Ring’s default-on Search Party finds lost dogs

03 Oct 2025

Ring has launched Search Party, an AI-powered feature that scans footage from nearby Ring outdoor cameras and doorbells to help find lost dogs when someone posts a picture in the Neighbors app. When a user starts a Search Party, Ring’s cloud AI looks for matching dogs in participating cameras; if a match is found, the camera owner gets a notification and can review the clip and choose whether to share it with the pet owner. Ring founder Jamie Siminoff described it as “Your Ring AI assistant is looking for that dog…,” and said users can decide what to do with any footage the system finds. The feature is being enabled by default for outdoor Ring cameras (rolling out in November), though Ring says owners can opt out and that no video is shared without owner consent. Several users — including the article’s author — noticed their cameras were automatically set to allow Search Party, which raised concerns about consent given Ring’s past controversies over sharing footage with police. The timing also coincides with Ring’s new Familiar Faces facial-recognition option, prompting questions about future uses; Ring’s Yassi Yarger insists Search Party is designed only to match dogs and “is not designed to process human biometrics,” and that Search Party footage won’t be included in Community Requests to law enforcement. The author calls the tool useful but argues Ring should have asked before turning it on for everyone.

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