And other than the new Smart Video Search, the only other real benefit is the inclusion of 24/7 recording, as you can see from the table below:

The question becomes, is this searchability a feature that would entice you to spend $30/month – more than the cost of the premium Netflix subscription?

For me it's a hard no – I really like Ring's cameras, but I hate having to pay another subscription in the first place. Increasing that cost for a feature I will only rarely use seems like a bit of a waste of money.

Ring is updating some of its security cameras to 2K resolution

If you’ve got a Floodlight Cam Wired Pro or a Spotlight Cam Pro, get ready for a free update in video quality to 2K.

BTTR ReviewsNick Broughall