Verdict
The Ring app is free with a Ring doorbell, but the AI features need Ring Pro at £15.99 a month or a £3-per-device add-on. T3 found Familiar Faces, launched in the UK in April 2026, quick and useful, while individual reviewers report cats labelled as racoons and a husband described as armed. Mozilla calls Ring one of the most privacy-hostile products it has reviewed, and face recognition scans visitors who never agreed to it.
Privacy note. Mozilla: 'one of the most privacy-hostile products'; FTC 2023 order over staff access and training on videos without consent; face recognition of non-consenting visitors
Best for
Ring owners who want to find a clip without scrolling
Skip if
Anyone uneasy about face recognition of visitors or cloud-only footage
Key facts
- Category
- Home, family & everyday life
- Made by
- Ring LLC (Amazon)
- Based in
- United States
- Launched
- 2014
- Works on
- iPhone, Android, hardware
- In the UK
- Yes
- Price from
- £15.99 a month
- Free plan
- Ring app with live view and motion alerts free with a Ring device; no recordings or AI features without a plan
Pricing
| Plan | Price | Billed |
|---|---|---|
| Ring Solo (monthly) | £4.99 | month |
| Ring Solo (annual) | £49.99 | year |
| Ring Multi (monthly) | £7.99 | month |
| Ring Multi (annual) | £79.99 | year |
| Ring Pro (monthly) | £15.99 | month |
| Ring Pro (annual) | £159.99 | year |
| Ring Guard Response (monthly) | £29.99 | month |
| Ring Guard Response (annual) | £299.99 | year |
| Pro Intelligence add-on (per device) | £3 | month |
| 24/7 Continuous Recording add-on (per camera) | £3 | month |
What it does
- records video from Ring doorbells and cameras for up to 180 days
- sends person, package and vehicle alerts
- describes what happens in video clips with Ring Pro
- records continuously around the clock on eligible cameras as an add-on
- calls out a response team when an alarm goes off with Ring Guard Response
Ratings
What people say
in user reviews the AI descriptions draw more jokes than praise, with pets labelled as racoons, chickens and bears and a husband described as an armed intruder, and UK users resent the automatic trial. Video search and fewer duplicate alerts get the warmest words. Store ratings are high but cover the whole camera app, not the AI. Trustpilot shows 1.3 from 3,575 reviews of the company as a whole.
“i very much like it. i cant see my driveway, so i like to know when the alert is a delivery as opposed to a squirrel”
Individual user review, 26 March 2026 · source
“Really the only useful feature is video search which lets you search all of your camera footage for objects, actions etc.”
Individual user review, 20 March 2026 · source
“Some of the descriptions the AI come up with are laughably bad, especially in the UK. My poor cats were frequently mislabeled as racoons!”
Individual user review, 20 March 2026 · source
“This is literally the worst thing you want to see in a notification, yet it was my husband walking across our driveway with his iPhone.”
Individual user review, 23 August 2026 · source
“The facial recognition feature freaked me out. I turned E2EE on just so it couldn’t access the footage.”
Individual user review, 29 March 2026 · source
Press reviews
- T3 2026-05-26
UK test of Familiar Faces: 'one of the best smart security features I've used', fast, though it sometimes creates duplicate profiles.
- TechRadar 2026-06-01
Familiar Faces is 'kind of a game-changer' but locked to the Pro tier, failed to re-identify the postman and 'felt like I was spying on people'.
- Mozilla Foundation (Privacy Not Included) 2026-03-31
'one of the most privacy-hostile products we've reviewed': cloud-only, no default end-to-end encryption, biometric Familiar Faces stored in the cloud.
- The Guardian 2026-06-29
Video Doorbell Pro 3 review: big 4K camera upgrade with 'new interesting AI features'.
Privacy
- Trains on your data
- Turning on AI features gives Ring permission to process footage in its cloud (Mozilla Foundation); Ring reports of wrong AI notifications are used to refine its models (Ring users). Familiar Faces face data is stored encrypted in the cloud
- Opt-out
- AI features and Familiar Faces are off without a Pro plan or trial and Familiar Faces is off by default; end-to-end encryption can be enabled but disables person detection, face recognition and video search
- Retention
- Video kept 1 to 180 days depending on settings; unnamed faces deleted after 30 days; face profiles deleted 180 days after a subscription ends; deleted footage may stay on servers up to 72 hours (Mozilla)
- Incidents
- FTC order 31 May 2023, $5.8M refunds, for employees and contractors accessing customer videos and using them to train algorithms without consent; Search Party backlash in the US after the Feb 2026 Super Bowl ad (The Verge); Familiar Faces unavailable in Illinois, Texas and Portland over biometric laws
- Age limit
- Ring accounts are for adults; Familiar Faces guidance says explicit consent from children or vulnerable people is subject to special conditions
Official videos
FAQ
Do Ring's AI features work in the UK?
Yes. Video Descriptions, Video Search and Familiar Faces are live for UK customers on Ring Pro or the Pro Intelligence add-on. Familiar Faces arrived in April 2026.
How much does Ring AI cost?
Ring Pro is £15.99 a month or £159.99 a year. Alternatively the Pro Intelligence add-on costs £3 a month per device on top of Ring Solo or Ring Multi.
Is Ring Familiar Faces legal in the UK?
Ring offers it in the UK but tells users to get explicit consent from visitors where the law requires it. Face data is biometric data under UK data protection law, and the feature is blocked in some US states for that reason.
How do I stop the Ring AI trial?
individual reviewers say the 30-day trial cannot be switched off in the app, and Mozilla says the subscription has to be cancelled on Ring.com. Turning on end-to-end encryption also disables the AI features.
Scores are based on published evidence, not lab tests. How we score.
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