Get the most out of your video doorbell
Ring is the company that was responsible for making video doorbells a thing. It was the first video doorbell on the market and that arrived way back in 2014 so it’s had several years to get pretty good at monitoring who is coming in and out of your home.
There are probably a few things you don’t know about your Ring Video Doorbell though, because while many of its features are available to see as soon as you click on your device in the Ring app, there are a couple of tricks hiding within the settings that can deliver a better user experience overall.
We’ve rounded up seven of our top tips for Ring Video Doorbells to help you get the most out yours, whatever model you have.
Also read: Ring Battery Video Doorbell Pro vs Video Doorbell Plus: What’s the difference?
Turn on Rich Notifications
When on, Rich Notifications will give you a preview of what has happened on your Ring Video Doorbell within your phone’s notifications. It means you don’t have to open the Ring app to see what has happened and instead, you can glance at the notification quickly to decide whether you need to give it your proper attention or not.
Open the Ring app and tap on the three lines in the top left. Tap on Devices, then your Ring Video Doorbell from the list and then tap on the Device Settings tile. From here, you’ll need to select Notifications Settings, followed by Rich Notifications. You can then toggle Rich Notifications on, though keep in mind that they do require a Ring Home subscription. With that subscription however, you will also get access to Video Preview Alerts which is an extension of the Rich Notifications but with a video pop up appearing in notifications rather than just a snapshot.
Put your motion detection on a schedule
There’s a chance you won’t need motion detection all day and if that’s the case, we recommend putting motion alerts on a schedule do you aren’t constantly interrupted when you’re at home and can see for yourself what is happening outside your front door.
Open the Ring app, tap on the three Iines in the top left, tap on Devices, and select your doorbell. You’ll then want to tap on the Motion Settings tile, followed by Motion Schedules. Select ‘Add Schedule’ to set up when you don’t want to receive motion alerts.
Set up a Geofence
Setting up a Geofence in the Ring app will stop your Ring Video Doorbell telling you when you have arrived home as your doorbell will know when it’s you arriving at your door. Once you’ve set up a geofenced area, you can snooze alerts when you enter that area.
Open the Ring app and tap on the three lines in the top left corner. From here, tap on Settings and then Modes and Automations. You’ll then see the Geofence, which you tap on and select ‘Turn on Feature’ and follow the steps.
Set up Quick Replies
Quick Replies are a feature within the Ring app that allows you to answer your Ring Video Doorbell when you are busy, with a preset response. The great thing about Quick Replies is that Ring often adds a bit of fun to them, including special seasonal options for Halloween and other specific times of the year. At the time of writing, there are Quick Reply options using Ant and Dec that you can set up.
Open the Ring app and tap on the three lines in the top left, followed by Devices. Tap on your Ring Video Doorbell and then tap on Smart Responses. From here, turn on Quick Replies, select the Response Time and then select your Quick Reply Message.
Check your Ring Video Doorbell’s battery
You will get a series of notifications when your Ring Video Doorbell’s battery is starting to run low, and these notifications give you quite a bit of warning too. If you are someone that likes to really push the battery to the edge though, or you just want to know how much you actually have left when those battery notifications appear, you can check in the Ring app.
Open the Ring app and tap on the three lines in the top left. Tap on Devices and select your doorbell from the options. There is a tile called ‘Power Settings’ which you can tap on to get a rundown of see which features use battery, as well as check your doorbell’s battery percentage.
Change the auto video recording length
This is another feature that requires a Ring Home plan, unfortunately, but if you have one of those, you can change the video recording length. The default is 30 seconds but you can change that up or down depending on when you want video recording to stop following motion detection. Opting for shorter will help battery life.
Open the Ring app, tap on the three lines in the top left and select Devices. You’ll then need to select your Ring Video Doorbell and tap on the ‘Device Settings’ tile. From here, tap on Video Settings at the top and select Recording Length. You can then adjust accordingly.
Setup Alexa Routines for your Ring Video Doorbell
Alexa Routines allow you to create custom actions and Ring Video Doorbells are supported so there’s endless automations you can set up. For example, you could make your Philips Hue lights flash purple when someone rings your Ring doorbell. It’s a little more complicated than some of the other tips above, but we have Alexa Routines covered in full in a separate feature so you can get stuck in.
