Ring floodlight camera works with smartthings... not 100%

Devices & Integrations
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So part of the reason I bought ring floodlight Cam and ring spotlight cam wired models was because they were listed as orcs with smart things by Smartthings… I am finding that the definition of of works with smart things to be somewhat limited. I would understand if this was a community DTH but I for some reason expect more out of an officially supported device.

What I am ranting about is the only function within smart things that I have been able to find for these devices is light and motion sensor. There is no access to the actual video or the siren function.

Does anyone know of a good way to get all of the functions of the ring devices working in smart things?

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My understanding is that Ring is a closed system and they have not released any API’s. So until such a time as ring wishes to enable those functions you are out of luck.

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While disappointing on rings parts I am more annoyed with smart things since they spent the time and effort to bless the ring products with the works with smart things logo and linked from their site. I don’t know of any actual cameras with these features that really do work with smart things but it seems like they are a little less than honest in this particular regard.

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Keep in mind that integration has been around a while. Much longer then the camera you have. The only official camera that has support is Arlo

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Several ring camera models were added to the official support list this year:

https://www.smartthings.com/products/-/filter/categories/cameras-and-doorbells

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That’s my point the works with smart things section of the smart things website is misleading. If Samsung /smart things is saying a certain product works with smart things the assumption is it works 100% not 50%. I’m not getting all of the function I paid for. As @JDRoberts linked, The ring floodlight camera ring spot light camera wired and ring spot light camera mount are all officially supported as per the works with smart things website.

No disrespect whatsoever to Arlo but I don’t particularly care for their cameras from prior experience had I known the ring devices weren’t going to be 100% I probably would have done more research here into what cameras actually were at least able to get 100% unofficial support period from what I understand the Wyze cameras are at that point but they do not have a siren. At the price point of those cameras I certainly would have been willing to gamble on them.

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You would need to ask support. I agree it’s very frustrating. It is an issue that smartthings has had from before Samsung bought them. They would list a device as officially compatible and then you would find out that only a few of the features were available, like Locks where you couldn’t change the user codes through the app. :disappointed_relieved:

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Yeah I mean if they say something works the assumption is that it works not just partially works. I be a whole lot less cheese off about it if it wasn’t on the officially supported list

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Do we know if ST is responsible for writing the Ring Device Handlers, or just approving their submission, etc? If it’s the latter, then I can understand ST not wanting to exclude device manufacturers just because they haven’t covered 100% of the device’s capabilities…especially when the manufacturer may not have a way to integrate it. Not saying that it isn’t frustrating to find an integration deficient, but it may need to be forgiven or an appropriate amount of blame shared with the device manufacturer. FWIW, there’s plenty of “Works with Alexa” claims that disappoint too. (Amazon owns Ring.)

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Screenshot_20190325-212754_SmartThings
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Is this what you need?

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Actually I don’t really need the camera integration as much as I need the siren available to the alarm. I’m more than happy to pop open the ring app when I get an action

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Based on some quick googling, it doesn’t look like Ring has an API for the alarm yet. Do you know if Alexa shows the alarm/siren as a smart device? Then it might be possible to use an Alexa routine to control the siren from ST using a virtual sensor, etc.

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Well, you can use Motion sensor from Ring devices, to trigger Alarm, or turn any lights, etc…

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I’m sorry I think you misunderstand what I’m trying to access. I want to be able to in the event of an alarm event from my ADT smart things system I want to be able to turn on all the lights and trigger the sirens.

I need the siren devices available for ADT tools 2 to be able to see and use. In the off chance that someone is able to breach past the cameras undetected and trigger one of the sensor’s on the perimeter I want to make as much noise and as much light as possible.

I am not going to automate any response on an outside motion sensor. I don’t wanna set off the alarm every time the wind blows my rose bushes too hard or the neighbor’s cat rooms in front of the camera

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Not sure if you are responding to my question about Alexa. But my response would still facilitate what you want IF Alexa with the Ring skill installed shows the Ring Alarm as a smart device you can turn on and off. If you confirm that it does, then I can point you to threads that discuss how to use an Alexa Routine and ST virtual sensors to control the alarm.

