Amazon’s New Alexa+ Feature Adds Conversational AI to Ring Doorbells

Amazon is adding a new feature to Alexa+ that brings conversational AI to Ring doorbells, letting users manage deliveries, decline sales calls, and have family or friends leave a message when they are not around.

Called Greetings, the feature helps Ring determine who is visiting your house based on their apparel, actions, and what they are holding, and responds accordingly. For example, if the system detects a person in a delivery uniform dropping off a package, it will react according to your instructions.

The feature adds settings that let you specify where delivery people can leave packages and direct them to water or snacks you may have left out. If a delivery person requires a signature, Alexa can ask when they might return and relay that message to the user.

It can also handle sales reps or service vendors. You can set an instruction such as "If someone comes to the door trying to sell something, politely let them know we're not interested."

If you're busy, Alexa can greet friends or family when they visit and ask them to leave a message for you.

It goes without saying that the tech presents the risk of misidentifying people and responding inappropriately — if, for example, a friend works in logistics and comes to see you after work in their delivery uniform, Ring may, via Alexa, ask them to leave a package somewhere instead of letting them leave a message.

The new feature follows Ring's controversial "Familiar Faces" facial recognition feature, which lets you create a catalogue of up to 50 people who visit you regularly. Only appear and retimeline; these people will appear and make notifications. Notifications will be sent when they visit.

Amazon says Greetings uses Ring's video descriptions to determine the main subject in front of the camera and generate responses,but it doesn'tt identify the person

The feature is compatible with the Ring Wired Doorbell Pro (3rd Gen) and Ring Wired Doorbell Plus (2nd Gen) and is available to Ring Premium Plan users who have enabled video descriptions. It is rolling out to Alexa+ Early access customers in the U.S. and Canada.