Ring Doorbells are getting new features (Image: Ring)
If you keep an eye on the comings and goings at your home with a Ring Doorbell mounted to your door frame then you’re about to get a big upgrade from thanks to several new features the firm is adding to your Ring subscription.
Though you can use Ring doorbells for free after purchase, Amazon locks most useful features behind a monthly or annual subscription. Until today those price plans were called Ring Protect, but now they will be known as Ring Home, with three different options available depending on your needs.
The three new tiers are called Ring Home Basic, Ring Home Standard and Ring Home Premium and cost £4.99, £7.99 and £15.99 per month respectively. These replace the old Ring Protect Basic and Ring Protect Plus plans that topped out at £8 per month, so to get all the latest features you’ll have to double your monthly payment to £15.99.
Without a subscription, your Ring Doorbell will offer you motion-activated notifications to your phone, a live view option for a live video feed, and two-walk talk so you can speak to someone at the door. Most other smart perks are paid-for only, including several new features that Amazon has added today.
New are video preview alerts that show a video clip within a notification rather than having to open the app, which are included in all three new plans. An extended live view to let you watch up to 30 minutes at a time comes with the Standard and Premium plans, as do doorbell calls now appearing like a phone call on your smartphone. 24/7 recording for eligible wired cameras and continuous live view with recording enabled is only for the Premium plan.
Other advantages to subscribing to Ring means you can store and download videos as well as share them, receive specific package or person alerts depending on what the doorbell’s camera thinks it’s seeing and different home and away modes.
This can help if you have a camera inside the house you don’t want to be alerting you to movement when you’re in, but want the security measure when you’re out the house.