Ring Indoor Camera Integration?

I recently purchased a Ring Indoor Camera (“Plug In Security Camera” says the box) specifically with the assumption that because ST supports Ring, I could easily add the camera once I had it setup on my network through the Ring app. I plan to install a Ring floodlight with camera and Video Doorbell Pro so having cameras such as this in the Ring family seems to make sense. But between “assumption” and “seems to make sense”, something isn’t doing its thing.

After installing the camera on my phone in the Ring app and double checking that it is available when I use the website, I tried to add it to ST and I get “No reported devices. Ring is reporting that you do not own any of the devices on this account.” Am I missing something?

TIA

Here is the current list of supported Ring devices…

You may want to contact Ring and ask them to support your Ring product in their integration as they manage/control it. :slight_smile:

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First rule of home automation: “The model number matters.” Some Ring models models work with smartthings, some don’t. You just have to check each individual one. There’s usually a technical reason, but they don’t always tell you what the technical reason is.

For example, even in the case of Samsung cameras, some of them used to work with smartthings, most of them now don’t. :disappointed_relieved:

@jkp - thanks for the list. Strangely, the list in the ST app has a couple others like the Stick up battery camera so I may try one of those.

@JDRoberts - it is amazing how a company can say “Works with…” and they don’t say something like “…but only certain models so pay attention or you will get frustrated with us.” I did the famous “ass-u-me” approach and I should know better.

The other frustrating part of all of this is I have 5 Blink cameras that work great, except ST doesn’t support anymore of course. My goal is to have 1 or 2 key ones in ST, the others I have no problem monitoring through the Blink app.

The first person/company to crack the barriers around various companies and models and stuff working together is in for a bazillion dollar payday. Everyone thinks their stuff is better and doesn’t stink, and yet they all have warts of some kind.

Anyway, thanks to you both for help me with the “duh” moment.

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There are two parts to this. First, in the United States we tend to not have universal standardization on anything except basic safety. There are a lot of market reasons for that. Chargers are the classic example. people have been complaining for 20 years about having to have different charging cords for different devices, but there’s still no universal standard. :scream:

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For the second part, the companies do know that customers would like this. So some companies are working on creating at least a popular standard, if not a universal one. See

Matter - smart home connectivity standard (formerly Project CHIP)

How far they will get is anybody’s guess right now, we will just have to wait and see what happens. Although they’ve definitely got the right mix of companies involved. But that’s still a ways in the future.

But for now, low cost home automation really only offers three types of systems:

Type 1: very limited device selection

Security companies do it the simple way: they pick a very specific set of devices, say “we work with these“ and that’s it. Usually there’s only one or two choices in each device class. Their customers may feel restricted, but they aren’t confused.

Xioami does this in home automation. If you’re OK having your cloud account hosted in China, you don’t need more than 30 devices, and you’re willing to only buy their brand, the gateway is a strong candidate. For somebody who lives in an apartment in Beijing or even Hong Kong, it’s justifiably One of the most popular systems.

So it’s a good example of how a single company might do a home automation system very similar to the low cost home security systems currently available. Again, customers might feel restricted By the limited selection, but they won’t be confused.

https://www.gearbest.com/living-appliances/pp_344667.html

Type 2: a logo program with very strict standards

Apple does it by very strictly enforcing a unified standard for HomeKit accessories. Devices that work with their platform have the HomeKit logo on the box, so it’s pretty simple. There are more choices then there would be for most of the security systems, but still not a lot and most of them are in the higher cost range.

It’s a good simple reliable home automation platform that runs locally except for voice control and it’s justifiably popular with those who already have iOS devices. But of course it doesn’t help anybody who uses Android or who wants a wider range of choices or just more complex automation rules.

Type 3: the model number matters

And then there’s SmartThings, Amazon Echo, Homeseer and others that operate by publishing a set of standards, opening up some integration, but not really enforcing much and leaving it up to the individual device manufacturers to create the integrations. The end result is what you see. Lots of choices, lots of customer confusion about what works and what doesn’t. Many people find benefit in having those choices, but it does require doing some homework when you are considering new devices for your system. Whether that much work is worth the payoff is an individual assessment.

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To solve the integration of SmartThings and Ring Indoor cam I have plugged my Ring Indoor cam into a SmartThings plug in socket and have it behave differently for Home and Away and with it On in the Ring app.

Anyone out there know if the Ring indoor camera will be compatible with ST in the near future? Doesn’t seem to be something that should be too difficult, since their other models currently work within ST. Recently purchased these hoping they would work and to my surprise, they don’t. These are way cheaper than the stick-up cameras and I prefer to stay with them as they are compact in size.

Some ring models work with smartthings and some don’t, and this has been true for over a year, so I wouldn’t make any assumptions.

Part of the problem is that under the new architecture, device manufacturers are supposed to be responsible for the integrations. Under the old architecture, they could send one of their physical devices to smartthings and smartthings engineers would write the integration.

The ring integration was originally written for the old architecture, but now smartthings says it is up to ring to update the integration. There have been some rumors that ring was working on it, but nothing official that I’ve seen and no timeline.

In any case, the first rule of home automation applies: “the model number matters.“

2020 Rundown: Ring Products and new V3 App?

It’s funny because when I reached out to Ring regarding my Gen 2 doorbell which I’m patiently waiting to have access in smartthings , say that it’s on Samsung and smartthings to get it integrated?

Seems like for me at least just finger pointing unfortunately.

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