People who find Ring cameras invasive are going to just love this.

Ring announced the Ring Drone Cam today, and it’s exactly what it sounds like. It looks like any small drone. There’s a camera mounted on the front, but it’s not built to be piloted by a human. Its primary mode of operation is to automatically take flight from its base station and pilot itself as it patrols your home and, if a security alert is set off, fly around to find and track the intruder. And it costs a surprisingly reasonable $250.

you don’t need a ton of cams anymore

Ordinarily, if you want total coverage of your home security system, you have to plaster indoor cams in all sorts of rooms and at all sorts of angles so that they leave no hidden spots where a person could stand unseen. Having owned and tested out security systems and security cams, it gets tedious. Homes are weirdly shaped, and their layouts create weird angles. Whether Ring created the Drone Cam to lessen the number of security cameras you need to buy is doubtful, but the Drone Cam’s mobility does just that.

Pending the FCC’s final certification, the Ring Drone Cam will hit the market in January 2027. You can’t pre-order the Ring Drone Cam yet, but you can sign up for email notifications to get an alert for when you can place an order.

As part of the Ring ecosystem, the Drone Cam will link with other Ring security gadgets. The propellers are shielded by enclosures, so you don’t have to worry about getting an impromptu haircut from one buzzing around your head as you try to cook dinner. When it’s not recording, the drone hangs out in its base station, out of the way, where it recharges. Because it’s a small drone, it only has enough battery capacity for flights up to eight minutes.

Through the app you can program custom routes for the drone to fly when you’re away, specify specific times for and frequency of patrols, or launch it yourself if you want it to go out on an unscheduled patrol. Or you can just let it hang out in its base station and respond if another Ring camera catches sight of something suspicious.