Anyone can use Ring’s AI-powered pet finder now

Roughly two months ago, Ring rolled out an AI-powered tool that lets Ring owners band together to find a missing pooch. Now, Ring says anyone with a wayward pet can ask for help using the feature, not just Ring users. 

Accessible via the Neighbors sections of the Ring App, the Search Party for Dogs feature lets you report a missing dog (Ring has previously said that support for cats and other pets is coming later). Such a report will launch a Search Party, which triggers nearby Ring cameras to be on the lookout for the lost pet. 

Previously, only Ring users could launch Search Parties, but now Ring says that even non-Ring owners can use the Ring app to report a missing pooch. 

“Before Search Party, the best you could do was drive up and down the neighborhood, shouting your dog’s name in hopes of finding them,” said Ring inventor Jamie Siminoff in a press release. “Now, pet owners can mobilize the whole community—and communities are empowered to help—to find lost pets more effectively than ever before. That’s why we believe it’s so important to make this feature available to anyone who shares a lost dog post in Neighbors.” 

Ring’s Search Party tool leverages AI to scan footage from nearby Ring cameras for evidence of a missing dog. 

If your Ring camera spots a potential match (the feature works only with outdoor Ring cameras, not indoor Ring cams), you’ll get an alert with a picture of the dog and the relevant video clips. If you think it’s a match, you can—if you wish—choose to share the videos with the pet owners, or even reach out to them directly.   

Ring’s Search Party feature has raised eyebrows for the fact that it’s on by default, similar to Ring’s far more controversial Community Requests functionality, which lets law enforcement officials request video clips from Ring users. 

You can opt out of either Search Party of Community Requests, and Ring notes that even if you keep the features on, you can always decide which, if any, videos you’d like to share. You can also ignore Search Party and Community Requests alerts entirely. 

To nix the Search Party feature, just open the Ring app, tap the Menu button, scroll down to the Community Control section, and tap Search Party > Search for Lost Pets. You can then either opt out of the feature completely or block individual Ring cameras from participating in a Search Party. 

This article is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best security cameras.