Does Ring Now Offer 24/7 Recordings? If Not, Why Not?!

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Founded in 2013 by Jamie Siminoff, Ring is home security and a smart home company that’s best known as a smart doorbell maker. They also have other devices and recently came out with the world’s first indoor flying security camera!

The company’s main objective is to reduce crimes in neighborhoods and make them as safe as possible. In fact, they did a study with the LAPD and discovered that by installing their devices on only 10% of the homes in the neighborhood; they were able to cut crime by 55%. 

At first, the company’s CEO and chief inventor Jamie Siminoff was actually working on something completely different, which was a gardening start-up! 

The story began when Siminoff was working in his garage and couldn’t hear his doorbell. This inspired him to build the now-famous widely-used Wi-Fi doorbell! 

A commonly asked question is does Ring now offer 24/7 recordings? And if not, why not? 

If you’re interested in finding out, keep on reading!

How Does Ring’s Famous Wi-Fi Doorbell Work? 

An outside view of my Ring Doorbell Pro 1
An outside view of my Ring Doorbell Pro 1

You’ve probably heard of smart TVs, smart washing machines, and smart refrigerators, but a smart doorbell is something that doesn’t often come to mind!

Ring connects to your home’s internet connection via Wi-Fi, which is a super easy setup you can do on either IOS or Android. It essentially sends you to push notifications on your mobile device when it can detect motion on your front door or when someone physically presses on the device’s button. 

You can then see a live HD video stream of what’s going on at your front door and communicate with the person on the other end of the line, or in this case, the doorbell! 

For example, if the pizza delivery guy’s on your doorstep, he can speak to you through the doorbell. Whether you’re home or not, you’ll be able to see, hear, and respond to him clearly!

Did Amazon Purchase Ring? 

They sure did! Amazon’s been trying to get into the smart home security market for a while. The real reason for them is to be able to deliver packages better to homes. After all, we know that package theft is a pretty major issue not just for Amazon but for any e-commerce company.

In February 2018, Amazon reportedly bought Ring for 1 billion dollars, making it one of Amazon’s biggest purchases. Not only was this beneficial for Ring but also for Amazon

After purchasing Ring, they integrated Alexa’s voice into Ring’s devices, giving users, even more, control over their doorbells!

Adding a new device to the Amazon Alexa app
Adding a new device to the Amazon Alexa app

Does Ring Now Offer 24/7 Recordings? If Not, Why Not?

The short answer is, no, Ring don’t offer 24/7 recordings. Like the majority of Wi-Fi cameras, Ring doorbell cameras have a limited recording time. This is due to the fact that they record only in the times of events, and they stop recording once the event is over. 

These events or triggers can be classified into three categories.

  1. Detecting Motion

In motion detection, the recording will begin when someone walks into the field of view and is within range. Ring video doorbells, for example, feature a 30-foot field of view and a 30-foot range of motion detection. 

The Ring App showing various settings and options for the Ring Doorbell Pro including motion and recording settings
The Ring App showing various settings and options for the Ring Doorbell Pro including motion and recording settings

When something enters that field of view, such as a person, a dog, or a car, a motion event is triggered. Not only does this make your device start recording, but it also causes the device to send a notification to your mobile phone.

The Ring video doorbell typically records for about 30 seconds. Some video doorbells can record for an extended period of time, while others can record for a shorter amount of time. 

After the 30 seconds have passed and the event itself has ended, the Ring video doorbell stops recording.

  1. Ringing the Doorbell

This basically happens when someone walks up to your doorbell and presses the button. There are a couple of different things that happen during a ring event

For example, let’s say you have your motion set up for 30 feet, and someone steps into that range of view and rings the doorbell. When that happens, the motion event will begin. Once the person rings your doorbell, the motion event will end and the ring event will start.

Even if a person rings your doorbell and you don’t answer, the camera will still record for a limited amount of time because of the doorbell press. It’ll also record as the person walks away, because of the motion detected. 

On the other hand, if you do decide to answer, the ring trigger will stop. This brings us to our third type of recording.

  1. Live Viewing

This event is basically being able to see and hear what the person at the door is doing through the app. Live view recordings are different from motion and ringing triggers because they go on for as long as you have the connection open and are watching through the video doorbell.

The Ring timeline showing various snapshot captures that have been taken from a Floodlight Cam
The Ring timeline showing various snapshot captures that have been taken from a Floodlight Cam

Will Ring Ever Offer This Feature?

Although Ring promised and announced a new feature in 2019 that would allow the devices to record for 24 hours a day, there’s still no sign of that to this day. There’s also no sign that Ring will ever offer this feature in the near or far future. 

This is a tad disappointing given that it isn’t the first time they’ve announced something and not delivered it. 

What Other Features Does Ring Offer? 

Box for the Ring Floodlight Cam Plus white version
Box for the Ring Floodlight Cam Plus white version

Although it doesn’t offer 24/7 surveillance, the Ring doorbell has plenty of awesome features. 

You can set the motion sensitivity to whatever degree you want. However, don’t set it too high because it can start constantly giving you notifications about motion when it’s just a car going by or a person walking their dog. 

Also, if you want to know what’s going on in front of your home but don’t need to know it right away, you can turn off motion rings and notification alerts and just rely on event history. This shows you what happened at your doorstep and at what exact time, which can be really useful for police evidence or reporting a crime.

Another cool feature of the Ring doorbell is that you can save events in your history. This can also be extremely useful for a police report to support your claim and statement.

Ring also allows you to add multiple users to a specific Ring product so you and your family or roommates can manage it and see what’s going on.

Ring doorbells have the ability to link to third-party smart devices, which is one of their best features. For example, if your door is connected to a LockState smart device, you can use live view on your phone to remotely open the door to your guests.

A very important feature is the snapshot capture. When you get a text notification for motion or a doorbell press, it’ll show you an image of the thing that caused that event alongside the next notification. This allows you to view what’s outside your door without having to approach it.

There’s also cloud video recording. With this feature, you have access to recording live view videos which you can then save and share with your friends and family. This is another feature that can be highly useful for police reports.

What Can You Do If 24/7 Recording is Important to You?

Unfortunately, Ring hasn’t mentioned or released any new products that’ll feature 24/7 recording. 

This leaves you with only two options. Firstly, you can invest in another product from a different brand instead of Ring. There’s a few different options including Eufy, the Nest Hello and more. You can find most of these on Amazon, Costco, or Home Depot.

On the other hand, if you really want to stick with this manufacturer, you can play it smart by purchasing and installing regular CCTV cameras. This way, you can enjoy the rest of Ring’s doorbell features and also have 24/7 recording. You pretty much get the best of both worlds! 

Final Thoughts

From getting rejected on the famous reality show Shark Tank to being owned by Amazon, Ring has had quite a bumpy road to success. They manufacture a variety of products, the most famous one being their smart doorbell.

From motion detection to live view, the smart Ring doorbell offers a lot of features. Its primary goal is to keep the community as safe as possible. Most people wonder, does ring now offer 24/7 recording? 

Although they promised in 2019 that they will develop this feature, they still haven’t to this day. There’s also no sign that they’ll be working on this feature anytime soon. 

However, if you’re really committed to this brand, you can simply install a standard CCTV camera that offers 24/7 surveillance.

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About James Beetie

James - a self-confessed nerd - has owned smart home equipment for close to a decade, and he loves communicating the best ways of setting them up... and resolving the various bugs and issues that you'll no doubt come across!