Alexa Skill Doesn't Honor Motion Schedule

Products Ring Integrations
#1

Relatively new Ring Video Doorbell Pro owner here. Also relatively new Amazon Echo Dot owner.

In order to avoid sunrise motion sensor alerts, and early garbage trucks alerts, we set up a Motion Schedule to disable motion alerts in the Ring app.

This works fine for the Ring App. However, the Alexa Skill for Ring which we installed does NOT honor that schedule. We have “Motion Announcement” enabled inside the Alexa Skill, but our intent would be it would only do that when the Motion Schedule in the Ring App is not set to disable motion sensing. That’s not happening. The Alexa Skill does motion announcement on our Echo Dot whether the Motion Schedule is in effect or not on the Ring App.

Does anyone know any way around this? I can’t find any way to schedule turning off the Ring Skill or Motion Announcement inside the Alexa app.

22 Likes
#2

Hey @georule ! Have you tried creating a routine to match your Motion Schedule? I don’t believe Announcements let you set a timing restrictions, but this could be one way around this.

Also, I’m going to be moving this conversation to our Integration Board, as this question fits a little better over there with other Alexa questions :slight_smile: Let me know how the routine goes!

1 Like
#3

What was the answer to this also having the same issue, I use Alexa for my wake up alarm but motion in the night waking me up

2 Likes
#4

Hi @Mk57ej, were you able to try the suggested option above to create a routine that matches your Motion Schedule? We would appreciate hearing how it works for your needs.

1 Like
#5

Hi I’ve used an Alexa routine to set ‘Do Not Disturb’ on my Alexa devices to match the Schedule.

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#6

I have tried setting up a routine in Alexa but the ring device shows as unsupported. I don’t want to use a “do not disturb” on Alexa as that would hinder other announcement routines.

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#7

Hi @FrankD, which Ring device is showing up as unsupported for you to use the Alexa Skill with?

#8

It’s the ring doorbell pro.
Using routine/ schedule/ smart home/

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#9

@FrankD Checking in to see if things have improved with time. Other neighbors have shared with us that sometimes Alexa takes some time to recognize or register devices. I’m sure you’ve tried this, but unlinking and readding the Pro might help.

#10

SOLVED:

Solution found by user abqnm666 on reddit.

"In the Ring camera skill, turn off the notifications for Motion alerts, but don’t disable the skill. Next, go to Routines in the left side menu of the Alexa app.

Create a routine by tapping Devices and then (name of Ring device), then “Motion” as the trigger, and for the action, choose Messaging > Announcement, and tell it what you want Alexa to say. You can be creative or just have it say the same things as the notification in the skill does, like “there is motion in the garden.”

Then choose which Echo devices to alert on.

Then set the times/days you want it to alert during, and if you want it to suppress repeat notifications for any period of time. Save the routine and you’ve got a schedule for notifications."

6 Likes
#11

I feel like the workarounds presented here aren’t sufficient. The problem is bigger. The echos should also be honoring the motion snooze. I like to snooze the motion when I’m going to be in the driveway and I know someone is taking a nap in the house. The chime and the Ring app don’t alert but the echos still announce the motion.

5 Likes
#12

Tried this. It doesnt work. This doesnt work since the Alexa devices dont work with this suggested work around. Ring needs to improve this Alexa skill so that we can turn off motion notification during certain hours of the day for those of us with pets. Alexa will sound off motion where our other devices you can set a schedule.

5 Likes
#13

Yeah a routine in Alexa isn’t a good solution because when I’m not home I still want the Ring app to chime - so I don’t want to disable motion alerts in Ring.

3 Likes
#14

I contacted Ring tech support and asked them to submit a ticket about this.

I suggest everyone do the same.

1 Like
#15

If you wish to have this feature, it would be better noted in the Integrations Feature Request board. Thanks

#16

I found this forum looking for solution to this same problem. I was heavily invested in Echo 6 devices in a 4 story house. I added a full Ring alarm system and Doorbell solely based on the integration ability with Echo…only to find that motion alerts are terrorizing my family. I kept telling them “just snooze the doorbell” with your phone app…only to discover that Alexa doesn’t care about Ring’s snooze settings. When I contacted Ring support, I was told I would need to configure each Echo device motion alert separately…which I’ve spent 4 hours pouring through internet posts and Ring/Alexa apps and still haven’t figured out how to configure each Echo device to either turn off or snooze Ring Doorbell 2 motion alerts.

Now that Amazon owns Ring: CAN YOU PLEASE FIX THIS? JUST MAKE THE SNOOZE SETTING GLOBAL TO INCLUDE ECHO DEVICES WOULD BE HUGE

6 Likes
#17

@Jennifer - Ring Community Manager:

So Alexa not honoring Ring settings is a ‘Feature’, and not a Bug?

Please ping the developers on this, it’s a significant problem.

7 Likes
#18

I am sending your feedback directly to the team :slight_smile:

1 Like
#19

I agree 100%. This has been a real pain. I turned it off so Alexa doesn’t go all day. Hopefully they can address this issue.

1 Like
#20

I’m starting to wonder if the motion schedule is a user specific setting. I started to suspect recently that the motion snooze for the floodlight cam is just for me and not a global thing so even though I don’t get alerts the chime and everyone else’s phone goes nuts.