I recently did an article on Ring, the future of the doorbell. While that article covered the basics of what the video doorbell offers, it didn’t cover how the doorbell’s partner program allows it to help you create a synced smart home. Ring+ has a mission to help you have complete control of your home by connecting its video doorbell to your smart locks and hubs so that you have more convenience in your security monitoring. The tagline is: With Ring, you’re always home.
How Ring+ Works
Ring+ aims to help residents reduce crime in communities by partnering with other smart home devices. According to their website, it is a simple three-step process to connect your doorbell with one of their partner devices. You just have to have the partner device’s app, then you can open the live event screen in the Ring app to initiate the integration process. This seems as easy as the Ring mount-it-and-you’re-ready installation process, though I’m sure that it is a little bit more intense, and that there are hiccups that users experience. Still. It’s nice to see that smart home tech is getting easier for the Average Joes and Average Janes to use.
Available Partner Integrations
Of course, Ring+ doesn’t integrate with every piece of smart home tech that exists. If you want to have a connected system, you’ll have to be using, or willing to use, one of their partners.
- Wink. This is a smart home hub that lets us create automated tasks. The best integration with Ring would be to have Robots create a trigger that turns on your porch lights, or even all your property lights, when your Ring doorbell is triggered by motion. While the Ring doorbell already has night vision, the point here is to discourage any suspicious or criminal activity. Since the doorbell can be triggered by motion alone – the actual doorbell doesn’t have to be rung – this can scare away would-be trouble.
- Kevo and Lockstate. These smart locks can connect with your doorbell so that if you are in a live video event, you can choose to lock or unlock your door without leaving the Ring app, all while you are monitoring activity directly outside, or near, your home. If your guest is a welcome one, you can simply press a button to unlock the door and allow them to enter. Once they are in, you can then lock the door again. This will work whether you are home or not.
In addition to these smart home partners, there is also a smart office partner, Kisi. The concept here is generally the same as using Ring+ with a smart lock, but Kisi monitors all access for an office setting, instead of for a home setting.
The truth is that each of these products function fine on their own, but it is cool to see them connected. You could easily exit your Ring doorbell live event, open your smart lock app, and unlock the door. But since smart tech is all about convenience and connection, it’s a much more attractive option to be able to control your devices in one single experience.
