Modes Update Concern

I received the Modes feature last night, and it appears that Modes is not a system wide setting, which leads to huge hassle (and privacy nightmare) if you have multiple users or devices with the app logged in. If you turn on Modes and have it disable your indoor camera when your alarm is in disarm mode, that setting DOES NOT transfer to any other users or devices. Problem - That means the camera is still recording clips and sending notifications to all other devices unless you repeat the same steps on ALL devices and ALL users.

This also means, the software is simply disabling the app from sending notifications or viewing live, but does not actually turn off the camera or prevent streaming to the cloud. Iā€™d consider this a big privacy miss, since I donā€™t want my indoor cameras active while Iā€™m home or Ring Alarm is in disarm. At any point any of the users could need to reinstall apps or change a setting on their phone and start triggering recordings again, uploading a massive number of clips to the cloud.

Bad deal Ring, make these Modes system wide or theyā€™re useless. Also, the Modes needs to actually disable indoor cameras, not just prevent the apps from viewing the still active stream.

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Well, two days without a reply pretty much tells me what Ring thinks about my privacy.

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Agreed. I think the inability to securely turn off video AND audio recording or even live monitoring is what will make me return the Ring floodlight cam.

Committing to having a camera on all the time whether you want it on or not, is NOT what I thought I was signing up for.

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Mode aside . . . I think indoor cameras are always going to be an issue, trusting any system to not record. The only way to trust an indoor camera is not recording is to cut the power. Amazon never could convince echo spot users (of which I was one) it was OK to have a camera on your nightstand (software turned off, sure), I put tape over mine, and now the new echo show devices have a hard shutter you can close over the camera.

Consider putting a smart plug on all indoor cameras, then only turn the power on when you want. Yes, one more step when you enter or leave the house . . .alexa, turn on the cameras. But the only way you will really know.

Outdoor cameras . . . I donā€™t care, let some employee watch my driveway if they have nothing better to do.

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Good idea and I agree with you about indoor cameras. I have all the shutters on my shows closed and I keep them that way. I would never have cameras indoors. I just donā€™t trust them no matter what company makes them and I really see no need. I have a security system, and the outdoor cameras and I am home all day for the most part. And if they see outside of my house I really donā€™t care. Maybe theyā€™ll see my carrying one of my guns and think twice. lol

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Absolutely. We need an easy and automatic way to turn motion recording OFF based upon the state of our system. Simply disabling the sending of notifications is NOT what any privacy-minded customer is asking for here.

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@OAW wrote:

We need an easy and automatic way to turn motion recording OFF

There is no way that Ring can cut the power to a camera and turn it back on (it will have no power). And cutting the power is the only way you really know the camera is off.

I suppose Ring could have a electronic shutter cover that you could verify the lense is covered, but no one has that so I would not expect Ring to do it either.

I stand by my earlier post in this thread . . .

I donā€™t think anyone ā€¦ certainly not myself ā€¦ is expecting Ring to automatically turn the POWER of its cameras on/off based upon the selected ā€œmodeā€. What we are asking for is for Ring to automatically turn MOTION RECORDING on/off based upon the selected ā€œmodeā€. And to NOT just disable notifications while continuing to record whenever someone walks into a room in the privacy of their own home. Now I have yet to see this feature despite Ring saying it would be available in Nov. 2019 ā€¦ so I donā€™t know how it is actually going to work for myself. But the OP has indicated that itā€™s simply disabling notifications while surreptiously continuing to do motion recording in the background. And thatā€™s a major privacy issue and simply not what we expect out of this feature.

That being said ā€¦ if one is the type of person who puts tape over the webcam on their laptop then an indoor security camera is simply not the product for you. From Ring or any other company. For those of us who arenā€™t taking it to those levels we simply want to have complete and automated control over the MOTION RECORDING functionality of these devices.

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@echelon

I found this on the Ring website. It suggests thereā€™s a way to control the ā€œModesā€ feature GLOBALLY and at the DEVICE level.

" How do I configure Modes?

There are two ways to configure how your devices will behave. One is a global control that lets you configure all of your devices at once. To get to this control, follow these instructions:

  • Open the Ring app.
  • Tap the three-lined icon in the upper-right corner to open the side menu.
  • Tap Mode Settings.
  • Tap the mode you want to configure.
  • Set how you want your devices to behave in that mode

Note: You can also disable modes completely using this control.

**Note: ** If you configure ā€œLive View disableā€ through the Modes settings, it will not disable Live View on Rapid Ring app or the desktop clients.

Each device also has mode controls that can be set individually, that can be accessed from the Device Settings screen."

https://support.ring.com/hc/en-us/articles/360036107792-Control-All-your-Ring-Cameras-with-Modes

Perhaps you can give them both a try and let us know if it actually makes a difference?

Thank you for this feedback neighbors! At Ring, we take your security very seriously. Modes is an in-app feature that simplifies how neighbors interact with their Ring devices while providing an added layer of privacy.

The disarmed mode, by default, will indeed disable live view and alerts for yourself, and shared users, on the primary mobile application. Please ensure your app and any shared usersā€™ apps are up to date for these Mode changes to reflect. Ring is always working to improve your experience with our features and be aligned across all apps.

