Open the Neighbors feed in the Ring app, tap the plus button, choose Missing Pet and add a photo. You do not need a Ring camera to post.
Post it in five minutes
To post a lost pet on Ring Neighbors, download the Ring app, open the Neighbors feed, tap the plus button at the bottom right, and tap Missing Pet. Choose No Thanks when the app offers a Pet Profile, unless you already made one. Fill in the details, set your contact preferences, tap Preview Post and publish. You do not need to own a Ring camera. Amazon says anyone in the US can use the feature through the Ring app, and Ring’s support pages say no subscription is needed to start a Search Party for a lost dog. Ring’s help for the UK app says your email must be verified before you can post, so have that inbox open. Menu labels can change between app versions.
If you already made a Pet Profile
A saved profile is quicker. Open the Neighbors shortcut, tap the gear icon, then My Pets, and open your pet. Under Advanced Options, turn on Lost Pet Mode and tap Create Post. Your pet’s photos and details carry over, and you add what is new. Check the photos before you publish. An old picture of a puppy will not help anyone recognize the dog in their yard today. If you have no profile, do not stop to build one now. The Missing Pet post asks for what matters, and you can make a profile after your pet is home.
Words to paste in
Keep the post short, because people read it on a phone. Use this and change the details: Missing since Tuesday around 7 p.m. near Oak and 5th. Brown and white female beagle mix, medium size, red collar. Very shy, please do not chase or call her. If you see her, note the time and direction and contact me right away. Please check your garage, shed and camera clips from Tuesday night. Lead with the cross streets, not your house number. Ring’s help for the UK app allows up to five photos or videos, so use a full-body shot and a close-up of any marking. Hold back one detail that only you would know, such as a scar or a tag color. The BBB suggests this so you can test anyone who claims to have your pet.
How Search Party works for dogs
Search Party is the part of Ring that goes beyond a normal post. When someone reports a lost dog, participating outdoor Ring cameras nearby use AI to look through recordings for dogs that resemble yours and alert their owners to possible matches. The owner sees your dog’s photo next to the clip and decides, case by case, whether to share it with you. So a match reaches you only if a person confirms it and agrees. If the banner appears while you make your post, turn on the toggle and tap Start Search Party. Ring says it ends after a few hours unless you confirm you are still looking, so set an alarm and renew it. Coverage depends entirely on how many eligible cameras are near you, and Ring’s published figure of more than one dog reunited per day is the company’s own number, with no total to compare it against.
Cats and other pets
Be careful here, because Ring’s pages are not clear. The Pet Profile lets you choose a pet type, including other, and the post option is called Missing Pet, so you can post a cat, rabbit or bird. Search Party is different. The Ring and Amazon material we read describes it only for dogs, and we could not find a statement on whether it looks for cats. Do not count on cameras scanning for your cat unless the app offers it to you. A plain post still has value. It asks people on your exact streets to check their garages and clips. Huang and colleagues found that the median cat found alive was about 165 feet from where it escaped, so ask the closest neighbors to look through their footage by hand.
Your privacy on the post
Ring says finders can tap Contact Owner to reach you without seeing your name or phone number, and you get an app notification when someone contacts you or comments. That is a good reason to use the feature rather than typing your number into the post. When the app asks you to confirm the location, set it to where your pet was last seen. Nothing we read says how exact that pin appears to others, or how far the post travels, because Ring does not state a radius on these pages. If someone asks for money, a gift card or a verification code, stop replying. See our post on lost pet scams: how to tell a real finder from a fake one.
Keep comments on and watch them
Shelters may see your post. Ring’s Neighbors Verified program lets animal shelters and animal control agencies view lost and found posts in their area, compare them with intake records and comment on a matching post. Comments are also how neighbors will tell you they saw something at the school an hour ago. Ring’s help for the UK app says you can disable comments, but leave them on during a search. Also look at the Neighbors feed yourself once or twice a day for found pet posts, since a finder may post separately instead of replying to yours. Ring’s UK help says posts cannot be edited after submission, so a big change may mean deleting and reposting, or adding an update.
When your pet is home
Update your post the same day, as Ring advises, so that neighbors know to stop looking. Ring’s verified shelters can also mark a post resolved after a reunion, which puts it back at the top of the feed. Turn off Lost Pet Mode too. Then close your reports everywhere else, including shelters and microchip registries.
Sources
Ring, pet profiles: ring.com/support/articles/zk6rr/pet-profiles. Ring, lost pet posts and Search Party: ring.com/support/articles/hoqg6/How-to-Create-a-Pet-Profile-Lost-Pet-Post-or-Lost-Pet-Flyer. Ring, posting to Neighbours (UK): ring.com/gb/en/support/articles/wk06u/posting-to-neighbors. Ring, Neighbors Verified for Animal Welfare: ring.com/support/verified-help/articles/v1s2s/Neighbors-Verified-for-Animal-Welfare. Amazon, Search Party for Dogs: aboutamazon.com/news/devices/ring-search-party-for-dogs-united-states-missing-pets. BBB lost pet scam alert: bbb.org/article/scams/8612-lost-pet-watch-out-for-this-scam-text-message. Huang et al., Animals, 2018: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5789300.