Ring (opens in a new tab), the popular smart home video doorbell camera company, is adding features, raising service fees and making some customers very angry.
Ring is expanding its Protect Basic plan (opens in a new tab), allowing users to back up video for up to 180 days, introducing discounts for other security devices, and expanding bulk video downloads to 50 a the time These three additions will launch in July 2022, with four more features in the works.
These additional features include package alerts, smart car and pet alerts, sound detection (like a Ring camera detecting glass breaking), and custom event alerts. With Custom Alerts, you can create a unique notification for your household. For example, if you live in a house where the door is often left open, you can create a custom alert (opens in a new tab) to notify you when this happens.
Ring does not have a release date for these features other than "soon".
Overall, this is a potentially useful collection of updates for Ring customers, but there's a catch. Ring is raising its prices and that has drawn the ire of some customers.
Starting July 1, Ring will increase the price of its base plan by €3 to €3,99. This means that subscribers will pay €39.99 for a full year. The Plus and Pro plans will not change and will not see price increases or new features added. Folks on the Ring subreddit noted that the changes are coming to the UK as well. A Ring representative was able to confirm that Basic plan subscribers will now pay €3,49 per month (€34,99 per year).
Some social media followers are now complaining that they no longer get good enough service for the price. The Basic plan only covers one doorbell or camera, while the Plus plan (the next cheapest plan) covers all the devices in your home for €10. Also, subscribers will pay for features that won't be released for some time.
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People on social media were understandably angry at Ring for the subscription service's unexpected price increase. On Twitter (opens in a new tab), a customer complained about a 33% price increase for features they don't even want.
Going back to the subreddit (opens in a new tab), one person cynically points out that this is all a ploy to get more people off the basic plan and onto the more expensive plans. There's a free plan that still covers Ring cameras, but the main draw of the paid plan is being able to record and save video.
Now some customers are looking for alternatives. Many said they would leave Ring and seek a better deal. If you're one of those people, TechRadar has a list of the best video doorbells (opens in a new tab) with several non-Ring suggestions.