Ring Video Doorbell on a modern home.

Video Preview Alerts

Video Preview Alerts are notifications that show you animated previews of the motion recordings captured by your Video Doorbell or Security Camera.

Watching the video preview, you can decide whether to open Live View in the Ring app to see what’s happening in real time, or review your video later.

This feature requires a compatible Ring Home subscription.

To receive Video Preview Alerts, make sure you have the latest version of the Ring app.

Video Preview Alerts are not compatible with End-to-End Encryption. You’ll need to turn this off before using Video Preview Alerts.

How to activate or deactivate Video Preview Alerts

  1. Open the Ring app to the main dashboard.
  2. Tap more (•••) on the camera you want to access.
  3. Tap your device's Settings.
  4. Tap Device Settings.
  5. Tap
    Notification Settings
    .
  6. Tap
    Video Preview Alerts
    .
  7. Activate or deactivate Video Preview Alerts.

How to use Video Preview Alerts on your mobile device

When a notification appears, you can press on it to expand it.

On iOS

Tap and hold the thumbnail to open up the full-frame snapshot.

Note: In your iOS settings, the Low Data Mode toggle needs to remain off in order for Video Preview Alerts to work.

On Android

Drag down the thumbnail to open up the full-frame snapshot.

Note: On Android devices, a setting called Background Data needs to be toggled on in order for Video Preview Alerts to work. This is toggled on for the Ring app by default.


Note: Video Preview Alerts are available on your phone until you dismiss them. We do not store Video Preview Alerts in the Ring app. Video Preview Alerts may show on Apple Watches and Android Smart Watches; however, smart watches are not officially supported by Ring.

If your phone has a poor connection, we store the snapshot in the cloud for up to 15 minutes so we can deliver it to you as soon as you’re back online. In this case, you’ll see a still an image preview of your recording when you open the notification.

Last updated 1 week ago