Living in an apartment or flat typically means a shared door and one shared intercom doorbell gatekeeper, and that means you can’t simply install your own doorbell and go for your life.
While home owners can simply set up a doorbell with a camera built in, renters in a flat or owners in a block of apartments need to work with what’s available, and likely lean on the intercom system that buzzes people in and out of the building. It’s easy to feel a little jealous of home owners in that instance, especially when packages can go walk about or are left in weird places, something a doorbell cuts back on.
But the company that practically kicked off the whole idea of video doorbells has other plans, as Ring looks to the intercom to form a connection.
The idea is called the “Ring Intercom”, and it’s basically a box that connects to your intercom system to let the Ring app intercept it, tell you who’s there, and to let them in to drop off the package. It might even be to let your parents drop by, or to trigger the door opening solely from your voice, using an Alexa routine connected with a door’s intercom system to act as gatekeeper and unlock the whole thing.,
Given apartment owners often miss out on this sort of hardware, Ring Intercom essentially bridges the gap and makes it possible for folks living in a block of flats to open up their front door without making big sweeping technical changes and informing strata just what you’re doing.
There’s an intercom compatibility checker to see whether the system will work in your block, and it apparently doesn’t need to be drilled in, simply needing to be plugged in and connected, and then mounted to the wall.
Essentially, Ring Intercom just gives your intercom system a way to connect to the cloud, telling you when someone is where without needing to change anything at the door itself.
Priced at $189 in Australia, it’s a very specific gadget with a very specific purpose, and isn’t likely to be useful for folks in an actual home they own or rent. Rather, they might want to look at a battery doorbell, or something a little more wired in. But for folks who rent, they’ll find the Ring Intercom specifically from Amazon now.
