• AI can enhance video doorbell notifications for specific object detection, personalizing the alerts sent to your phone.

• Some smart doorbells can use AI to differentiate between people, packages, cars, pets, and more.

• Companies like Eufy use local hubs to manage facial recognition, offering more personalized and detailed notifications without cloud processing.

Video doorbells serve several purposes. For me, one feature stands out from the rest and makes my video doorbell a star part of my home security system: using AI to spot faces and other objects in images.

AI Supercharges Your Doorbell’s Notification System

AI (artificial intelligence) is a term used by everyone these days, but video doorbells use this technology for a very specific purpose. These days, most video doorbells offer some form of AI that will give you more detailed notifications, information, or recording capabilities.

For example, you can have some video doorbells record images only if a human or package is detected and ignore everything else (cars, pets, falling leaves, etc.).

Not only can the doorbell use it to save storage space, but it can also be used to send you targeted notifications such as “a person has been detected on your doorbell” or “a package has been detected on your doorbell”. These notifications can help you know what’s happening outside your front door, without even having to leave the office.

Find out who (or what) is at the door

When it comes to notifications, knowing who or what is at my door is the benefit of having a video doorbell. When I’m waiting for a package and I see a doorbell notification on my phone, I know if I should get up to answer the door or not.

We have a lot of stray cats in my neighborhood which leads to a lot of animal triggers outside my door. Obviously, I don’t need to get up from my desk when I’m working to go check the door if a cat walks across the camera’s view. However, if it says there is a package, I usually get up to go meet the delivery guy and pick it up.

Another great feature is knowing when guests are arriving. Similar to the package situation, if I’m expecting a guest, I can ignore the pet notification, but pay attention to the people/car notifications. This allows me to know when guests are outside and open the door for them, sometimes before they even ring the doorbell.

At first this part was a little weird because some guests were curious how I knew they were there without them honking or ringing the doorbell, but most got used to it after a while .

AI notifications only get deeper from here. I am currently I have a Wyze V2 video doorbell at my doorand I previously had an Arlo Wired Doorbell for several years. On the Wyze doorbell, AI offers many additional benefits.

I can toggle between separate boxes for check-in and notifications for people, pets, vehicles, and packages. I can also switch between separate recording and notification settings for babies crying, barking, meowing, talking, breaking glass, or shooting guns.

Because of the way Wyze has built this feature, I can save certain categories without informing me. Others notify but do not record, while others both record and notify. Being able to drill down this much allows me to cut down on unnecessary notifications, ensuring I only see the notifications that actually matter to me. Plus, I can choose to record everything, but not have my phone ring every time there’s movement or sound, which is a pretty cool feature.

Doorbells will get smarter as AI gets smarter

Wyze is one of the few companies (at the moment) doing facial recognition using the power of AI. Other companies doing facial recognition include Eufy, Ecobee, RingAnd Google.

This feature is quite simple to use, although I can only speak to its implementation in the Wyze ecosystem. Using notifications from the Wyze Video Doorbell V2, I can schedule “familiar faces” if I have a compatible Wyze Cam Plus subscription.

This not only allows me to know if there is a person at my door, but WHO is at my door. Is my wife coming home? Did the in-laws come to visit us? Is it that annoying neighbor I don’t like to talk to when I’m working?

Being able to set these different names and faces is one of my favorite features on my video doorbell. The information gleaned can be truly useful. For example, I don’t need to unlock the door for my wife, because our smart lock does it automatically and she can just walk in.

However, if I expect my in-laws to come and see that there is a generic notification for “person detected”, it may just be a package or a door-to-door salesman. When I see my in-laws’ names pop up in the notification, I know they’re there and it’s time for me to go open the door.

This only scratches the surface of the more advanced AI functionality that some video doorbells bring. A few years ago, having such technology on a doorbell was unheard of. Today, more and more companies are implementing it. I can’t wait to see what additional AI features we bring to doorbells in the years to come.

You may have to pay for AI features

Now for the part of AI that no one likes: subscriptions. Well, sometimes. My Wyze Video Doorbell V2 requires a $2 per month subscription for AI notifications, and my Arlo before that had an $8 per month fee. Fortunately, not all companies require you to pay them monthly for this feature.

For example, Reolink offers free detection of people and packages on its video doorbells. That’s a pretty good deal if you ask me. People and package detection are the two most-used features of my video doorbell, and the fact that Reolink offers it for free is a compelling reason to join the company’s ecosystem.

Eufy gives you the same free AI detection option, although the company requires you to do so. have your HomeBase system for it to work. However, while HomeBase is an additional upfront cost, using this system essentially allows you to localize your entire video stack.

The HomeBase can hold up to 16TB of hard drive storage and store all your recordings from all compatible Eufy cameras locally, meaning your footage isn’t sent to a cloud service. Plus, it does more than just free AI detection services, it processes AI images locally instead of sending them to a cloud provider. Eufy’s solution is among the best free, local AI and storage options out of the box of any video doorbell I’ve seen.

However, those who like to tinker may also want to consider Home assistant. Although an AI Home Assistant doorbell setup might be a little more cumbersome, all processing takes place locally and you have much more control over what happens. There aren’t many tutorials for this, so you may have to figure out a lot on your own.

If you want to use Home Assistant for AI doorbell notifications, there is some videos there to point you in the right direction.

Now that you know why I love AI on my video doorbell so much, it’s time to choose the right model for your home.