Smart home products have a fragmentation problem: There are options for everything from doorbells to cameras to sensors, but getting them to play nice and keep track of all the activity can be a pain. It means managing multiple apps, remembering passwords, and generally a lot of juggling. Ring has a solution to that with its new Works With Ring program.

The concept is simple: Make Ring’s Alarm Base Station the center of your smart home by making it play nice with products and devices from other companies. As part of the program, the Base Station will be able to communicate with thousands of devices that use the Z-Wave protocol. That includes products from Schlage, Yale, Kwikset, and plenty of others.

Through the new program, those products will be able to communicate with one another through Ring because they all effectively speak on the same wavelength. Certified WWR devices will connect with the Ring app available for iOS and Android smartphones. From there, they will hook up with the Ring Base Station. That will allow users to keep better track of their devices and enable those devices to talk to one another.

Here’s a hypothetical: Let’s say your Ring video doorbell spots an unfamiliar face approaching your door. The doorbell alerts you to the issue, but you aren’t home. To make sure your home is protected, you will be able to lock your doors with a Ring compatible smart lock to make sure that no intruder is able to walk right in and violate your privacy and safety.

For now, Works With Ring products will require the Ring Alarm Base Station to integrate into the Ring ecosystem and communicate with devices made by the company. Ring is promising that it will expand the line of Works With Ring products throughout the year and will continue to work to improve the compatibility of those products. Even Z-Wave devices that aren’t certified through the Works With Ring program will be able to be connected through the Ring smartphone app, but the process will have to be completed manually and some functionality may be limited.

Editors' Recommendations