The Outdoor Cam Plus uses the same Ring mobile app (free for Android and iOS) as other devices from the brand, and appears on the dashboard screen in its own panel, which displays the name of the camera and the last captured image. Tap that to open a device screen with a video panel and a scrollable timeline of events. You can view the video in full-screen mode by turning your phone to landscape orientation. Tap the Live button to view real-time video with buttons on the screen for two-way talk and muting the speaker.

(Credit: Ring/PCMag)

At the bottom of the device screen are buttons labeled Controls, Replies, Siren, and More. Controls opens a quick settings screen where you can activate the camera’s siren and control the lighting on other Ring devices, like the Floodlight Cam. Replies lets you play a prerecorded message for visitors, Sireb activates the built-in siren, and More enables or disables the picture-in-picture feature.

To access the camera’s settings, tap the gear icon in the upper right corner of the app. Buttons at the top of this page let you enable and disable motion detection and alerts, control the siren, and access the camera’s live feed. The bottom portion of the screen contains buttons labeled Alerts Snooze (to disable alerts for 30 minutes to 12 hours), Event History, Linked Devices (to have other Ring devices react to motion), Mode Settings (to configure Disarmed, Home, Away modes), Motion Settings, and Smart Responses (to have the camera automatically play a message when motion is detected while set to Away mode). The device settings menu allows you to configure notifications, privacy preferences, power management options, snapshot capture (to see what happens between motion events), and video resolution.