Can't get to the door? Alexa can now answer your Ring doorbell for you
Ring doorbells are great, but you can still miss delivery people or other callers if you can't get to the door on time. Like if you're in the shower or just out in the back garden.
Now Ring has announced you'll be able to use automated responses from parent company Amazon's Alexa voice assistant to 'answer' the door for you.
With Quick Replies need to select a pre-recorded message, so there's still some legwork to be done from the user's perspective. There are six preset responses such as "Please leave the package outside. If you’d like to leave a message, you can do it now". You can also ask the person to wait, which is probably the one we'll end up using most.
But you can set it to play either if the bell is actually rung or even if only motion is detected. So it could be a good deterrent if you struggle with people perhaps stealing a parcel from the doorstep.
If you have a Ring Video Doorbell Pro, you can go a step further (providing you also have an active Ring Protect subscription). When the bell is rung, Alexa will ask how she can help and she can either take a message or provide a location to leave a parcel. Any messages are recorded in the events area of the Ring app just like any other motion event or missed ring.
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Messages left for you can also be watched in real time in Live View should you simply not be able to get to the door.
Wired doorbells like the Ring Video Doorbell Pro (or Spotlight Cam Wired, Floodlight Cam and Indoor Cam) can also now warn umwanted visitors their motion has been detected with an audible alert. This isn't that subtle - it'll say "Warning - you are now being monitored and recorded by Ring". But it'll do the job - this can be turned on and off easily in the app.
from Pocket-lint
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