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How to get Alexa notifications when someone rings the doorbell

We explain how to get Alexa to tell you when someone’s at your front door with a Ring doorbell.
Jim Martin
By Jim Martin
Executive Editor, Tech Advisor JUL 12, 2021 7:05 pm BST

If you’ve bought a Ring doorbell and also have an Amazon Echo, then there’s no need to buy a Ring Chime to get doorbell sounds inside your home.

Any Amazon Echo can do double duty as a Ring Chime so you know when someone’s at the door. Plus, if you have an Echo Show, it can show the video feed from your Ring doorbell when someone presses the button.

Setting it up is as easy as enabling the Ring skill and linking your Ring and Amazon accounts. Here’s how to do it.

How to make Ring work with Alexa

Once you’ve installed your Ring doorbell and it’s up and running, open the Alexa app on your phone.

This is the process for linking your Ring account with Alexa:

  1. Tap More > Skills & Games
  2. Tap the magnifying glass icon (top right) and search for Ring
  3. How to get doorbell press notifications from Alexa
  4. Tap on Ring in the list of results and then tap ENABLE TO USE
  5. You’ll see the Ring login page, so enter your email address and password
  6. Tap Authorize when told that Alexa needs permission to access your Ring account
  7. You should see confirmation that your doorbell is linked.

Now that’s done, you need to enable notifications so you hear a noise when someone rings the doorbell.

  1. In the Alexa app, tap Devices at the bottom
  2. Tap Cameras at the top How to get doorbell press notifications from Alexa
  3. Find your Ring doorbell in the list (likely called Front Door, or whatever you named it)
  4. Tap it and you’ll see the video feed
  5. Tap the settings cog at the top
  6. How to get doorbell press notifications from Alexa
  7. Tap on Doorbell Press Announcements to enable the notifications
  8. How to get doorbell press notifications from Alexa
  9. Optionally, enable Motion Announcements if you want those notifications from your Echo devices as well
  10. Tap Doorbell Sound and choose a ringtone from the list: this is the sound that will come from your Amazon Echo(s)

That’s it. Now you can press the doorbell to check that it’s all working. If you have an Echo Show you should see the video feed appear after a few seconds of pressing the button.

, Executive Editor

Jim has been testing and reviewing products for over 20 years. His main beats include VPN services and antivirus. He also covers smart home tech, mesh Wi-Fi and electric bikes.

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