10 Life Hacks Every Ring User Should Know
When setting up any new internet-connected device, don’t stick to the default settings. This creates security risks and isn’t the best way to use the available features. If you have a Ring camera or doorbell, there are many changes you can make to minimize disruption and maximize privacy.
Snooze motion alerts when you’re outdoors.
Motion alerts are one of the most useful features of any security camera, but you don’t need notifications on your phone while you ‘re moving around. You can snooze alerts for specific situations, such as when you’re outside gardening or hosting a party. The “Global Snooze” feature pauses alerts for all cameras and doorbells for a set time, while the “Alert Snooze” feature lets you pause notifications from a specific device. With Snooze enabled, you’ll still receive doorbell and priority alerts.
In the Ring app, tap the motion icon, select the snooze duration, and tap Start Snooze . For a single device, tap the More icon on the camera you want to snooze and tap the bell icon to turn the snooze on or off.
If you use monitoring through Virtual Security Guard, you can enable Motion Snooze for registered devices to temporarily suspend this service.
Optimize traffic zones to exclude certain areas.
Another way to customize motion alerts is to customize motion detection zones on your Ring camera. For example, you can exclude busy streets with lots of traffic, as well as private, low-traffic areas that you don’t need to monitor. You can add up to three motion detection zones per device under Settings > Motion Detection Settings > Camera Motion Detection Zones . Tap “Add Zone,” drag the zone boundaries into the camera’s field of view, and tap “Save.”
Set up smart alerts to reduce unnecessary notifications.
In addition to narrowing motion detection zones, you can choose whether to receive motion alerts and/or recordings specifically for people, vehicles, and packages, while minimizing notifications from other motion sources. ( Not all Ring devices are compatible with all three Smart Alert categories, and you’ll need a Ring subscription to use these features.) To enable Smart Alerts, go to your device’s Settings > Motion Settings > Smart Alerts , then tap Enable Feature > Continue and select your preferred alerts.
Customize your area to receive up-to-date alerts.
Neighbors is an online community where Ring users can share video footage and receive updates about their neighborhood. It’s a catch-all for controversial features like Community Requests and Search Group (which I’ll discuss below), but it can be useful for monitoring events in your neighborhood—such as fires or other safety alerts—even if you don’t make your camera’s content public. You can customize your neighborhood to receive only relevant alerts, especially if your neighborhood is more active in the app. Go to Menu > Neighbors > Settings > Customize Neighborhood to change your neighborhood boundaries.
Disable law enforcement requests from the community.
The “Community Requests” feature in the Neighbors app allows law enforcement to request video from users’ Ring devices. While Ring states that video recordings are not shared automatically and that law enforcement does not have access to live streams, many users still have privacy concerns about this type of collaboration. (It’s worth noting that Ring also had a short-lived partnership with Flock Safety , which would have made it easier for law enforcement to request video from Ring cameras using Flock’s software.)
You can simply ignore community requests in the Neighborhood Feed, or disable them completely in Neighborhood Settings > Feed Settings . Uncheck the box next to Community Requests and click Apply .
Opt out of being tracked by Search Party.
Earlier this year, Ring introduced its Search Party feature in a Super Bowl commercial, ostensibly to help users find lost dogs in their neighborhoods. Search Party uses artificial intelligence to identify pets in your Ring camera’s field of view and combines video footage with footage from other cameras. Obviously, this feature comes with significant privacy concerns , primarily the question of whether and how your video footage could be shared with law enforcement for surveillance of people rather than animals. You can completely disable Search Party in Control Center > Search Party . Select the blue “Pet” icon next to each camera.
Disconnect from the Amazon Sidewalk wireless network.
Amazon Sidewalk uses your Ring device—and other devices in your area—to create a mesh network, keeping these devices connected to the internet even if your Wi-Fi is weak or drops. Amazon claims this feature provides security (as you’ll still receive important alerts) and extends the range of other devices, such as smart lights, smart locks, and pet locators. However, you might not want to use your bandwidth for this purpose, nor do you want to create potential privacy issues on your home network. You can disable Amazon Sidewalk in the Control Center of the Ring app.
Disable third-party service sharing
Like many other apps and services, Ring shares certain information with third parties, such as for personalized advertising. Although the company claims it does not sell users’ personal data, in 2020, researchers from the Electronic Frontier Foundation discovered that the Ring app was loaded with third-party trackers that sent personal data to analytics and marketing companies.
In response, Ring has added an opt-out feature that allows you to customize your settings so that this information remains private to third-party providers. In the Ring app, go to Menu > Control Center > Cookies & Third-Party Providers and disable third-party web and mobile analytics cookies and personalized advertising .
Enable end-to-end encryption to protect your Ring video footage.
If you want to ensure maximum privacy for your Ring video recordings, consider enabling end-to-end encryption (E2EE), which prevents anyone but you from accessing your recordings. This adds an extra layer of protection against hackers, as well as Ring itself (including compliance with law enforcement requests), as videos will be hidden behind a passphrase and can only be viewed on your registered mobile device. You will also need a (paid) Ring Protect subscription. The main drawback is that you will lose access to a fairly extensive list of features , including 24/7 video recording and person detection. To set up E2EE, go to Control Center > Video Encryption > End-to-End Encryption .
Set up local storage to increase storage space and improve privacy.
With a Ring Protect subscription, Ring will store your videos in the cloud for 180 days, which can be reduced to one day if you’re concerned about unauthorized access to your recordings (and end-to-end encryption isn’t enabled). Unfortunately, without a Ring Protect subscription, there’s no easy way to store camera video, and you’ll likely need to retain recordings for at least some time. You can set up local storage on a MicroSD card through the Ring Edge, although you’ll need to purchase a Ring Alarm Pro base station. This will give you more control, more space, and more privacy. Of course, another option is to look for a camera that offers local storage from the start.