Ring’s camera works with Alexa voice commands and will interact with third-party devices using IFTTT applets, but it doesn’t work with Apple HomeKit or Google Assistant. The Aqara Camera Hub G5 Pro offers a big advantage here, with support for all the major smart home voice assistants and automation platforms.
The Outdoor Cam Pro utilizes the same Ring mobile app (available for Android and iOS) as the company’s other devices and features its own dedicated panel on the dashboard screen. When you tap the panel, it opens a screen that contains a video preview with a play arrow. Tap the arrow to launch a live stream, which can be viewed in full-screen mode by turning your phone sideways or by tapping the square icon on the bottom right corner of the video panel. Here you’ll also see an icon with two arrows; tap that to open a zoomed-in full-screen video. Just below the video panel are buttons to end the live stream, initiate two-way talk, and mute the speaker. At the very bottom of the screen, there’s a Quick Control button that allows you to turn each of your Ring devices on and off, a Replies button that plays a pre-recorded voice message for visitors, a Siren button, and a More button that enables the picture-in-picture feature.
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Tap the gear icon in the upper right corner to access the settings screen, which contains buttons for enabling and disabling motion detection and motion alerts, as well as for activating the siren and switching to live view. Below these buttons are tiles that allow access to various settings and features. The Events History tile displays a list of video thumbnails and a summary that includes a graph of all events, the triggers that prompted them, and their occurrence dates. Mode Settings lets you configure the home, away, and disarmed settings. Linked Devices allows you to have the camera record when another Ring device detects motion, and Alerts Snooze lets you temporarily disable notifications. Device Health lets you view network signal strength and receive troubleshooting notifications. Other tiles can be used to configure motion settings, including bird’s eye and motion zones, enable smart responses and motion warnings, view help topics, and access video, privacy, notification, and snapshot capture settings.
(Credit: Ring/PCMag)
The mobile app provides access to the Ring Neighbors community, where you can view real-time safety and crime alerts for your neighborhood. Ring is also rolling out its new Search Party feature that helps reunite pet owners with their lost pets. Essentially, when a neighbor posts a picture of their lost pet, compatible cameras, such as the Outdoor Cam Pro, will utilize AI to search for possible matches and notify you if a match is found. You can then contact the pet owner and share the video to increase the likelihood of a reunion.
