Ring is offering college students a chance to turn their app ideas into real products, with $500,000 in prize money up for grabs through its new Ring Appstore Challenge. Announced on October 22, the competition invites eligible students in the United States to develop apps for Ring’s connected home security ecosystem, publish them on the Ring Appstore, and attract real users.

Applications are open until November 20, 2026, although Ring will close submissions earlier if it receives 1,500 eligible entries. Students can participate individually or in teams of up to three people, and entering the competition is free.

The challenge gives aspiring developers an opportunity to work with Ring hardware, APIs, and developer tools while competing for one of four prizes. Rather than judging every submission solely on an idea or technical demonstration, Ring will also reward apps that attract paying subscribers, build a user base, and solve practical problems.

Four prizes worth $500,000

Ring has divided the prize pool into four categories, with awards ranging from $75,000 to $250,000.

The largest award is a $250,000 Grand Prize for the app with the highest monthly recurring revenue from active paid subscriptions at the end of the competition. To qualify, an app must have at least 100 unique paying accounts and generate at least $500 in monthly recurring revenue. Revenue counted toward the prize is capped at $25 per account per month, preventing a handful of high-value subscriptions from dominating the results.

Ring will also award $100,000 for the Most Impactful Aging in Place App. This category focuses on applications that help older adults live safely and independently at home while supporting caregivers. Potential ideas include family check-ins, routine reminders, and alerts when expected activity is missing. Ring says these apps should respect users’ independence and prioritize consent.

Two additional prizes of $75,000 each will recognize the Most Popular App and the Most Inventive App. The popularity award is based on the total number of users, including both free and paid accounts. The invention award will be decided by Ring judges, who will evaluate originality, execution and user experience, integration with Ring and Amazon technologies, and usefulness to customers.

Every eligible app is automatically considered for all four categories, but an app can win only one prize. If it qualifies for multiple awards, it receives the higher-value prize, and the next eligible app can receive the other.

Finalists get Ring hardware and developer support

Ring plans to select up to 1,000 finalists from eligible proposals. Applicants must explain their app idea in 500 words or fewer, covering its purpose, intended audience, key features, and the problem it aims to solve.

Selected finalists will receive a Ring Challenge Kit containing a Ring camera, a sensor, and an applicable Ring subscription. They will also gain access to the Ring Developer Portal, including API documentation, sample applications, and a testing sandbox with synthetic devices.

The company will provide weekly office hours with Ring engineers to help participants build their applications. Finalists will also have access to the Ring Appstore MCP server, which is designed to help developers work with AI coding assistants inside their development environments.

Students do not need prior experience with Ring’s APIs specifically. Ring says developers with some programming experience and the ability to make HTTP requests can build apps using the platform’s standard REST APIs.

Although entering and publishing an app on the Ring Appstore are free, finalists remain responsible for other development and operating expenses. These can include cloud hosting, third-party APIs, AI or computer vision models, and marketing.

When does the competition take place?

The competition runs across several months, taking participants from an initial proposal to a published app competing for real customers.

Ring will announce finalists by December 14, 2026. Selected participants must then build their apps and pass Ring Appstore certification by March 1, 2027. Ring recommends submitting apps for certification by February 15 to leave enough time for review and any necessary changes.

Certified applications will go live on the Ring Appstore beginning March 1, 2027. Participants will then have until May 1 to attract users and grow subscription revenue. Ring expects to select winners around May 17, with Demo Day scheduled for early June at its headquarters in Hawthorne, California.

Winners will present their apps to Ring leadership, with travel and hotel accommodations provided for Demo Day.

Students keep ownership of their apps

One notable part of the competition is what happens after the prizes are awarded. Participants retain ownership of the apps they create and publish them through their own Ring Appstore developer accounts.

Apps can remain available after the competition ends, provided they continue to comply with Ring Appstore policies. Developers also retain their subscription revenue after the standard Ring Appstore revenue share and applicable fees, and their developer accounts and access to the Developer Portal do not expire when the challenge concludes.

That makes the competition more than a short-term coding contest. Students have an opportunity to build a product, test whether customers will pay for it, and continue developing it beyond the prize period.

Who can enter the Ring Appstore Challenge?

The competition is open to legal residents of the 50 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., who are at least 18 years old, authorized to work in the United States, and enrolled full-time or part-time in an eligible associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree program. Every member of a team must meet the requirements, and each person can participate in only one entry.

Proposals will be judged on innovation, which accounts for 50% of the score, technical feasibility and Ring integration, which account for 30%, and consumer value, which accounts for the remaining 20%. Ideas that closely copy existing Ring Appstore apps will not advance.

Interested students can submit their proposals through the official Ring Appstore Challenge website. Applications close at 11:59 am Eastern Time on November 20, 2026, or earlier if Ring receives 1,500 eligible entries. The full eligibility requirements and terms are available on the registration page.