Get M&M’s Red to answer your door this Halloween
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
It’s almost time for Halloween, and when it comes to the smart home, that always brings some great tricks. From setting your smart lighting to green and purple for super spooky vibes, to making your smart speakers play scary music, there are endless things you can do to get your home prepared for Fright Night itself, and the run up to it.
If there is any smart device that Halloween season was made for though, it’s the video doorbell. You can change the ringtone of both Ring and Nest doorbells, though Ring only lets you change the Chime inside your home rather than the doorbell ringtone itself, while Nest lets you change the doorbell tone and any connected smart speakers.
Ring does offer something else though – mischievous Quick Replies from M&M’s Red. The Quick Replies from Red are only available throughout October, but we are absolutely here for these Halloween-inspired automatic responses. Wondering how to set them up? That’s where we come in. We will also tell you how to change your Ring Video Doorbell’s Chime to spooky sounds for double trouble.
What you’ll need
- A Ring Video Doorbell
- The Ring app
- Your smartphone or tablet
The short version
- Open the Ring app.
- Tap the menu button (three lines) in the top left of the Dashboard.
- Tap Devices.
- Select the doorbell you want to set up M&M Quick Replies with.
- Tap the Smart Responses tile below the doorbell image.
- Toggle on the Quick Replies switch to blue.
- Set Response Time for right away or between 2-20 seconds.
- Tap on Quick Reply Message.
- Scroll down the list and select one of the M&M seasonal greetings.
- Tap Save in the top right corner.
Ring has teamed up with M&Ms for Halloween this year, enabling you to get M&M’s Red to deliver Quick Replies from your Ring Video Doorbell when you don’t fancy answering the trick or treaters that appear at your door.
There are 15 different Quick Replies that M&M’s Red can deliver so you can carry on doing whatever you’re doing, whether that’s pumpkin carving or watching your favourite scary film. Install them on your Ring Video Doorbell quick though as they won’t be around forever. They started on October 1 and they will be around until Halloween night itself. You’ll need to install them before Halloween though.
The Quick Replies M&M’s Red can say include the following:
- Shake lke a skeleton
- Ride an invisible broomstick
- Boogie like a bat
- Haunting howl
- Cleaning my coffin
- Pumpkin carving, leave a message.
- Don’t mean to ghost you.
- Fire burn, cauldron bubble, leave your message on the double.
- Trick or treat, smell out feet, leave a message at the beep.
- [Howl] Be Right There!
- I’ll be right there to eat…I mean greet you.
- Tell us what brings you here…or we’ll put a spell on you.
- We’re turning into werewolves. Please leave a message.
- You’ve woken the spirits! Please leave a message.
- Just a minute! Feel free to park your broom.
When someone rings your Ring Video Doorbell, M&M’s Red will then respond with the message you have selected.
How to change your Ring Video Doorbell’s Chime to Halloween sounds
As we mentioned, you can’t change the ringtone of Ring’s Video Doorbell itself, only the Chime it is connected to. It’s a bit of a shame really as it would be more fun to have the Halloween tones coming directly out of your doorbell itself, but you can at least plug the Chime in close to your front door if you want your visitors to hear it.
Here’s how to change your Ring Video Doorbell to sound spookier this Halloween:
- Open the Ring app.
- Select the three lines in the top left.
- Select Devices from the menu.
- Pick the Chime you want to change the ringtone of
- Tap on Audio Settings.
- Tap on Chime Tones.
- Scroll through the selection to pick your favorite Halloween tone.
- Tap Save.
FAQs
When the Halloween Quick Replies are removed, your Quick Reply Message will switch to “We can’t answer the door right now”.
The Halloween Quick Replies will be around till the end of the Halloween season, which we expect to be until October 31.