After rolling it out Stateside at the end of last year, Ring’s AI-powered Smart Video Search is finally making its way to the UK.
Smart Video Search, as the name suggests, lets you find specific moments in your Event History without endless scrolling.
Instead of scrubbing through hours of footage to see when a package arrived or figure out who left the car door open, you can now type simple search terms into the Ring app and get straight to the action.
Smart Video Search is powered by Ring IQ, the Amazon-owned brand’s umbrella term for its AI and machine learning efforts, which uses Visual Language Modelling (VLM) to match text-based queries with relevant video clips.
That means you can search for something like “cat in the driveway” or “kids in the kitchen” and instantly be presented with clips that match what you’re looking for.
Ring tells us that the tech recognizes a wide range of search terms, including animals, people, vehicles, weather, packages, time-related events, and even activities like jumping or running.
As with any AI-powered feature, especially one owned by Big Tech, there are bound to be concerns about privacy and security.
Ring says it has built “sophisticated input moderation” into the system to prevent searching for inappropriate or harmful content, though exactly how that works in practice remains to be seen.
The company also touts its commitment to “responsible AI,” though that’s always a moving target when it comes to home security and surveillance tech.
Smart Video Search is rolling out in public beta now for UK customers with a Ring Home Premium subscription, which costs £15.99 per month or £159.99 per year.
It works with all Ring video doorbells and cameras, so if you’re already in the Ring ecosystem and paying for the premium plan, you should see the feature appear in your app soon.
