New Amazon Alexa+ feature adds conversational AI to doorbells

Amazon is adding a new feature to Alexa+ that adds conversational AI to Ring doorbells, allowing users to manage deliveries, reject sellers, and let family or friends leave messages when they're not around.

This feature, called Greetings, helps Ring determine who's visiting your home based on what they're wearing, their actions and what they're holding, and responds accordingly. For example, if the system sees a person in a courier uniform bringing a parcel, it will react according to your instructions.

This feature adds settings that allow you to specify where delivery people can leave packages and direct them towards water or snacks you may have kept outside your home. If a provider needs a signature, Alexa can also ask them when they can return and relay that message to the user.

It may also serve sales representatives or service providers. You can set instructions such as “If someone comes to the door trying to sell you something, politely let them know we're not interested.”

And if you're busy or not at home, Alexa can greet friends or family when they visit and ask them to leave a message.

It goes without saying that the technology poses the risk of misidentifying people and inappropriate responses – if, for example, a friend works in logistics and comes to you after work in his delivery uniform, Ring can use Alexa to ask him to leave a package somewhere, rather than allowing him to leave a message.

This new feature follows on from the Ring app's controversial facial recognition feature called “Famous Faces,” which lets you create a catalog of the faces of up to 50 people who regularly visit you. Once tagged, these people will be listed on your timeline and in Ring app notifications during their visit.

Amazon says “Greetings” uses Ring's video descriptions to determine who the main character is on camera to generate responses, but does not identify that person.

This feature is compatible with Ring Wired Doorbell Pro (3rd Gen) and Ring Wired Doorbell Plus (2nd Gen) and is available to Ring Premium users who have enabled video descriptions. The service will be made available to Alexa+ early access customers in the US and Canada.