How to use the automatic responses on Ring Doorbells

Ring's video doorbells can talk to the delivery person at your door when you don't feel like it. They can even tell your annoying neighbor to go away. 

Ring's Quick Replies feature debuted recently and is rolling out on newer models like the Ring 4. It's even available via an update on older models dating back to the Ring 2. From the app, you can pick from a variety of automatic responses and then, when your doorbell rings, your smart gadget will do the talking on your behalf. 

Check out the video to see it in action. Here are the steps to enable the feature and customize it to your liking. 

From the main page of the app, click on the settings icon on your device. You can also tap the image from your doorbell cam to pull up a menu specific to your device, then tap the settings icon. The icon itself will in the top right corner in both cases and looks like a gear wheel.

Once in the settings menu, look for a button labeled "Smart Responses" and tap it. Everything else is pretty intuitive.

You can turn the feature on and off with the toggle at the top. Turn it on and you'll see options for response time and what message to relay. 

You can set the response time to "immediate" to have the doorbell talk right away or you can give yourself a few seconds delay if you want to respond most of the time. If you answer the door, the quick reply won't also join in.  

Ring has a variety of generic messages to pick from. You can have it say things like "leave the package" or "we're not interested." You can also prompt the person to leave a message, but you'll need to subscribe to Ring's premium service to be able to watch the clip later on and see what they said.

That's all you need to know to use this simple but helpful feature. I do wish Ring offered a little more customization or conditional responses so it only gave an automated answer at night, for instance. As it stands, the feature is easy to flip on or off, so when you're expecting a delivery, you can quickly prep an automatic response from the friendly robotic helper inside your Ring Video Doorbell.