Review: SwannBuddy4K Video Doorbell

Swann is a company that was founded in Australia by David Swann in 1987 and is now owned by an American/Chinese company. Now, in the first quarter of 2025, they have launched a wide range of home surveillance products on the Nordic market and we tested their SwannBuddy4K Video Doorbell. That they are no newcomers is confirmed by the fact that their app ‘Swann Security’ has been downloaded more than a million times.

Installation

SwannBuddy4K comes with most of the accessories you need, including a doorbell and a large number of security stickers – but no angled installation adapter if you want to mount the doorbell in a different way than straight out from the wall. As the camera is very wide angled, it is unlikely to be needed, and if it is, it is possible to buy as an accessory.

Installation of the product went very smoothly – the doorbell speaks English and instructs the user along the way. Pairing the bell, which has six ringing tones, including Für Elise and a barking dog, was quick. The QR code in the user guide led to the ‘Swann Security’ app and it was downloaded. After about five minutes, when it still looked like the app was downloading, yours truly cancelled the process and searched for the app again. It was installed and it was just a matter of launching it?

One bug in the protocol is that when adding a device, you can choose between “front door”, “back door”, ‘garage’ and other presets, and if you choose “front door” (as I did), it doesn’t work. However, if you manually enter ‘front door’, it works fine. Nordic special letters like Æ, Ø and Å don’t seem to be smart choices…

One firmware update was installed automatically, but when I scrolled through the menus, there was another one that I had to install manually.

In use

SwannBuddy4K does its job as a smart doorbell impeccably, and it does more than that. If you don’t want to talk to the person outside the door, you can click on a series of pre-recorded messages that the in-built voice assistant then says to the visitor – for example “I can’t come to the door right now” or “The police are on their way. Please leave immediately”!

The app is very easy to understand and it’s easy to scroll between recorded and live activities – and to adjust different modes to set how the camera should react in “home”, “night” and “away”. In ‘night’ and ‘away’ you can activate SwannShield, an AI-powered voice assistant that handles over 100 languages, eight different dialects and three different voice tones.

You can easily set the detection zone to reduce the number of false ‘alarms’ and protect the privacy of passers-by. If/when this is set, unlike other models on the market, the red areas are the active areas.

As for the rechargeable battery, it went from 100 to 50 per cent in a week, which is not particularly impressive – as it would mean having to recharge every two weeks. At the same time, it should be mentioned that the test week probably involved more active use (with many energy-intensive calls and AI calls) than a ‘normal’ week, so you probably only need to charge the battery once a month or every two months for normal use. And if you want to avoid charging, you can install the doorbell to a traditional doorbell power supply (12-24V AC).

As a side note, the Swannbuddy4K delivers its notifications to the mobile phone at lightning speed – a few seconds faster than yours truly’s Netatmo Smart Video Doorbell, which in turn starts its video recordings about four seconds earlier compared to when the Swannbuddy4K starts recording.

AI – voice assistant/doorman

Swann describes SwannShield as a security-based voice assistant that can interact with people in a natural way, receive deliveries, see and note unknown visitors and greet friends and family – all while giving the impression that there is a real person on site with an active presence.

Currently SwannShield is ‘Beta’ and it works – although it may not always interact in the way that would be desirable…

Some examples:

I pressed the button to ring the doorbell.

‘Hello, what´s up?’
I have a package (when I was addressed in English, I answered in English, but it works with native language too)
‘Please put the package on the stairs’
‘Thank you very much, have a nice day’

My seven-year-old son pressed the button.

‘Hello, can I help you?’*
I want to come in
‘You’re probably in the wrong house, try the one on the right’
Now let me in
‘You’re probably in the wrong house, try the one on the left’
Ahh, stop, let me in
‘Please leave, we’re not interested’

My four-year-old daughter pressed the button:
“Hello, how are you?”*
Hey, daddy Ola, it’s talking.
“Ola is not home right now. I’m in the kitchen cooking, so I can’t come to the door.”
Do you want to come to the playground with me?

* During the test, SwannBuddy 4K was automatically updated and the welcome phrase was changed from English – if the visitor answers in another language, the doorbell will switch to that language.

Conclusion

The SwannBuddy4K Video Doorbell is a smart doorbell that is certainly smarter than most of the competition on the market. While the built-in, AI-powered voice assistant/doorman currently seems to work best for parcel deliveries and struggles a bit to communicate logically in unexpected encounters, this may be something that improves with time and experience.

The video quality is very good and in high resolution, and you don’t need to take out a subscription to use the doorbell in a way that will probably be sufficient for most people, with storage on the included SD card.