To avoid confusion: I appear to be using Alarm and Siren interchangeably when they are not. Sorry, I don’t own these devices. However, the point Is that if you can see a device in Alexa that allows you to control the siren, then there is a way to integrate control with ST using Alexa as a middleman.

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I think @TylerDurdenis spot on about shared blame. This is a cloud to cloud integration. I doubt Samsung controls the integration. There are allot of aspects that may not cleanly integrate with how smartthings works.

I can also see reasons why ring or other vendors getting into the HA space may hold back features for their new devices to try to drive users to their platform. I don’t think it is good for the customer, but they may feel it gives them an edge when users look at what HA system to use to drive to there platform.

The good old days of platform independence is gone

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Some really interesting points in this thread - the whole concept of users wanting to ‘integrate’ devices has always fascinated me.

The reality is that when it comes to C2C integrations, you will very rarely get 100% functionality via an integration. Firstly, you’ll almost never be able to actually set up a 3rd party cloud device from SmartThings. It’ll always be a parallel setup, then connect the two. But beyond that, it’s all about what APIs are made available (commercial) and the intricacies and eccentricities of different implementations (practical).

Take cameras as an example. There are many, many different types of streams, codecs etc, let alone the methods for actually authenticating and accessing those streams. Then you have recordings - some cloud camera systems store clips as files, some do it as a single ‘playback’ stream that you request the time you want from that. Others do it differently again… so supporting EVERYTHING is an insanely tall order.

Furthermore, you have to really ask yourself ‘why’. Why should/would SmartThings totally re-invent and re-implement all of Ring’s functionality in the ST app, when the Ring app already exists and works? And how far do you take it? Should you be able to manage all of your Ring settings? What about their Neighbourhood Watch features? Where do you draw the line?

My view is that integrations should facilitate some additional functionality that you couldn’t do before.

Take Ring as an example. Let’s say my outdoor lighting is dimmed on to 25% when the sun sets. But when someone is at the door I want them to raise up to 100%, then back down again 5 mins later. Ring alone can’t do that, and that’s where an integration comes in.

All ST has to do is accept the webhook for doorbell push, and you can achieve exactly that. Something that you couldn’t do before, you can do now. And the implementation cost is tiny - big payoff, small cost.

IMHO that’s very different to just blindly re-building all of Ring’s app in SmartThings. What a waste of developer resources!

I appreciate it’s nice to have everything in one app. But the reality is the industry just isn’t there yet. And it’s going to be a long time until we get there.

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Well stated, and I agree with all your points. But I think there’s one additional issue that the OP was referring to, and it is an important one. That is, since smartthings publishes a “works with SmartThings” list of officially certified as compatible devices, I do feel that they should update those listings to indicate exactly what the integration allows you to do. Because people use those for pre-purchase decisions.

Samsung doesn’t have to worry about what the manufacturer does in their own app. They just have to list the things that smartthings can do with that device.

In this case, I believe the device has a light, the camera, the motion sensor, a siren, and an audio intercom. It shouldn’t be that hard to list which of those features are available through the SmartThings integration.

Back in 2014, the official compatibility list had a little tiny “I“ that you could tap for more information and might say things like “custom key codes are not available“ for a lock. OK, that sucks, but it’s good information to have before you buy the lock.

If we at least had the level of information that the IFTTT channel gives us by exposing the available triggers, we would know a lot more than we know now.

So, again, I think you’re making a very good point, but I believe the OP’s primary concern was that they felt they had been misled by the “works with SmartThings“ label about which products would be appropriate to buy. And I do think that’s a valid complaint.

JMO :sunglasses:

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Folks we are going down a Rabbit hole that doesn’t necessarily need to be pursued. At least in my case. And I fear this is going to go down into some serious misunderstanding and a tone in the community I simply do not intend.

Let’s sum it up.

