Why Ring Cameras Flooded People With Messages In Buffalo

Ring Doorbell owners in South Buffalo may have gotten hundreds of unwanted messages late last night.  Here's why they were sent.

If you own a Ring Doorbell, there's a chance you've used, or at least seen the Neighborhood Alert Notification App.  The idea is to share community-focused things that matter to people in a neighborhood.  According to their website, the Neighbor's App can be used by anyone, regardless of whether they own a Ring device.  It's meant to share information for things like if there's someone suspicious going door to door, or if packages are being stolen.

On Wednesday night, people took this feature to a whole new level.  It started with an innocent message warning people in a South Buffalo neighborhood that the power had gone out.  Then the community literally began to chime in.  Before you knew it, hundreds of people were responding with their own messages about the power outage.

See how many of them came through by clicking here.

Some talked about how they had started a pot roast and they were worried that it wouldn't cook.  Others said they lost their pets in their house because it was so dark.  Bags of popcorn were partially popped because the power went out before it was done.

It may have been annoying, but at least a little bit entertaining too. Most people just decided to disable notifications on their app.  Here's how you do that, according to Ring:

To disable in the Ring app:

1. Tap the

   menu (≡)

    at the top left of your

   Dashboard

    screen.
2. Tap

   Control Center

    on the left side of the screen.
3. In Control Center, navigate to the

   Neighbors

    section via the main menu.
4. Dsable the feature via the

   toggle

   .
5. Tap

   Confirm

    to disable.

To disable on a computer or laptop:

1. Sign in to your account at

   Ring.com

    using the same email that you use to log into the Ring app.
2. Under the

   Account

    tab on the top right, click

   Control Center

   .
3. In the Control Center, select

   Neighbors

    from the main menu on the left.
4. Disable the feature via the

   toggle

   .
5. Click

   Confirm

    to disable.

To disable on Ring.com via a mobile device:

1. Sign in to your account using the same email and password that you use for your Ring app.
2. Tap the

   menu (≡)

    on the top left and tap

   Control Center

   .
3. Tap

   Neighbors

   .
4. Disable the feature via the

   toggle

   .
5. Tap

   Confirm

    to disable.