I’m new to Ring, and I would like to think I am tech savvy. I have already contacted the chat support to discuss, with an un satisfying answer. I have what i believe to be the most current version of the app on an iPhone and iPad.
I think it would be advantageous to be able to set a motion trigger delay for powered or unpowered doorbell cameras.
There do not appear to be Motion Frequency Settings for non-battery doorbell cameras. I found documentation showing that there are Frequency settings, but is seems the primary focus is on battery saving, not nuisance notifications. If I am out mowing the lawn, or shovelling snow off the sidewalks, I am notified many, many times.
Support sez to turn off notifications when I know I will be out there, and then turn them back on when I am done. This does not seem like “automation” to me. If the feature is available for battery doorbell cameras, why is it not available for wired doorbell cameras to reduce nuisance notifications. Seems pretty trivial to implement.
I have noticed that when notified of motion, if i press the notification on my phone and hold, I will get two options to delay notifications - 30 min and 2 hours. Again, this does not seem very “automation” to me, and unfriendly to my fingers at -40c shovelling snow.
The wired devices are always recording and look for changes in the image itself to determine if there is motion. The battery devices use a PIR sensor to determine if there is motion, then turn on the camera to record and then determine if there is a person detected, etc. The reason for the different motion frequency settings is to balance battery life versus how often the camera will detect motion. Frequently means that the PIR sensor is always active and therefore will have the most battery drain. The other settings power down the PIR sensor for specific intervals after motion is detected to prolong battery life but at the cost of possibly missing additional motion events. This is not a concern with the wired device since it does not rely on battery power and is always active.
I would suggest snoozing motion prior to going outside. At the upper-right corner of the main app screen there’s an icon that looks like a moon with some lines coming out of the right side. If you tap on that you can snooze all of your cameras for a predetermined time, up to 12 hours currently with the most recent iOS app update (not sure if the Android app has been updated to the same).
@pdeethardt, thank-you for your reply.
I understand why the delay is there for the battery operated devices (save battery - as described in the ring documentation), adding a technical description does not help. I think you missed the key element of the post - nuisance notifications. If I have to monitor my family for when they might be in front of a camera device for an extended period to delay notifications, that is as much a nuisance as the many notifications received if I do nothing. If I’m in a meeting and start to get a bunch of notifications due to lawn mowing, now i have the nuisance of an interrupted meeting. There are numerous occasions when it would be beneficial to have the delay.
I found your suggestion (“moon” button), as well as the ability to tap-hold the notification and add a notification delay prior to my investigation. This is still not the issue. These are ad-hoc mitigations, not solutions.
Depleted batteries are a nuisance, as are too many notifications, why cannot all cameras have the delay option. Let me decide if i want to use the feature or not.
To summarize, there are options to ad-hoc delay the notifications for powered camera devices, but not “settings” options for a dedicated solution. There is a dedicated “setting” option to delay battery powered camera device - just add that option to powered camera devices.
