Amazon is announcing that it’s adding Alexa to its Ring Video Doorbell Pro, giving it the ability to talk to people when they come to your house. The feature is called Alexa Greetings, and requires that you have a Ring Protect subscription, which starts at $3 a month.
These new features let you select a pre-recorded audio message, have Alexa take a message, or have a pre-recorded alert play when your doorbell or camera detects motion.
Alexa Greetings
If you have a Ring Video Doorbell Pro and are a Ring Protect subscriber, Alexa can now greet visitors when they ring the doorbell. Alexa asks how she can help and based on the visitor’s response, she will either offer to take a message or provide directions for package deliveries.
It’s easy to set up Alexa Greetings within your Ring App. Just click on the Smart Responses tile and enable Alexa Greetings. Once enabled, you can choose how long Alexa should wait to answer the door, and specify where package deliveries should be left.
And once Alexa takes a message, you can view it right within the event history in the Ring App as you would any other event. So no more worrying where your latest package was put or if you missed an important message from a neighbor. Alexa has it covered.
Quick Replies
You can choose from a list of six preset responses such as “We can’t answer the door right now, but if you’d like to leave a message, you can do it now,” or “Please leave the package outside. If you’d like to leave a message, you can do it now.”
When your visitor leaves you a message, you can watch it in real-time using Live View, or if you are a Ring Protect subscriber, you’ll be able to access the message at any time by visiting your event history. If you just want more time to get to the front door, you can also select from responses that ask the visitor to wait a few moments.
Motion Warnings
Motion Warnings add an extra layer of security to your doorstep with an audible alert that lets visitors know they are being recorded. When your device detects motion, it will say “Warning – you are now being monitored and recorded by Ring” to make it clear the camera is recording and potentially deter any unwanted visitors. And like all of these features, Motion Warnings can easily be turned on and off in the Ring App.
