Another company will charge its customers more money to use existing features as the subscription-based smart home becomes the norm. Amazon-owned Ring is adding several free features to its paid subscription program starting March 29. As of that date, if you have a Ring video doorbell or Ring camera, you will no longer have access to Home and Away modes in the application without a paid subscription, starting at $3.99 per month ($39.99 per year). Modes are a simple way to tell all your cameras to stop detecting motion when you’re home and start when you leave.
Additionally, all new users of the Ring Alarm system starting March 29 will need to pay for a Ring Protect plan to arm and disarm the system from the app, use the Modes feature, receive notifications, and control it with your voice through Alexa. . Linking your Ring doorbell and cameras to your alarm system will also cost you.
Existing Ring Alarm customers will not lose access to any of these features. However, as one The Reddit user pointed out, there are no guarantees that Ring will continue to allow legacy users to have features they paid for. “Based on this type of behavior, I assume that at some point we frogs will be boiled. This is the disorientation stage,” he wrote.
Linking your Ring Doorbell and cameras to your alarm system will also cost you
This movement, buried in a update on the company’s support site, makes the once very inexpensive DIY security system one of the most expensive options in a competitive field. None of its main competitors, SimpliSafe and Abode, charge anything for the ability to self-monitor your alarm system (including arming or disarming the system from the app or receiving notifications).
SimpliSafe used to charge for access to its app, but introduced a free level that provides these basic features, probably due to pressure from competitors like Ring. Similarly, purple does not charge for self-monitoring or Alexa integration but charges for access to your own home automation system.
To gain access to the Ring app and Alexa to control your alarm system, new users will now need to sign up for the Ring Protect Basic Plan ($3.99 a month or $39.99 a year). I would only have to pay for it professional plan ($20 a month, $200 a year) if you want to add professional monitoring to your system, or any of the other features it offers. This used to be just $10 per month, but Ring raised all the prices for its plans last year.
Now you also have to pay for the basic plan to get the Modes feature on cameras, even for existing users. The plan adds free recording for a camera and people alerts.
While the camera bait and switch seems more egregious, it’s retroactive, while Ring Alarm’s change only applies to new users as of March 29, if you’re using Ring cameras and doorbells without a subscription plan. , then the Modes feature wasn’t particularly useful to you.
The modes turn your camera’s motion detection settings on or off based on whether you’re home or away, preventing you from getting multiple motion-triggered recordings of you in your home. If you don’t pay for recorded video, you won’t get it anyway. Camera users will continue to have access to live view, two-way talk, motion detection, and alerts.
These changes make Ring Alarm useless as a smart alarm system without a subscription.
However, the changes to Ring Alarm essentially make it useless as a smart alarm system without a subscription. You can only arm and disarm it with the Ring Alarm keypad, and you won’t receive app alerts or emails when your alarm goes off; only the siren on the base station will alert you. You can’t remotely disarm it, either, so if the alarm goes off while you’re away, your neighbors will have to suffer until you get home.
Subscriptions in the smart home have long been an inevitability, even as many consumers balk at it. It costs companies money to run clouds and provide support, something many may have realized too late (see Wyze, Arlo, etc.). The home security space is particularly vulnerable. Many startups have tried to acquire legacy systems by dramatically undercutting their prices, only to realize that now they need to make money somehow.
Updated, Friday March 3, 11:30 am: Clarified that you only need a Ring Protect Basic plan ($3.99 a month) to get access to the new paid features in Ring Alarm. Ring Protect Pro ($20/mo.) plan not required.
