Amazon’s new Alexa+ feature adds conversational AI to Ring doorbells

Amazon is adding a new feature to Alexa+ that adds a conversational AI to Ring doorbells, letting users manage deliveries, turn down sales folks, and let 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 sees a person in a delivery uniform dropping off a package, it will respond based on your instructions.

The feature adds settings that let you specify where delivery people can leave packages, and direct them towards water or snacks you might have kept out. If a delivery person needs a signature, Alexa can also ask them when they might return, and pass 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.” 

And if you’re busy or not home, 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 the package somewhere instead of letting them leave a message.

The new feature follows a controversial facial recognition feature for Ring called “Familiar Faces” that lets you create a catalog of the faces of up to 50 people who visit you regularly. Once labeled, these people will be named in the Ring app’s timeline and notifications when they visit.

Amazon says Greetings uses Ring’s video descriptions to determine who the main subject in front of the camera is for generating responses, and it doesn’t identify who the person is.

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