Ring Doorbells now have facial recognition features, but only in the US

Amazon’s Ring division has begun rolling out a new facial-recognition feature called Familiar Faces to video doorbell owners in the United States, allowing devices to identify known visitors and label them in alerts.

The feature, first announced in September, lets users build a catalogue of up to 50 recognised faces, including family members, neighbours, household staff and delivery drivers. Once a face is labelled in the Ring app, notifications can shift from general alerts like “Someone is at your door” to more specific ones such as “Mom at Front Door.”

How Familiar Faces works

The tool is off by default, and users must enable it manually in the app’s settings. Faces can be added or edited directly from Event History or a new Familiar Faces library, and labels appear in notifications, the timeline and previous clips once assigned.

Ring says the face data is encrypted, not shared externally, and that unnamed faces are automatically deleted after 30 days. Users can also use the labels to mute notifications for routine comings and goings, such as their own arrivals.

Amazon says the feature is intended to help reduce unwanted alerts and make it easier for people to understand who is at their door without checking live video.

While this feature is rolling out now to users in the States, it’s not available yet in other regions like the UK. The UK is also still missing Alexa Plus, Amazon’s latest voice assistant that has so far rolled out in the US and Canada.