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Ring Video Doorbells to Gain End-to-End Encryption, But Still No Sign of HomeKit Support
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Is anyone surprised? It’s amazing that of all the companies to start playing well with others because they realize people don’t give a damn about “ecosystems” is Microsoft.
Amazon/Google need a reality check. I’m not going to give up my iPhone because Ring/Nest won’t support iPhone fully. What I will do is continue to look for alternatives they play well with others (Eufy/Ecobee).
Amazon Music for two years has ignored complaints that their CarPlay integration is absolute trash. I’ve also seen in the forums Android Auto isn’t much better. Two years of complaining and the best answers are still reinstall the app and try again. They will do everything to say you don’t have good cellular signal it’s the car it’s the phone etc. I can be in my garage on a 200meg wifi connection and I can’t select a playlist without the wrong songs playing the app crashing or the playlist being “blank”.
I can be on one bar of LTE and Plexamp can browse my massive home library and play tracks flawlessly.
Amazon/Google need a reality check. I’m not going to give up my iPhone because Ring/Nest won’t support iPhone fully. What I will do is continue to look for alternatives they play well with others (Eufy/Ecobee).
Amazon Music for two years has ignored complaints that their CarPlay integration is absolute trash. I’ve also seen in the forums Android Auto isn’t much better. Two years of complaining and the best answers are still reinstall the app and try again. They will do everything to say you don’t have good cellular signal it’s the car it’s the phone etc. I can be in my garage on a 200meg wifi connection and I can’t select a playlist without the wrong songs playing the app crashing or the playlist being “blank”.
I can be on one bar of LTE and Plexamp can browse my massive home library and play tracks flawlessly.
I grabbed one of the original Ring doorbells back when the company was still Ring. Still works. And I've tied it into HomeKit through HomeBridge and it works great. That all said, I also run a LOT of DNS filtering so only the bare minimum gets sent back to Amazon. If you have a ring this is a great setup. If not, then get something other than Ring because Amazon is phoning home far more than they should.
A heads up, even if you can use it look at what it disables according to their support
What Ring features does video E2EE disable?
Enabling Ring’s video E2EE will disable the following features for enrolled devices:
What Ring features does video E2EE disable?
Enabling Ring’s video E2EE will disable the following features for enrolled devices:
- Shared Users will not be able to view your videos.
- You will not be able to view encrypted videos on Ring.com, the Windows desktop app, the Mac desktop app, or the Rapid Ring app.
- You will not be able to use Live View from multiple mobile devices simultaneously.
- You will not be able to see camera previews on the Dashboard.
- You will not be able to share videos or links.
- You will not be able to use the Event Timeline.
- You will not be able to see Rich Event Notifications.
- You will not be able to watch Ring videos on Amazon Echo Show, FireTV or FireTablet.
- You will not be able to watch encrypted videos on third party devices.
- You will not be able to use Motion Verification.
- You will not be able to use People Only Mode.
- You will not be able to use Snapshot Capture.
- You will not be able to use Bird's Eye View.
- You will not be able to view Pre-Roll.
I’ve been reading on Matter, and unfortunately, “camera” devices aren’t targeted, at least initially. Matter will be more for sensors or devices that can be controlled like thermostats.
They need to get off their butts and do it. Being owned by Amazon isn't stopping it I think. I think they are just being lazy.
Amazon owns Eero but Eero has homekit enabled on their routers. So it's doable, its probably just more work and Ring devs are being lazy about it
Amazon owns Eero but Eero has homekit enabled on their routers. So it's doable, its probably just more work and Ring devs are being lazy about it
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Ring withheld support while promising "coming soon" on their support for HomeKit for several years, with the intention of collecting Apple customers and trap them in their Ring-walled garden. Now that we are all stuck with them and their devices which are mostly useless without a subscription, Ring still hasn't come out with official word on whether they will support them - CAN WE PLEASE START A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT AGAINST RING?!
Ring (cameras) is a bit of a joke personally and I actually regret buying into them. They all have a 10 minute live view cap, which after 10 mins means you have to reload the feed. Making them really quite useless a lot of the time. The doorbell is okay.
No.
End-to-End encryption means that Ring/Amazon won't have access to your videos. Just you will be able to decrypt them (you own the encryption keys).
"Normal" encryption means that the video feed is encrypted in transit and at rest by keys that Ring/Amazon have access to, and thus, in theory, that they can leverage to decrypt those files with.
I just moved into a new house and need a doorbell. I refuse to put any Amazon products in the house because of their idea of sharing my network with anyone passing by...I wouldn't trust their product security ever again after that little stunt, plus all their bad behavior when it comes to privacy. A HomeKit compatible one is really the way to go, it's too bad there is only one choice but the Logitech one seems like a pretty nice product overall.
I’ve been looking for a HK battery powered remote light switch, which doesn’t seem to exist. You can find things outside HK and bridge in, but no HK only. I think it’s a liability issue. NEC lighting requirements are designed so that if there’s a fire you can easily turn on lights to get out of the house safely. Solution from Lutron uses one wired switch but allows for remote battery powered switch. That way, even if WiFi router is melted you can still turn on the light with the wired switch. Similar issue with doorbell not relying on wireless?
I'm going all in with Nest, even though I feel so queasy doing it. It started with the thermostat, then the doorbell, now I'm adding outdoor cameras.
You forgot that iPhone has rather low market share (worldwide). You sticking with iPhone is not going to change this fact. The more puzzling is the fact that Apple is for the most part ignoring Android devices which represent the vast majority of mobile devices.
I didn't forget but these are American compaines where the market share is more significant. I wholeheartedly agree Apple doesn't always help the situation. I was extremely dissapointed to not see RCS in iOS 15. Apple is equally guilty of the not playing nice with others game. Where Apple has tried to extend an Olive branch there has been little traction and the cycle of these companies trying to screw each other continues.
How are they a gimmick? Can you talk back to the person at the door with the Amcrest cams? Can you tell them to leave the item at the door? Do you get notifications that someone is at your door on your phone while you are out and about?
The fact that Apple have included support in their newest devices should go a long way to boosting adoption.
I don't trust amazon for anything besides buying stuff on the store...let alone surveillance systems, unless I'd want to be the one surveilled 😸