Nuked Smart door locks and video doorbells are great conveniences for single-family homes. But what about the millions of people who live in flats, apartments, and condos?. Ring, maker of the original video doorbell, thinks it has a solution.
Ring intercom is a DIY, retrofit device that attaches to the intercom inside your home and connects via Wi-Fi to the ring app on your smartphone.
The main benefit of ring intercom is the ability to talk to visitors and buzz them in remotely. But having packages or food deliveries makes it inside the building and potentially to your front door adds another level of security and convenience.
Jamie Siminoff, founder and chief inventor of ring, said it’s as obvious a solution as the video doorbell.’if I were born or grew up in Europe, maybe I would have built this first,’ he said.
Siminoff said that while its doorbell product line’has done well in Europe,’ there was a large percentage of the population that simply could n’t use one.
Ring introduced the peephole cam a couple of years ago. But that did n’t solve how to talk to someone calling at your building door. Ring discontinued the peephole last year.
This is designed to work with over 90 percent of intercom systems.’it has a ton of intelligence packed in it that decides what it’s been connected to,’ said Siminoff.
The ring intercom connects to your internal intercom handset and is powered by a rechargeable, reusable battery. There are no structural changes to your apartment required, and the installation process is completely DIY.
When someone presses your apartment button at the main entrance, it triggers two-way talk through the ring app. You can only answer calls when someone buzzes your apartment, so you ca n’t use it to listen in on people hanging out in the doorway whenever you fancy.
No recording capability, as there is with ring video doorbells. The activity log in the ring app will tell you if you missed a visitor.
Ring says it will be adding an auto-verified guests feature that lets you share revokable keys with your dog walker or cleaning person. This is something most smart door locks allow you to do.
Ring intercom can also connect to Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa. You can also unlock the door with voice, but you need to set up and use a pin code.
Ring intercom will work in the US, where there’s a larger potentially untapped market. Siminoff said he wanted to focus on Europe, get it launched there, then we’ll bring it to the US.
