Ring makes several previously free features for a fee

Ring is paying for some previously free features. The policy change for the Amazon-owned smart video surveillance brand will go into effect on March 29. The main innovations are the following:

• A subscription will be required to activate Home Mode in the Ring app.
• A subscription will be required to activate Away Mode in the Ring app.
• All new Ring Alarm customers (valid for all Alarms purchased from March 29 onwards) will need a subscription to:

  • Set or deactivate an alarm remotely
  • Access event log older than 24 hours
  • Receive notifications from the Ring Alarm base station

For the moment the measure concerns only the United States and Canada – in short, North America; there is no significant information regarding other markets, but it is easy to imagine that sooner or later the same fate will also befall us. It’s hardly news that some features of a technology product, whatever the specific segment, are only unlocked to paying subscribers, but it could be argued that with this new policy, Ring devices are nearly impossible to use for free. If nothing else, it appears that the price of the subscription will not be affected/increased at the moment.

Looking more broadly at the smart home industry, it becomes legit wondering if this could be sustainable without monthly subscriptions. In recent times, Arlo tried to cancel a free 7-day cloud storage plan even for old users, who had purchased the devices based (also) on this condition, only to back down after the wave of negative criticisms.

Additionally, Arlo announced the end of support for several cameras released before 2019, but far from old – which means no more firmware updates, not even to be safe. However, the user has the option of continuing to use the cameras by connecting them to an Arlo base station, which of course must be purchased separately, or by subscribing to Arlo Secure.

Among other things, in recent months, news has emerged that is anything but encouraging on the security and privacy side – let’s think, for example, of the situation of Eufy. Apparently it was corrected more or less quickly, but the general feeling is starting to take hold that, in an extremely competitive market with very thin margins, there simply isn’t enough money to properly take care of every aspect of the products.