Amazon-owned smart home device maker Blink is taking a cue from Google and Ring by introducing a new AI-powered feature that will provide users with smarter, more actionable alerts for events captured by its security cameras. Like Ring’s AI Video Descriptions and Google’s Gemini-powered AI Descriptions, Blink’s new feature uses AI to analyze surveillance camera footage and create natural language summaries of events.
The feature is currently available in the US as an early beta preview for Blink users with a Basic or Plus subscription and is intended to provide more helpful notifications. Instead of a generic notification like “Motion detected in the backyard,” the feature provides a more detailed description that, according to Blink, “focuses on describing the primary subject that triggered a motion alert and the actions they take.”
These clear summaries make it easier for users to decide whether an alert requires their immediate attention or whether it can be ignored without opening the app. While Blink’s video descriptions are more useful than general notifications, they fall short of what Ring and Google offer. PCWorld points out that Blink’s summaries aren’t searchable like Ring’s, so users can’t quickly look up specific events using natural language queries. Additionally, unlike Google’s Gemini, which can create daily overviews of all activity, Blink’s descriptions are limited to individual events.
Still, the feature will be a welcome change for anyone invested in the Blink ecosystem of video doorbells and security cameras. This eliminates the need to open every single security alert and makes monitoring security cameras less tedious. While Blink’s video descriptions may not yet be able to match the features offered by competitors, the company could improve its offering by the time the feature comes out of beta.
If you have a Blink security camera, you can try out the Video Descriptions feature by updating to the latest version of the Blink app and going to Settings > Notifications > Blink Video Descriptions. Blink’s support page for the feature states that it is only available when the language is set to English and that it is not compatible with Blink XT, XT2 and Indoor (1st Generation) cameras.
