Ring camera alerts are about to get a lot smarter
Ring cameras are getting an AI upgrade that can tell you what's happening at your front door, as well as show you. Video Descriptions is a new feature that generates text descriptions of the motion activity on Ring doorbells and cameras.
Now, instead of an alert that says 'Front door: person detected,' you'll get something like 'person with broom and mop is leaving.' Or instead of 'Living room: motion detected,' you might get 'a dog is tearing up paper towels on the rug.' You can see how this would be helpful; you probably don't need to do anything about the first one, but the second one demands some action.
These new descriptive alerts will appear in the camera notification on your phone, so you can see at a glance if you need to bother clicking through and waiting for the video to load.
Video Descriptions is rolling out today, June 25th, in beta to Ring Home Premium subscribers in the US and Canada (English only), and will work on all currently available Ring doorbells and cameras, according to Ring.
In a blog post, Ring founder and recent new hire at the Amazon-owned company, Jamie Siminoff, said the feature is designed to deliver only the most relevant information. So, rather than a detailed description of the scene, the notification will focus on 'describing the main subject that caused a motion alert and what action they are taking,' he said.
Ring is working on combining multiple motion alerts into one and developing custom anomaly alerts.
Video Descriptions joins Smart Video Search on Ring cameras, which launched late last year and lets you query your cameras about recent events via the app, such as 'did the kids leave their bikes in the driveway?' Both AI-powered tools are available with the Ring Home Premium subscription ($19.99 a month), which also includes Ring's 24/7 recording option.
Siminoff says Ring plans to use Video Descriptions to power more proactive home security features, including combining multiple motion alerts into one alert and, more ambitiously, to develop custom anomaly alerts.
This would 'generate alerts only when something happens on your property that is an anomaly,' he said, explaining that Ring will be able to learn the routines of your home and only deliver notifications when something out of the ordinary happens. Meaning you might not get an alert for the person with a broom and mop leaving the house, but you will be notified that the dog is tearing up the living room.
Ring isn't the only company using AI to improve camera notifications. Arlo recently launched AI-powered descriptions, which it calls Event Captions. Wyze also offers them, under the moniker Descriptive Alerts, and recently launched a No Big Deal filter that filters out all alerts other than those it deems high-priority. Google announced an AI descriptions feature powered by Gemini for its Google Nest cameras last year, but it's only available in a public preview program and is still in a limited rollout. As with Ring, all the companies require you to sign up for a subscription for these features.
One big difference from Ring's offering is that both Google and Arlo offer facial recognition, which Ring doesn't. This should make descriptive alerts more useful. Getting a notification that 'Johnny is opening a car door in the driveway' is more helpful than 'A person is opening a car door in the driveway.'
The extra context text descriptions provide could be used by a gen-AI service like Alexa Plus to enable other actions in your home
Cameras see a lot of things you don't need to know about, and notification fatigue is a real thing when it comes to alerts. Anything that can streamline and focus them is a good thing. AI-powered smart alerts for people, pets, packages, and vehicles were the first step, and now, more descriptive alerts with more information could make cameras more useful in the smart home. For example, the extra context text descriptions provide could be used by a gen-AI service like Alexa Plus to enable other actions in your home.
Of course, more information can lead to more privacy concerns. While detailed text descriptions of activity make it easier for people to keep an eye on their property, they also make it easier to keep track of people in a home, which could be abused by unscrupulous users.
Another concern is accuracy. Both of the descriptions themselves and of any custom filters Ring might offer in the future. If I don't get the alert for the person with a mop leaving the house because the AI determined it wasn't an anomaly, but actually it was a particularly fastidious burglar doing away with a fancy $700 Dyson mop, I'm going to be very annoyed.
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USA Today
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How the massive cost of Bezos-Sánchez wedding compares to average US nuptials
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As the world waits for the upcoming extravagant wedding in Venice of Amazon founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos and his fiancee, Lauren Sánchez, brides and grooms in the U.S. are figuring out ways to stretch their more modest wedding budgets amid tariff increases. The Bezos-Sánchez wedding has been estimated to cost between $23 million to $34 million, as previously reported by USA TODAY and according to Venice regional governor Luca Zaia. That's a far cry from the average U.S. wedding in 2024, which cost $33,000, down slightly from $35,000 for 2023, according to The Knot's Real Weddings 2025 Study. Sánchez also shared with Vogue that her pink engagement ring was worth $2.5 million. On average, an engagement ring in the U.S. cost $5,200 in 2024, according to The Knot's study. That's down from $5,500 in 2023, $5,800 in 2022 and $6,000 in 2021. As a florist, Allison Krivachek is doing her best to navigate tariff increases to imported flowers to keep costs for her brides and grooms down. As a bride-to-be, Krivachek is also trying to make choices to keep her July wedding budget from increasing. Brides, grooms and wedding vendors are in similar boats as prices for imported goods and tariffs add costs to an already expensive life event. Many aspects of the wedding day will be affected by tariffs, including alcohol, flowers, the wedding dress and goods such as centerpiece decorations if they are imported, according to The Knot, a wedding website. As much as 80% of cut flowers are imported from other countries and 90% of wedding gowns sold in the U.S. are imported, according to The Knot, which could hike wedding costs. In a survey of 741 engaged brides and grooms users of The Knot, shared exclusively with USA TODAY, 73% of couples said keeping costs within their budget were the top concern, and 46% said economic factors such as inflation were a major concern. Thirty-four percent were concerned about the rising costs of goods that could affect weddings though price changes specifically because of tariffs were less of a concern with 15% of couples mentioning it. More than half of engaged couples (58%) said they hadn't seen tariffs affect their weddings yet, but 36% said they were making changes to their plans because of economic stress. Of those couples, 22% were adjusting their budgets while 68% said they were increasing their budgets. Rather than cutting back, many couples responded to the concerns of looming tariffs by taking the proactive steps like booking early and consulting pros. About 1 in 3 couples are purchasing items earlier to lock in pricing. Many are opting for U.S.-made or local products to offset import costs. 28% of couples are slightly reducing guest count by an average 25 people, or 12 couples, not wanting to sacrifice the guest experience (average 112 guests). 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She has also reduced the number of imported cut flowers she is getting to stay within her budget. She has not seen any tariff-related increases on other parts of her wedding budget, she said. Uncomfortable Conversations: Being a bridesmaid is expensive. Can or should you say no? A lot of the components to design and make a gown come from various countries, so between the materials and the execution of the product being made and transported, tariffs affect the price, said Nayri Kalayjian, owner of Lovella Bridal in Los Angeles. "Price increases are everywhere, so the wedding industry is no different, no matter where the gown is being manufactured," she said. Some designers are doing a straight price increase while others have added a percentage for the tariffs, she said. Kalayjian said she has seen some tariff surcharges anywhere from 10% to 35%. But typically bridal boutiques see price increases multiple times a year, regardless of tariffs, Kalayjian said. 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