3 BIG Bits Of Ring News In 3 Minutes!

Ring have announced three big bits of news at the start of March 2023: a new battery doorbell, further nerfing of Ring’s subscription-free tier, and Ring’s founder and CEO stepping down.

This video takes a bitesized view of all three of these developments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spr4JWHBGYs&ab_channel=SmartHomePoint

The individual sections of the video are at:

• 0:00 – Intro
• 0:13 – Ring Battery Doorbell Plus
• 1:05 – Ring Removes Free Features
• 1:58 – Ring’s CEO Quits
• 2:41 – Wrapping Up

For further reading, please check out the links below:

• Ring Battery Doorbell Plus announcement (Ring.com)
• Ring are removing even more features (Ring.com)
• Ring’s founder and CEO is quitting (Engadget)

I’m personally quite disappointed that Ring have removed the ‘home and away’ modes feature for subscription-free customers, especially because this is so fundamental to Ring Alarm customers.

Video Guide & Transcript

Hello, I’m Tristan and here’s 3 quick bits of news about Ring – covering Ring’s newest product, Ring screwing over their customers by changing their subscription plans – again – and Ring’s CEO and founder quitting… sort of.

News #1: The New ‘Ring Battery Doorbell Plus’

Okay, so firstly let’s cover the new Ring Battery Doorbell Plus. This carries on Ring’s confusing naming strategy – it’s a different product entirely to the Ring Battery Doorbell 3 Plus, the Ring Spotlight Cam Battery Plus and the Ring Floodlight Cam Plus. Ignoring the vague name, the Ring Battery Doorbell Plus is actually a pretty awesome product.

It’s based on the Ring Doorbell 3 Plus – it looks almost identical – but it effectively takes the camera from the Pro 2 – meaning that you get full head to toe footage (at 1536p resolution), allowing you to see everything from packages down on your doorstep up to people’s faces. The Battery Plus also has advanced motion detection and quick replies, which is great because these features are usually only seen on Ring’s hardwired doorbells. This new doorbell costs 180 dollars and it will ship in early April 2023.

News #2: Ring Removes Free Features

Secondly, Ring recently emailed customers to give “An Update to Ring In-App Features”. This innocent sounding message discussed “updated features” – so I innocently thought that Ring were being kind and giving their customers new features. Nope. Nada. They are removing a key feature – home and away modes – from the Ring app – unless you pay for their subscription plan. This is naturally bad for Ring doorbell and camera customers who are on Ring’s free tier.

But it’s much worse for Ring Alarm customers who were managing their alarm system themselves – they’re now forced to use the keypad for arming or disarming your alarm system, which… kind of sucks. The whole point of smart systems is that you expect to be able to do basic device management through the app on your phone. Taking away such a basic feature is rubbish. Ring are essentially becoming a subscription-only service nowadays, in my opinion.

News #3: Ring’s CEO Quits

Finally, Ring’s CEO and founder – Jamie Siminoff – has quit as CEO. Jamie started working on “Doorbot” in 2011, and after a Shark Tank appearance in 2013, Doorbot was rebranded to “Ring”. Ring has become a VERY successful – as we know – and Amazon purchased them in 2018. While Jamie is stepping down as CEO, he will remain at the company as their Chief Inventor.

When I first heard this news, I wondered if Jamie had got fed up with Ring’s confusing naming strategy or Ring constantly screwing their customers, but actually, a company founder leaving a few years after a big corporate buyout isn’t uncommon. The fact that Jamie is sticking around as an inventor is a good sign, in my opinion.

And that wraps up today’s quick video. The past week has brought some big news for Ring fans, so I wanted to quickly cover this. I hope you enjoyed this video. If you did, please click the thumbs up button. Please also subscribe to my channel, and click the bell icon which will notify you when I release new videos. Thank you!