Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Use Home, Away and Disarm Modes to improve security and save battery life
Ring Video Doorbells and Ring Cams have plenty of features on board, from package detection for the doorbells if you pay for a Ring Protect subscription, to creating motion zones for more tailored notifications. Like Nest doorbells and cameras, Ring also offers a home and away modes for its doorbells and cameras though, and these are particularly useful for controlling all of your Ring doorbells and cameras at once.
When you set up the Ring Modes, the mode-selection buttons will automatically be added to the Dashboard in your Ring app, offering quick and easy access to them, and allowing you to control your devices and implement your recording preferences in a more efficient way.
Here’s how to set up and use Ring Modes and what the Home, Away and Disarm Modes mean.
What you’ll need
- The Ring app
- Your Ring camera or doorbell
- Your smartphone or tablet
The short version
- Open the Ring app.
- Tap on the three lines in the top left corner.
- Select ‘Devices’.
- Tap on a Ring device.
- Select the ‘Mode Settings’ tile.
- Choose ‘Use Default Mode Settings’ or ‘Customise Mode Settings’.
- Select your preferences.
- When in Ring Dashboard, select Home, Away, Disarmed icons to apply those preferences to all Ring cameras.
As we mentioned, Ring Modes are a quick and easy way to control your Ring devices. That applies if you have a Ring Video Doorbell or Ring Cams, or a mixture of both. There are three Ring Modes available which comprise of Home, Away and Disarmed, though you will need a Ring Protect subscription to access them.
By default, the Home Mode allows you to move freely and privately inside your home without getting constant motion alerts from your Ring Cams. When in Home Mode, the outside of your home will remain monitored by any Ring devices you have outside, like a Ring Video Doorbell for example.
The Away Mode, when selected, will monitor your home inside and out by default, with alerts appearing depending on what motion detection settings you have put in place. The Disarmed Mode meanwhile, will do what it says on the tin – it disarms all your Ring Cams and Doorbells so you can move freely inside and outside of your home without a barrage of notifications.
When the Ring Modes have been enabled, you will see the buttons on the Ring Dashboard for quick, one-tap enabling of all your Ring devices at once, as we mentioned.
Time needed: 5 minutes
- Open the Ring app and find Mode Settings
The first thing you need to do is open the Ring app and tap on one of your Ring devices. You will then want to tap on the three lines in the top left corner and select ‘Devices’ from the menu. From here, select one of your Ring devices and tap on the ‘Mode Settings’ tile. If it’s your first time setting up Modes, you can go through a brief tutorial about the different Modes we mentioned above by tapping on ‘Learn More’.
- Pick default or customise the Mode Settings
Once you’ve tapped ‘Continue’ a couple of times to spin through the three different Ring Modes and what they mean, you will be able to select between ‘Use Default Mode Settings’ or ‘Customise Mode Settings’. If you use the Default, your Ring cameras and doorbells will behave as we explained above.
- Customise Mode Settings
If you don’t your indoor cameras to turn on when you set Away Mode for example, or you want to turn all your Ring cameras and doorbells off expect one when you select Disarmed Mode, then you can do that by selecting ‘Customise Mode Settings’. From here, you can tap on each of your Ring devices to choose specific settings. For example, you can turn Live View on or off, determine Smart Response settings and turn Motion Detection on or off, giving you a little bit more flexibility.
- Turn Ring Modes on or off
Once you have set up Ring Modes, you will see the Modes appear at the top of your Ring Dashboard. Select one and the icon will turn red. If you want to turn the Ring Modes off altogether, tap on the three lines in the top left, then Devices and then select one of your Ring devices. You’ll then need to head back into the Mode Settings and tap on ‘Disable Modes’ at the bottom. When Modes are enabled, you can also choose to enable ‘Shared User Access’ so any shared users at your location will be able to control Modes in the Ring app.
That’s it! You should see Home, Away and Disarmed icons at the top of your Ring Dashboard, allowing you to select your preferences with one quick tap.
FAQs
Yes, like person and package detection, Ring Modes require a Ring Protect Subscription. If you don’t have a Ring Protect subscription, you won’t be able to access the Ring Modes feature.
