Ring is finally bringing end-to-end encryption to its flagship battery-powered video doorbell units. As well as its other security cameras. This comes over a year after the feature was added for products that are plugged in and wired. Ring is also going to make it easier to save recorded videos when you sell or dispose of your Ring device.
Having end-to-end encryption enabled means that no one but the owner can access recorded footage. That excludes law enforcement, so if police ask Ring or Amazon for video, they are unable to provide it. Only the mobile device that is enrolled will be able to access it. Giving owners a bit more peace of mind.
Which Ring devices are getting end-to-end encryption?
All of Ring’s currently sold devices will get end-to-end encryption. That includes the Ring Video Doorbell 3 and 4, as well as the Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2 among many others. There is one exception here, which is the $59 Ring Video Doorbell Wired.
There are a couple of caveats with end-to-end encryption here though. With it turned on, users will lose the ability to preview videos on the Ring app’s event timeline view and in rich notifications. Shared users also won’t be able to see videos on their devices, and no user can share videos from the Ring app, nor view footage on Echo Show devices.
This will also disable Alexa Greetings and Quick Replies. Birds Eye View also won’t work. But disabling end-to-end encryption does re-enable all of these features.
Finally, Ring also introduced a new feature this week that makes it easier to move onto new Ring products. It’s called Deactivated Device Slate, which lets a user choose to save any video to their account without having to download them manually. So when you go to remove a camera or doorbell from your account, there is a new Remove Device option that appears, which lets the user keep or delete events/videos from the device.