Blink Video Descriptions is an early access feature, available for a limited time as a free preview for select Blink Subscription Plus Plan subscribers. This feature enhances your motion notifications with AI-powered insights.

When your Blink cameras and doorbells detect motion or when someone rings your doorbell, you'll receive notifications that not only show an animated snapshot of the recording but also include AI-generated textual descriptions of the activity. Now you can understand what's happening around your home or business at a glance.

  

Some examples of descriptive notifications include:

• "A brown vehicle was detected pulling into your driveway."
• "A person is picking up a white package at the entrance."
• "A person is walking on the lawn with a brown delivery box."

Receiving notifications

Blink Video Descriptions offers two notification methods, controlled by the quick notifications setting:

Quick notifications on

If quick notifications is turned on, you'll receive an immediate notification when motion is detected. The same notification will then be updated with the AI-powered video description and snapshot when they're ready. This option is best for users who want quicker awareness of any motion events.

Quick Notifications off

If quick notifications is turned off, you'll receive a single notification after motion is detected. This notification will include the AI-powered description and snapshot all at once. This option is ideal for users that prefer to only receive the notification when the description and snapshot are ready.

In both options, you can long-press the notification to expand it and get a larger animated snapshot. Quick notifications is turned off by default. To turn the feature on or off:

1. Open the Blink app and tap Settings.
2. Tap Notifications.
3. Tap Blink Video Descriptions.
4. Toggle Quick Notifications on or off.

Note: Quick notifications settings will override early notification settings. Learn more about early notifications.

Managing Blink video descriptions

Blink Video Descriptions is turned on by default and is managed at the account level. Account owners can turn this feature on or off for all or individual devices.

To turn the feature on or off:

1. Open the Blink app and tap Settings.
2. Tap Notifications.
3. Tap Blink Video Descriptions.
4. Toggle Enable Video Descriptions on or off.
5. When enabled, select the devices that you want to send video descriptions.
6. Tap Save.

If you were selected for the limited time early access to the free preview and are not receiving video descriptions, check the following possible causes and solutions:

• Check if your system is armed.
  Your system must be armed to record motion events. Learn how to arm your Blink system.
• Verify if motion detection is enabled.
  Motion detection must be enabled for the camera to detect activity. Learn how to turn motion detection on.
• Ensure you have an active Blink Subscription Plus Plan. An active Blink Subscription Plus Plan is required to qualify for the free preview. Learn how to activate your subscription.
• Check your Wi-Fi connection.
  Poor Wi-Fi connection can prevent events from being recorded. Learn how to optimize Wi-Fi performance.
• Adjust the sensitivity settings.
  Low sensitivity may cause the camera to miss motion. Learn how to adjust motion settings.
• Reposition the camera.
  Camera angle and placement can affect motion detection. Learn how to improve camera positioning.

Note: Your phone language must be set to English to be compatible with Blink Video Descriptions. If the issue persists, visit Troubleshooting Motion Notifications.

Why is one of my video descriptions inaccurate?

An early access feature is a new or experimental feature. This allows Blink to gather valuable user feedback, identify bugs, and refine it. As an early access feature, results may vary initially as we continue to improve. The early access to innovative functionalities allows users to experience them firsthand and contribute to their development by sharing their experiences and insights.

While Blink Video Descriptions uses advanced AI technology to analyze video content, it may occasionally provide descriptions that aren't completely accurate. This can happen due to various factors such as:

• Limited visibility or poor lighting conditions.
• Fast-moving objects or people.
• Complex or overlapping activities in the scene.
• Weather conditions affecting video quality.
• Distance of the subject from the camera.

To learn more, visit Blink Camera Placement Guidelines.

We are committed to Responsible, Trusted AI

We are committed to ensuring we are building safe and responsible AI-powered products and features throughout our design, development, deployment, and operation. To help ensure Blink Video Descriptions generates reliable and appropriate content, we built a protection system. The system consists of both VLM built-in guardrails and real-time guardrails to ensure appropriate descriptions are provided to customers.