Ring is known for making some of the best video doorbells you can buy, and these are an obvious choice if you’re looking for a way to check who’s at the door, see whether that package you’ve been waiting for has arrived, or give visitors instructions if they call while you’re out.
That’s not all, though – your Ring doorbell has a lot more to offer, and you might only be have scratched the surface of what it can do.
Some of your doorbell’s features are only available if you’re a Ring Home member. For more details, take a look at our complete guide to Ring subscriptions, which includes advice on the three membership tiers and a full list of current prices.
1. Trigger Alexa routines
If you have smart home devices connected to an Amazon Echo smart speaker, or an Echo Show smart display, you can use your Ring doorbell to trigger all kinds of automations. For example, you could set your doorbell to trigger a smart light when someone pushes the button, making it change color or blink to alert you when you don’t want any unnecessary noise (if you have a sleeping baby, for example).
Alternatively, you might create an Alexa automation that turns down the volume of your music when someone is at the door so you can hear them more easily through the Ring app, or activate a Ring camera to capture more footage of the caller.
To get started, open the Alexa app on your phone, select ‘More’. tap the plus icon in the top right corner, and select ‘Routine’. Tap ‘Add an event’ and choose ‘Smart home’, then select ‘Add a device’ and choose your Ring doorbell. Choose the action that will trigger the Alexa routine, then tap ‘Next’ and tap the plus icon to select which action Alexa should perform.
Curious? Take a look at our guide to the best smart speakers and best smart displays to see which Amazon Echo devices we recommend for each room in your house.
2. Make motion detection work for you
Motion detection is one of your Ring doorbell’s best features, but if you don’t have a particularly big yard, you might find yourself getting a lot of false positives and unnecessary notifications. You might be tempted to toggle motion alerts off entirely, but if you have a couple of spare minutes, you can take control and make them work for you instead.
If you just want a brief respite, you can pause motion alerts temporarily. Open the Alexa app and create a new routine following the instructions above, but this time select your Echo speaker as the device to trigger the event. Type in a voice command (like ‘Alexa, pause motion alerts’), then instruct the app to set your doorbell to ‘Do not disturb’ mode for a certain period of time.
Alternatively, you can make a custom motion zone, so you’re only alerted to movement in a particular area (on your front path and drive, for example). Open the Ring app, select Motion Settings, and select ‘Edit motion zones’. You’ll see a view from your Ring doorbell, with a blue shape overlaid on top. This is the area which the doorbell will monitor for movement.
To edit it, tap ‘Add zone’, then drag the blue dots to appear to make your own custom shape. If you want to track movement in more than one area, you can make up to three custom zones. The Motion Settings menu also lets you customize the sensitivity of your doorbell motion detection
3. Optimize battery life
Ring’s battery video doorbells are super convenient – just stick them up and they’re ready to use – but every now and then you’ll need to remove its battery pack and plug it in to recharge. It doesn’t take long, but if it’s a task you’d rather delay for as long as possible, there are a few tricks you can use to keep it running for longer.
First of all, you can reduce motion detection sensitivity and ensure you’ve set up motion zones, as described above, to prevent the doorbell capturing footage you don’t actually need.
You can also make the battery last longer between charges by reducing your doorbell’s video recording length. Open the main menu from the Ring app’s dashboard, tap ‘Devices’ and select the doorbell. Tap ‘Device settings’ followed by ‘Video settings’ and select ‘Recording length’. The default for battery doorbells is 20 seconds, but you can reduce it to 15 seconds.
Your doorbell will use more power if it doesn’t have a reliable connection to your home Wi-Fi network, so you may also want to consider installing a Wi-Fi extender if you find yourself charging the power pack more often than you’d like. Take a look at our roundup of the best Wi-Fi extenders for our top recommendations.
Finally, bear in mind that cold weather makes lithium-ion batteries drain particularly quickly. There’s not much you can do about that, but it’s worth remembering that you’ll need to charge the battery pack more frequently during the winter months.
