Ring brings Neighbours community platform to the UK

Ring says it will bring its Neighbours community feature to the UK next month, making it available in the Ring app from October 21. The service lets people share local information, including suspicious activity and lost items, within a customisable radius of about five miles.

Neighbours launched in the US in 2018. Anyone in the UK can join for free, including people who do not own Ring devices. Ring International Managing Director Dave Ward said the service is intended to complement local Facebook groups rather than replace them, with a more focused, neighbourhood-level discussion space.

Ring is also introducing Search Party for Dogs, developed with Dogs Trust. A user can post a missing dog’s photo in Neighbours, after which participating Ring doorbells and cameras can alert their owners if the dog is detected on their property. The finder can contact the dog’s owner privately. The owner is not alerted automatically, and camera videos or images are not shared unless the camera owner chooses to share them. The feature currently supports dogs, not cats.

Dogs Trust Chief Operations Officer Rachel Casey said approximately 25,000 dogs enter local authority care in the UK each year, and only 38% are reunited with their families. She also said two thirds of dogs entering care are microchipped, but only half of those have correct details.

Ward said Ring uses published guidelines, several LLMs and other models, and human moderators to review content. Users can also flag posts they believe are inappropriate. Ring plans to launch Community Requests in the UK later this year.