Keep in mind also, our Indoor and Stick Up Cams feature a Record Motion toggle to disable motion recording as desired.

@OAW wrote:

I donā€™t think anyone ā€¦ certainly not myself ā€¦ is expecting Ring to automatically turn the POWER of its cameras on/off based upon the selected ā€œmodeā€.

Would not be that hard. Using a smart plug when disarmed you could cut power to the smart plug (and therefore the camera). When armed power back up. A ā€˜modeā€™ could control that. You would just need a z-wave plug that could be controlled in the ā€˜modeā€™.

@Marley_Ring

Iā€™m going to respond to your EXACT WORDSā€¦

ā€œThe disarmed mode, by default, will indeed disable live view and alerts for yourself, and shared users, on the primary mobile application.ā€

And therein lies the problem! Right there you said the ā€œdisarmedā€ mode would disable ALERTSā€¦ not MOTION RECORDING. Basically what that says to me is that if my daugher was home alone with the system set to ā€œdisarmedā€ mode ā€¦ then came out of the shower and walked through a room with an indoor security cam installed ā€¦ the camera would still detect her motion and record her. But I just wouldnā€™t get a notification about it. Oh gee thanks ā€¦

What you are describing is a major problem! Again simply disabling ALERTS/NOTIFICATIONS is not even close to good enough. Did your Product Manager fall and bump his/her head? What possibly makes them think any of their customers wants an indoor security camera surreptiously recording them whenever they are walking around in the privacy of their own home in various states of dress, undress, or whatever the case may be? Or recording private, family discussions just because someone walked into a room?

Yes we have the Record Motion toggle. The problem is that requires us to turn it on/off manually. If the ā€œModesā€ feature does not control that toggle for end users automatically as we specify then it is utterly pointless. It needs to enable the end user to have complete and automated control over the MOTION RECORDING feature. Period. Full stop.

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I still donā€™t hav the ā€œMode Settingsā€ option in my Ring app - is this still rolling out? When will it be 100%.

Also the web page above describes the modes in more detail:

These three different modes are available to control the state of your home:

  • Disarmed : Select Disarmed Mode when youā€™re at home and want the freedom to go in and out of your house easily. You can, for example, turn off the motion detectors on all of your front yard cameras to avoid getting alerts while youā€™re at home.

    • **For Alarm users: ** When Disarmed, no Alarm sensors in your home will be armed and no alerts will be sent to the monitoring station, but the system will still be powered on and functioning. Fire and CO sensors (if they are attached to the system) will still be monitored.
  • Home Mode : Select Home Mode when you want the outside cameras of your house activated but want to be able to move freely around the inside of your home.

    • For Alarm Users: In Home mode, only certain sensors will be armed. You can control which sensors will be monitored in Home mode by visiting Mode Settings in the Ring app.
  • Away Mode: Select Away Mode to fully secure your house when you leave. You can set all of your cameras, both inside and out, to record your home in this mode.

    • **For Alarm users: ** When Away Mode is turned on, all of your sensors will be armed and an alert will be issued if any of them detect a security issue. Note that you can also control which sensors will be monitored in Away mode by visiting Mode Settings in the Ring app.

Is it just me or is this update STILL not available?

It definitely isnā€™t just you. Iā€™ve seen a few different Ring employees say it would be ā€œslow rolled outā€ to all customers this month. But even with the 5.2.1 release on 12/31/19 thereā€™s still no sign of it. Just the latest example of Ring making promises to its customer base that it does not keep.

I woke up this morning and the Modes feature was finally available for me. And Iā€™m pleased to report that it does NOT simply disable notifications as I had feared. You are able to configure it so that Record Motion and/or Live View are enabled or disabled automatically when you select a certain mode (Disarmed, Home, Away). Ring implemented this feature exactly like I hoped they would. Now if they would just let me switch modes with Siri ā€¦ :slight_smile:

Good to see, but still not on my device. They should have a ā€œget updatesā€ feature so we can just go and download it and update our apps

Would u be willing to take a photo of what this feature looked like on your app? I have the alarm system so I have arm disarm and home, but no modes setting.

Whoops I meant away.

My original concern was raised because selecting that option on my cellphone app didnā€™t appear to make such a change system wide. When I set that preference, I continued to get motion alerts for my indoor camera on my iPad. My wifeā€™s phone was also getting alerts, which clearly told me they had simply disabled notifications on my phone due to enabling the modes feature on my phone.

I then updated my wifeā€™s phone with the exact same modes settings, brining both of our cellphones in line with each other, but leaving the iPad settings unchanged. I noticed the blue light stayed illuminated on the indoor camera, and the iPad continued to get motion notifications.

A week or so after originally posting this, I gave up and moved the indoor camera to the garage to limit the privacy impact to my family. At some point in the last couple weeks, I stopped getting notifications on my iPad randomly, and yesterday noticed the blue led light was no longer illuminated on the camera in the garage if my alarm was set as disabled.

I havenā€™t had the time to do any additional testing, but it appears Ring has made some quiet updates in the past couple weeks that may in fact allow MODES to function like we all assumed it would from the beginning.

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