#1. Samsung / Smartthings claims the mains powered Ring cameras, such as the Spotlight Camera Wired, and Floodlight Camera “Works With Smartthings”, and for more info they link to the partner site leading visitors to believe that Samsung / SmartThings are partnered with Ring to integrate the Ring devices into SmartThings. This is a reasonable inferrence from reading the publicly published information from Samsung / SmartThings…
#2. Of the listed features, only 2 of the 8 listed features do anything in SmartThings, and one of those only halfway. Yes you can turn the lights on and off, but you can not dim them, so technically, that puts the percentage of working with SmartThings at about 18.5%.
#3. Who is responsible for making this actually work? Well, at least in my view, since Samsung / SmartThings is making the compatibility claim, they are. There are valid points of view from developers here that would seem to think it is on Ring to make it work. And while valid points, and I want to stress that I believe they are perfectly valid points, I disagree with them based solely on the public statements of the relevant parties. The Minutae behind the scenes doesn’t matter to the user / consumer. And while I am no expert, I seriously suspect the law would back me up on this.

So all of this is all well and good, but it does nothing to resolve the issue at hand. I mean a grand total of bupkis… So I would like to steer this thread back onto its original intention… How to actually get access to the function I seek…

So far in my application, I get the following function from the ring devices in SmartThings.

#1. LIghts turn on and off. This is important, and I want to keep it.
#2. Motion detection. I do NOT want motion detection on anything outdoor tied into my ADT SmartThings system. Last thing I want to do is send any sort of alert because the motion sensor picked up the neighbors cat, or the wind is blowing the rosebush around. So for me, on SmartThings this is a useless function.

What condition I want to get to, but have no clue how…

#1. Retain all Ring app functionality, nothing i do here should interfere with how the devices interact with each other, the Ring cloud, or Ring app other than perhaps sending status info so that I don’t try turning the lights on when they are on sort of thing…
#2. Retain the lighting control function. Full on, or full off is perfectly acceptable to me.
#3. Be able to see, or at least send a signal via something maybe like IFTTT to have alarm events trigger the sirens on the Ring camera devices… I would PREFER that they show up in SmartThings directly, but if given a clue on how to make it happen, would be happy to tie in to other methods for making the communication work.

For me, the actual video feed is irrelevant from within SmartThings, and honestly, if there was some way to enable Ring to monitor my ADT SmartThings system, hey I’d be all over that as I already have the $100/year plan with Ring… I don’t see that happening any time soon, ADT / SmartThings and Ring have too much invested separately to play nice there…

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Very nicely summed up, and exactly my issue. Since the product is thus advertised and labelled no disclaimers of reduced function I feel it is reasonable to assume full functionality from within SmartThings.

And like I said in my last post, mostly aimed at @Mavrrick58, in the most respectful way possible, since he seems to be carrying this banner the highest, I agree that his points are absolutely valid, he just seems to be missing my point. He is coming from the perspective of a developer, and I respect that. I am coming from the perspective of a consumer that is not getting the function that was advertised and am feeling somewhat duped. I am not saying he is wrong in the slightest, I am however airing my perspective that intentionally or not, this is definately misleading advertising and reasonably expected function, the expectation founded on that advertising, not delivered.

I have siad this in many threads in regards to the Smart Home market at this time. The industry is a mess with too many competing interests, and very little standardization, even the standards (ZigBee leaps to mind) aren’t really standard… All of which is probably best for the competitors in the short term, but wil likely be lousy for both the competitors AND consumers in the long run. I totally get trying to make a mint off of your creation, but no one company makes everything consumers want, or expect from Home Automation and Security, and there is so much bleed over between the two that it would be in the industries, and consumers best interest for more standardization and interoperability to take place moving forward. Ring devices to work with ST systems, ST devices to work with Ring systems if / when they go with HA, etc…

We went through this back in the 80s and 90s as general purpose computing evolved to where we now have pretty much the standards, Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android and iOS, on X86_64, ARM, and RISC. For the most part, for example, a USB mouse is a USB mouse is a USB mouse, a drive is a drive is a drive any more. Now there ARE variances, but they work one with another in a manner. You don’t need a Mac specific SATA hard drive to replace your blown out drive on your Macintosh as it were. You don’t need a Samsung micro SD card for your Galaxy Note 9, etc… There are standards of interoperability, and everyone is better off for it.

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