Last year saw Ring partner with Kidde for indoor fire alarm and smoke detector systems. Now the security is doing something similar for outdoor fires, thanks to new compatibility with the nonprofit app Watch Duty.
If you live in any area threatened by wildfires in the past several years (like I do), you're probably familiar with Watch Duty, which has become one of the best free ways to get updates on all local fires, including both alerts and maps. Now those features are arriving on the Ring platform.
Ring customers will be able to receive updates through the new Fire Watch section, which is set up in Neighbors, the more community-focused part of Ring's app and online portal. Neighbors already lets people share real-time, map-based updates on local events, including police activity, lost pets and burglars captured on cam. Now it's expanding into reliable wildfire updates.
The new fire features arriving in Ring's apps
Soon, Ring's Neighbors app will have Watch Duty updates based on location. Ring
Watch Duty will fuel this new fire section in several different ways. First, Watch Duty's real-time apps regarding nearby wildfires will pass along into alerts in the Ring/Neighbors apps, so your phone will pop up a notification even if you don't use Watch Duty.
Second, if you subscribe to Ring Protect for your Ring security cameras, if there's an ongoing fire alert in your area, your Ring camera system will also jump into action. Ring's online AI will start analyzing any recently saved videos for signs of fire, like smoke or flames, and then send an alert to customers so they know something may be wrong.
Participants can also share snapshots from Ring cameras manually if they see signs of fire. Those photos will be passed along to Watch Duty and could be used by first responders when organizing their fire control plans.
This new partnership isn't quite up and running yet, but Ring customers can expect Fire Watch to start rolling out this spring. This kind of partnership clearly has potential, although recruiting Ring cameras to watch for fires may have some privacy senses tingling. For now, it looks like Ring allows you to opt in or out of such sharing practices as you see fit.