Security that's available when you can't be.
Professional protection for your home or business.
With the click of a button, Virtual Guards can be your eyes and ears—protecting your business or jobsite after-hours and monitoring your home overnight or when you're away.
Meet the trusted monitoring team, Rapid Response.
With nearly 30 years of experience, Rapid Response utilizes the latest technology to help keep today’s homes and businesses safe. Their Virtual Guards undergo extensive response training to better help protect you, your family, and your property.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does Virtual Security Guard Work?
With a Virtual Security Guard1 subscription, Rapid Response's trained security professionals will monitor motion events captured on your Ring cameras for your home or business. You are in charge of which Ring cameras are monitored and when. Simply set your Ring Alarm to Home or Away Mode, and Rapid Response’s trained agents will start monitoring. Rapid Response agents can quickly check Live View, see if people are in the frame, and depending on the situation, can intervene on your behalf.
Why should I use Virtual Security Guard?
We know that your time is valuable and you may not be able to review every camera motion alert taking place on your property. With Virtual Security Guard1, trained agents can view real-time motion events taking place on your property when a person is detected, to help keep your property or business protected so you can focus on what's important.
How much does Virtual Security Guard cost?
You can add Virtual Security Guard1 to a compatible Ring Protect subscription for an additional $99/month per location. Virtual Security Guard is only available as a monthly subscription and you can cancel anytime. Rapid Response is the seller and provider of the camera motion monitoring service and agents. Ring bills your Ring account for this service.
Who is Rapid Response?
Rapid Response, is a professional monitoring company with nearly 30 years of experience. Their trained specialists are available 24/7/365 to provide monitoring for the Ring devices you choose. When a person is detected, agents can monitor motion events on your cameras, engage through Two-Way Talk and your enrolled camera's siren to help deter unwanted behavior, and request to dispatch emergency services if needed.
When do Rapid Response agents monitor my property?
You have complete control when agents monitor your cameras for motion events. The service is only activated for the enrolled cameras you choose and only when your Ring Alarm is in Home or Away Mode. Cameras are opted out of monitoring by default, and you choose the cameras you want enrolled. Additionally, agents are only able to view videos in real-time as part of Live View when a camera motion event is triggered by a person on an enrolled camera, and cannot download, save, share any videos, or see your event history.
How will I know that the Rapid Response agents are only monitoring where I want, and when I want?
Choosing which cameras to monitor: Default settings limit camera motion monitoring to only compatible cameras of your choosing and are default off at signup. You can easily change which cameras you want monitored from the Ring Control Center from your Ring App or Ring.com.
Choosing when agents will monitor by setting modes from your Ring App or on Ring.com: On your Ring App or Ring.com, there are three modes to control monitoring. When the mode is Disarmed, Virtual Security Guard is inactive and agents will not monitor any cameras. When the mode is set to Armed Home or Armed Away, agents will monitor your cameras.
Choosing additional levels of controls:
Privacy Zones: These control which area within a camera’s field of view the agents can and cannot see. If you set a Privacy Zone, this appears as a black box to the Virtual Security Guard agent and they cannot view this area. In addition, if you turn off Audio Streaming and Recording on a specific device, agents will not be able to hear audio on that device in the Agent Tool.
Motion Zones: These control which motion events are sent to agents for review. When a person is detected, motion events that occur within your set Motion Zones will be reviewed by agents, while events outside will not. Once under review, agents will still see the camera’s entire field of view with the exception of areas covered by Privacy Zones.
I'm interested in Virtual Security Guard, how do I get started?
To get started you'll need a Ring Alarm, a compatible camera, a compatible Ring Protect subscription and be enrolled in Professional Monitoring
You can add Virtual Security Guard to a compatible Ring Protect subscription by logging into the Protect Plan page of your Ring Account and clicking "Purchase Virtual Security Guard".
Can Virtual Security Guard monitor my ONVIF-compatible cameras?
Supported ONVIF-compatible cameras can be enrolled into Virtual Security Guard.1 If you have ONVIF-compatible cameras set up in the Ring App, you will also need a Ring Alarm with professional monitoring enabled and a compatible Ring Protect subscription.3
1 Virtual Security Guard is an add-on service that requires the following (all sold separately): a subscription fee per enrolled location plus a compatible Ring Protect plan, a Ring Alarm system, enrollment in Ring Alarm professional monitoring, and an eligible device. Rapid Response is the seller and provides the service and agents monitoring person detected motion events. Learn more here.
2 A compatible Ring Protect subscription is required to enroll in the Ring Alarm professional monitoring service. Professional monitoring service is available only within the U.S. (all 50 states, but not U.S. territories) and in Canada (excluding Quebec). Ring does not own its own professional monitoring center. Smoke and carbon monoxide monitoring is not available for commercial properties. See Ring alarm licenses at: ring.com/licenses. Additional permit or false alarm fees may apply depending on your local jurisdiction. Additional charges may apply in areas that require permits or guard response service for alarm verification.
3 ONVIF-compatible cameras are not made by Ring. Not all ONVIF-compatible cameras have been tested for interoperability by ONVIF, and not all ONVIF-compatible cameras may be supported in the Ring App. Only ONVIF Conformant products are verified to be interoperable by ONVIF. Learn more about ONVIF and its ONVIF standard at https://www.onvif.org/. For the list of compatibility requirements for the Ring App, refer to this link.
