If you watched Ring’s Search Party Super Bowl spot and felt two things at once, aww and uneasy, you’re not alone. The feature is built to help find missing pets, but it also adds another layer of AI scanning to cameras that already watch your front yard.
If you want a Ring Search Party opt out, you can do it in the Ring app in under a minute. The switch is inside Control Center, and it’s set per camera, not as one global toggle.
Ring says Search Party is available in the US for supported doorbells and outdoor cameras. It can look for a neighbor’s missing dog, and it can also watch for visible flames or smoke during active wildfire events through a setting Ring calls Fire Watch.
Where the toggle actually lives
Open the Ring app, go to the main dashboard, tap the menu icon, then open Control Center and select Search Party. You’ll see two separate controls, Search for Lost Pets and Natural Hazards (Fire Watch). Each one can be turned off for each camera using the on-screen icons, the pet icon for lost dog matching, the flame icon for fire monitoring.
If you use Stick Up Cam or Outdoor Cam, Ring notes you should set the install type to Outdoor. Otherwise, you may not see the right options.
Why it feels different than motion alerts
Ring says the system can send you a notification when your camera spots what it thinks is a match, and you decide whether to share a relevant snapshot or video to help. For some people, that decision point isn’t the issue. It’s the idea that the camera is doing extra category-based detection in the first place.
On the fire side, Ring warns Fire Watch can be wrong, including false positives and false negatives. It also says it isn’t a substitute for smoke detectors or official emergency alerts, and you should follow local authorities.
The cleanest way to opt out
If you want fewer surprises, switch off both Lost Pets and Natural Hazards for every compatible device you own, then revisit the setting only when you need it. If you keep Fire Watch on, treat it as a bonus signal, not a safety system, and keep official alerts as your primary source.