Alarm.com Touchless Video Doorbell rings without actually being pressed

By Patrick Hearn January 13, 2021

The past year has been focused on health, and CES 2021 has seen a lot of different products that eliminate the need to touch a surface. The new Alarm.com Touchless Video Doorbell is a prime example of this. Take a moment and consider how useful video doorbells are: You can see and communicate with any visitor at your door without coming face-to-face, but it poses another problem. Everyone who arrives presses the doorbell or stands close to it, potentially furthering the spread of bacteria.

Germs and bacteria most commonly spread through touch. Someone ringing your doorbell or touching the knob risks picking up germs left by previous visitors. The easiest way to avoid spread is to not touch the doorbell at all.

The Alarm.com Touchless Video Doorbell uses a doormat placed a safe distance away. Visitors stand on the doormat to activate the doorbell and alert the homeowner that someone has arrived. The doorbell uses person detection rather than motion detection to alert the homeowner and then begins recording. It streams live HD video and has two-way audio to enable you to chat with visitors without ever answering the door. The Person Detection feature means the doorbell isn’t triggered by passing cars, by an animal in the yard, or other false alarms that plague so many modern doorbells.

The doorbell also has impressive specifications, featuring a 150-degree field of view, full HDR video and night vision, and an onboard heater for proper operation within low temperature. Saved video clips are stored on the Alarm.com servers.

The 150-degree field of view ensures you can see a visitor from head to toe, as well as any packages that might be delivered to your home. With porch piracy on the rise, it’s not enough to see who is at your door–you need to see what they are bringing with them, too.

By eliminating the need for visitors to walk all the way to the front door to ring the doorbell, the Alarm Touchless Video Doorbell guarantees proper social distancing while still providing all the security benefits of a smart video doorbell.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Patrick Hearn writes about smart home technology like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, smart light bulbs, and more. If it's a…

Smart Home

5 tips and tricks for the Ring Video Doorbell

Ring Video Doorbell installed next to a white entry door.

The Ring Video Doorbell is one of the best smart doorbells of 2023. Not only is it affordable, but it can capture HD video, store footage for later review, and is remarkably easy to install regardless of your existing setup. However, if you’re looking to make the most of your fancy smart doorbell, you'll want to dive into its accompanying smartphone app and make a few tweaks to your settings. Here are five tips and tricks for the Ring Video Doorbell to improve its performance.
Set up your motion zones

The first thing you’ll want to do after installing your Ring Video Doorbell is set up motion zones. These are customizable areas that will trigger an alert if motion is detected -- and properly setting them up will save you the headache of getting unwanted updates. To customize your motion zones, load up your Ring app and tap the three lines at the top of your screen. From there, select Devices, then navigate through Motion Settings to Motion Zones. You’ll now be able to add zones and adjust the size of existing zones.
Turn off motion notifications

Smart Home

Ring Video Doorbell 4 vs. Nest Doorbell Wired

Ring Video Doorbell installed on a home.

If you’re looking for a new video doorbell, you’ve probably stumbled across Ring and Nest. Both companies are churning out popular smart home products, but few are as appealing as the Ring Video Doorbell 4 and Nest Doorbell Wired. The two doorbells bring heaps of functionality to the table, with plenty of crossover on their stat sheets.

But which one is best for your home? Here’s a closer look at the two video doorbells to help you make the right purchase.
Resolution and night video

Smart Home

Is it worth upgrading to the new Google Nest wired doorbell?

Someone presses the Nest Video Doorbell in front of their home.

Video doorbell cameras are often one of the first external pieces of smart home tech consumers buy. Not only do they help keep an eye on our environment, but they double as communication devices for delivery drivers, guests, and others. Google recently released its second-generation Nest Doorbell (wired) and improved the Google Home app, but is it really worth upgrading if you have the base model?
Google's new doorbell

The new Google Nest Doorbell (wired) shares a similar design to the battery variant, although it is shorter since no batteries are required. It has a flat, matte design that comes in four colors to match nearly any home. To initiate a call, there's a big button at the bottom, which is illuminated around the edge. There's also an equally significant and prominent lens at the top of the doorbell.