A homeowner outside their home reviewing their Ring account in the Ring app.

Camera Previews

Camera previews are the still images or Snapshot Captures you see on your Dashboard when you first open the Ring app. Each one is labeled with a time or date indicating when the device took the image.

How do camera previews work?

Every time you open your Ring app, you will see a recent image from each of your Ring video doorbells and security cameras.

If you see something that requires your attention, you can tap on the image to open Live View or access the Event History Timeline for that device where—if you have a Ring Protect plan—you can view your recordings for that device.

With a Ring Protect plan, you can also tap on the History tile at the top of the Dashboard (the screen that appears when you first open the Ring app) to see recordings from all of your devices at once.

Why do some camera previews seem to take longer to load than others?

Wired or Plug-in devices connected to a constant power source will generate camera images quickly, as they are constantly checking for the latest image.

Battery-operated devices, on the other hand, will wait for a request from the app (like you or a Shared User tapping on the camera preview) to generate an image to help conserve battery life.

Last updated 1 month ago