Using Light Grouping to Enhance your Smart Lights

One of the most powerful ways to use your Ring Smart Lights is to group them together using the “Groups” function in the Ring app. Grouping your Smart Lights allows them to react intelligently to events that happen on your property. You can, for example, turn on all the lights on one side of the house when any single Smart Solar Light device in that group detects motion. You can also turn on and off and control large numbers of Smart Lights without having to use them individually.

Note: You will need a Ring Bridge to place Smart Lights in a Group.

While you navigate this article, click on sentences with arrows to uncover more useful information!

The first part of this article will provide all the information you need to understand how Groups work.

Can I add a device to multiple Groups?

No. Any single device can only be in one Group at a time.

How many devices can I have in a single Group?

A single Smart Lights Bridge can have up to 50 Smart Lights attached to it. All of them may be placed in a single Group.

What kind of things can I set up Groups to do?

The ways you can use Groups are limited only by the property where you deploy them and your imagination. In terms of actual functions, you can set up Groups to:

  • Automatically activate all the Smart Lights in a Group to turn on whenever one member of the Group detects motion.
  • Manually disable specific Smart Lights in a Group to not turn on when they detect motion.
  • Automatically activate all members of a Group when a Ring Alarm is in entry delay or when the Alarm is going off.
  • Manually turn on or turn off all the Smart Lights or Cams in a Group at the same time and set how long they’ll remain on.
  • Set how long the lights will remain on if a device in the group detects motion, ranging from 30 seconds to two minutes.

Note: While Groups can be set to be triggered by Ring Alarms, Ring Alarms themselves cannot be placed in a Group.

Can I still control individual devices even after they've been added to a Group?

Yes for certain devices. When in a Group, however, Ring Smart Lights can only be controlled from the Group level.

If there is a problem with an individual member of a Group, will the Ring app let me know?

Yes. The status of each member of a Group will be available in the Group’s page. The page will let you know when:

  • An individual light is on or off.
  • An individual device is offline.
  • The battery in a battery-operated device is low.

The remainder of this article will provide grouping tips and tricks to get the most out of your Smart Lights.

Reduce and eliminate some motion detection

When you put your Smart Lights in a group, when one light activates, they all do. This is good in that it allows you to place a net of motion detection across a large area.

It may have a downside though, in that if every light in a group is also a motion detector you may find your lights lighting up too many times a night as every movement in the area, such as that of a small animal, triggers the motion detection.

To reduce motion activity, you can disable some of the motion sensors in a group or reduce the motion sensitivity on some of the devices in your group. Remember, you likely don’t need every light in your group to activate with motion, especially in the case of larger groups.

Create several small groups rather than one large one

It’s tempting when installing your Smart Lights to add all of your lights to one group. This is done in the belief that it tightens up security by putting on all of the lights in an area at once. In fact, you might find it better to group your lights in several smaller groups. Not only does that limit the number of lights that activate in the case of a false alarm, it will also give you an indication of where the intrusion is in the case of an actual alarm.

Be careful when creating "trigger" lights

This is related to the first tip. If you disable some of the motion detectors on your Smart Lights to limit the number of motion activations, take notes of which lights still have active motion detection. The placement of these “trigger lights” is especially important. You’ll want them at likely exits and entrances to your property as well as on likely avenue of approach. If you find that this is still creating too many false alarms, though, check on which light is the one detecting motion and disable it. You can move your “trigger light” to the next one down the line.

You can find additional information on setting up and controlling your Light Groups in the Ring app here.

1 Like

Thanks for the information, I just bought the 4 pack with the Bridge but now want to purchase another 10 bulbs without the Bridge, since you can setup a total of 50 to that one Bridge. I don’t want to purchase 1 bulb at a time at $14.99, or another 4 pack with Bridge at $79.99. Is there a way to just purchase the bulbs in bulk at a much cost effective rate?

Thanks

Paul

1 Like

Hi @musial06. We don’t have any additional bundles or sales outside of what you can find on Ring.com. You can also check Amazon.com: Ring to see what the official Ring store on Amazon has available, as there may be a different bundle or option than what you see on our website. I hope this helps! :slight_smile: