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Ring Alarm Subscription Changes
alarm
ring-protect-plans
Hi neighbors! We wanted to share an announcement with the Community that as of March 29th, 2023, neighbors in the United States and Canada will need a [Ring Protect Plan](https://support.ring.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001671383-General-Information-on-Ring-Protect-Subscription-Plans) subscription to access Alarm monitoring features and home and away Modes for Ring Doorbells and Cameras. Neighbors with an Alarm before this date will be placed in legacy status and will keep these monitoring features without a subscription. The below changes will apply to all new Alarm users and new and existing Ring Doorbell and Camera users.
For Ring Alarm, a Basic subscription will be required to access the following features:
* Event History of 60 days. Without a Basic subscription, Event History will be 24 hours.
* Arm and disarm via the Mode Schedule feature.
* Automate behavior via the Linked Devices feature for Doorbells, Cameras, or smart locks, based on the Alarm state. For example, setting your Doorbell to begin recording when the Alarm siren is triggered.
* Email and push notifications from Alarm.
* Arm and disarm via Ring app or Alexa. Without a Basic subscription, the Alarm can be disarmed from the Keypad.
For Camera and Doorbells (with no Alarm), a Basic subscription is required to access the following features:
* Arm and disarm Cameras and Doorbells via Modes settings. Without a Basic subscription, there will be no Modes settings available for neighbors without an Alarm.
Neighbors who already have an Alarm before March 29th, 2023 will be placed in a legacy status and keep the monitoring features listed above, even if they do not have a Ring Protect Plan subscription. This includes having access to Modes for Doorbells and Cameras. Doorbell and Camera users *without* an Alarm will not be placed in a legacy status, and will need to subscribe to a Ring Protect Plan to access Modes settings.
Please note that these changes **do not** impact Ring Protect Plan pricing, and there are no changes for neighbors outside of the United States and Canada. Any questions regarding whether or not you have legacy status should be directed to our [support team](https://support.ring.com/hc/en-us/articles/360036196372). Current Help Center content regarding Ring Protect Plans will reflect these changes on March 29th, 2023. We remain committed to delivering value and peace of mind for our neighbors, and appreciate any feedback.
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08-03-2023 04:45:01
Responses (26)
B
There are some really important features of the Ring Doorbell software that I really appreciated, but are now being either removed entirely or shifted from included with the doorbell software to being subscription only. I will *never* buy a subscription and I understood and accepted the limitations of that when I bought my Ring Doorbell, but now the Ring Team is removing features I once had and it is pissing me off.
1. PC app abandoned - To respond to a doorbell ring I now have three options:
* Alexa video device. I'm not doing this, it costs too much for what limited functionality it provides.
* Android app - I still have to unlock my phone/tablet to answer the door. I don't always have these in the same room as me and it is inconvenient even when my device is next to me.
* Web app - Often requires me to login again, which takes many seconds during which I feel like a jerk for not answering the door. In many cases this is the difference between answering the person at the door and them walking away, assuming I am not home.
I am often at my PC (because I am a software engineer) and having a PC app made answering the door nearly instantaneous... until the Ring team decided to abandon it.
2. Home/Away modes - This was an included feature that Ring moved to subscription only. The only reason for this is greed. Cut that out.
Between these reasons and the lack of a self hosted recording option, I am seriously considering switching to a different smart doorbell. Please, PLEASE, stop deliberately fucking over your customers by moving features to subscription only or, even worse, abandoning them entirely.
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15-03-2023 06:28:24
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R
I'm sorry, but I have huge problems with this. It is unacceptable that notifications are put behind a pay wall. Sure, put remote control features there of you must. But the notifications? We've been loyal subscribers from the beginning. But this might be enough for us to unistall our Ring and switch to a competitor.
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16-03-2023 11:56:57
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R
I agree. This is absolutely an unacceptable "bait and switch". Rethink this, Ring-Amazon. Loyal customers are standing by, ready to jump ship. I will reinstall my Feit camera which has no subscription plan.
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17-03-2023 07:43:15
J
It cost money for Ring to provide services without any compensation. Sending notifications does cost them some money as they have systems that take resources to provide these services.
This is my third alarm system. I don't know of any other company who offers such feature rich services as Ring as a very reasonable price. Professional Monitoring is $200 a year if you pre-pay in advance, or $20 if you pay monthly. By making a one-time annual payment, that works out to $16.66 a month. Where else can you get Professional Monitoring and all the other services Ring provides for $16.66 a month?
I just left SimpliSafe where they raised prices for the second time in two years and their monitoring service is now almost $30 a month. SimpliSafe does not offer "Smash and Grab" protection so you have to hide the base station and hope that a criminal does not find your base station before the entry delay expires. Second, their sensors use 433.92Mhz signal that is so easily thwarted using a $40 handheld radio from Amazon and many other vendors. Ring uses a more difficult to jam technology which is Z-Wave.
SimpliSafe used to be cheap but not any more. If you want basic camera features with self-monitoring you still paying around $10 a month.
Personally, I think self monitoring is bad as you cannot always be watching your phone for alerts. Heck I miss text messages all the time. I would never consider self monitoring but maybe it works for others.
In my opinion, you get what you pay for and if you pay little or nothing, the service is worth little to nothing.
But by all means, check around with other vendors and let everyone know if you find a lower cost service. I would be interested because I have spent a lot of time looking at other vendors when I wanted to move from SimpliSafe and the lowest cost quality service I found was Ring.
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21-09-2023 11:01:58
L
This is a bad idea. People are generally looking to reduce subscriptions and now you put more behind a pay wall? Why even bother buying into this ecosystem? I’m uninstalling and going with EUFY who has no subscriptions for more features.
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22-03-2023 01:00:29
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R
Ring is a cloud-based system and they need to charge something to pay for the servers and employees to maintain the systems. If you don't want to pay anything, buy a product that runs locally.
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26-03-2023 02:15:01
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T
All we have to do is cancel our account from over here and they would come to the door...These ladies sure loved her..I'm proud to say I have her blood running through my veins and I' lied it is my great great grandmother The name is Horne they have been put in these parts since birth nearly
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05-10-2023 02:14:35
T
All we have to do is cancel our account from over here and they would come to the door...These ladies sure loved her..I'm proud to say I have her blood running through my veins and I' lied it is my great great grandmother The name is Horne they have been put in these parts since birth nearly
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05-10-2023 02:14:35
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balornt
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15-03-2023 06:28:24
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