​

At an event on Tuesday, Amazon unveiled a range of new AI-powered features for its latest Ring cameras and doorbells. 

The features will enable Ring users to recognize visitors’ faces and find lost pets by connecting with other Ring users in the same neighborhood. Amazon also launched an Alexa+ feature that functions as a smart doorbell assistant, providing details about visitors before users answer the door.

Ring is also introducing its first 4K product line along with “Retinal Vision,” a new imaging technology designed to provide clearer video. 

The most notable feature revealed at the event was “Familiar Faces,” which uses AI to identify friends and family. Users can enroll the faces of their loved ones into the device, enabling Ring to alert them when it recognizes a visitor. The AI will also alert the user when an unfamiliar person is detected, helping them to make an informed decisions quickly. 

The company explained in today’s blog post that the new feature is meant to empower “customers to reduce notifications triggered by familiar people’s routine activities” and eliminate guesswork for people detection.  

“Equally important is that if someone you don’t recognize is lingering, you’ll know immediately [they’re] unfamiliar,” Ring founder Jamie Siminoff told press at the event. 

Ring has faced criticism for its close ties with law enforcement and its history of poor data management. Last year, following numerous complaints, the company announced that it would no longer accommodate police requests for footage from Ring users without a warrant. 

The Familiar Faces feature can be integrated into the broader Alexa+ Greetings system, which will enable specific greetings when the camera recognizes a specific face. This feature transforms the voice assistant into a smart doorbell attendant, enabling it to interact with visitors, manage deliveries, and identify the purpose of visits to keep users informed.

Another AI feature, Search Party, helps find lost pets by networking Ring cameras. When a user registers a lost pet, neighboring Ring users will receive a description of the pets and can report sightings. The system uses AI to deliver possible matches, although sightings have to be voluntarily reported. The company states that users are in control of their privacy and can choose to ignore the alert if they don’t want to share information with a neighbor. 

Both Familiar Faces and Alexa+ Greeting will roll out to customers starting in December. Search Party for dogs will launch in November, with support for cats and other pets planned for release in the future.

The features will come preloaded onto Ring’s new Retinal 2K and Retinal 4K devices, the company’s new products that use “Retinal Vision,” imaging technology that improves the imaging process with advanced AI. The Retinal Tuning function continuously checks the camera’s video quality and optimizes the settings to deliver the best possible picture quality to users.

Ring Retinal 2K is available on two new products: Indoor Cam Plus ($59.99) and Wired Doorbell Plus ($179.99). The 4K line includes the Ring Wired Doorbell Pro ($249.99), Outdoor Cam Pro ($199.99), Spotlight Cam Pro ($249.99), Floodlight Cam Pro ($279.99), and Wired Doorbell Elite ($499.99). 

The devices are available for pre-order today. 

In addition to the Ring announcements, Amazon also debuted a 2K Blink lineup of cameras and the Blink Arc, a $99.99 security camera that combines two Blink Mini 2K+ cameras into a single device, providing a 180-degree panoramic view of the surrounding area.