How to Change Ring Doorbell Sound: Chime Tones, Alert Settings, and What You Can Actually Customize

Ring doorbells give you more control over sounds than most people realize — but the options aren't always obvious, and what's available depends heavily on which Ring device you own, how your chime is set up, and whether you're using the Ring app or a linked Alexa device. Here's a clear breakdown of how it all works.

What "Ring Doorbell Sound" Actually Means

When people ask about changing their Ring doorbell sound, they're usually referring to one of two things:

• The chime tone — the sound that plays inside your home when someone presses the button
• The alert tone — the notification sound on your phone when motion or a press is detected

These are configured in completely different places, and mixing them up is one of the most common sources of confusion.

How to Change the Chime Tone in the Ring App

The Ring app is your primary control hub for doorbell sound settings. Here's how the process generally works:

1. Open the Ring app on your iOS or Android device
2. Tap the three lines (menu) in the top-left corner
3. Select Devices, then tap your doorbell
4. Go to Device Settings, then Chime Tones (sometimes listed under "In-Home Chime Settings" depending on your app version)
5. Browse the available tones and tap one to preview it
6. Save your selection

Ring offers a rotating library of tones — standard doorbells, seasonal options (holiday chimes appear periodically), and motion-specific alerts. The available selection varies by device model and app version.

In-Home Chime vs. Ring Chime vs. Alexa — Three Different Systems 🔔

This is where setup differences matter most. Your Ring doorbell can trigger sounds through three separate systems, and each one has its own settings:

If you have multiple sound outputs in your home, each one can be set to a different tone — or silenced independently. A Ring Chime in the living room can play a different sound than an Echo device in the kitchen.

Changing Motion Alert Sounds vs. Press Alert Sounds

Within the Ring app's chime settings, you'll typically find separate tone options for:

• Doorbell press — when someone physically presses the button
• Motion detection — when the camera detects movement without a press

This distinction matters if you want a clear audible difference between "someone is at the door" and "something moved in the driveway." Many users set a traditional ding-dong for presses and a subtle chime (or silence) for motion events to reduce alert fatigue.

Changing Your Phone Notification Sound

Your phone's notification tone for Ring alerts isn't controlled inside the Ring app — it's controlled by your phone's operating system.

On Android: Go to Settings → Apps → Ring → Notifications → select the notification channel → change the sound

On iOS: Ring uses your default notification sound. To change it, you'd need to go to Settings → Notifications → Ring and adjust alert style. iOS doesn't allow per-app custom notification sounds without third-party tools.

This is a common point of confusion: people adjust settings inside the Ring app expecting their phone notification sound to change, but those are two separate systems entirely.

Do-Not-Disturb and Scheduling: Silencing Without Changing Tones

If your goal isn't to change the sound but to stop hearing it during certain hours, Ring's Motion Snooze and Do Not Disturb scheduling features let you mute alerts temporarily or on a recurring schedule — without touching your tone settings.

This is worth knowing because many users hunt through chime settings looking for a "quiet mode" when it actually lives under a different section of the app. 🔇

What Affects Which Options Are Available to You

Not every Ring device or setup offers the same level of audio customization. The variables that shape your specific options include:

• Device generation — newer Ring Video Doorbells and Pro models tend to have more tone options than older or entry-level versions
• Whether you use a Ring Chime — adds a dedicated tone library that's broader than what most mechanical chimes support
• Alexa integration — unlocks a different set of audio announcements and routines entirely
• App version — Ring updates its app regularly, and the navigation paths and available features shift between versions
• Operating system — iOS and Android handle app notification sounds differently, which affects what you can customize at the phone level

Seasonal and Premium Tones

Ring periodically releases limited seasonal chime tones (holiday themes, for example) that appear temporarily in the app's tone library. These aren't always permanent additions — they rotate in and out based on Ring's content schedule. If you've heard about a specific tone and can't find it, it may no longer be available in the current app version.

There's no paid tier specifically for unlocking additional tones at the time of writing — the available sounds come with the app — but this is an area where Ring's feature set has continued to evolve.

The full picture of your Ring doorbell's sound options comes down to which hardware you have, how many output devices are in your home, and how your phone handles app notifications. Someone using a basic Ring doorbell with a mechanical chime and no Alexa devices has a noticeably different set of options than someone running a Ring Pro through a Chime Pro with multiple Echo speakers. Understanding which of those setups matches yours is what determines exactly how far your customization can go.