Ring's first smart lock: a hand-crank battery backup, Sidewalk instead of Wi-Fi, and no local hook announced

Amazon announced Ring’s first smart lock in early October. It has a fingerprint reader, a backlit touchscreen keypad, Ring app and Alexa control, and a dial on the front that recharges the lock by hand when the battery dies. Remote control runs over Amazon Sidewalk rather than your Wi-Fi. Ring lists it at $249.99 for the US in early 2027, and it isn’t on sale yet because it still needs FCC authorization.

Short version: if you run Home Assistant, Apple Home or Google Home, ignore it. Neither Amazon’s announcement nor Ring’s product page mentions Matter, Thread, Z-Wave or Zigbee, and Home Assistant’s Ring integration is a cloud integration with no lock support today. The dial is a clever answer to the dead-battery problem, but it doesn’t make the lock any more reachable from a local hub. If you live in Ring and Alexa and want a lock that ties into your Ring cameras and alarm, wait for reviews in 2027 rather than buying a Z-Wave lock for Ring Alarm now. My lock picks don’t change.

Updated October 14, 2026: GeekWire’s interview with Ring founder Jamie Siminoff answers three things I had listed as unknown (dial turns, battery and subscription), so I’ve added them below, and Ring’s own Z-Wave lock for Ring Alarm now shows out of stock.

What was announced

Ring’s page has a “Notify Me” form instead of a buy button, and offers optional professional installation from $129.99 per device. The app can set who gets in, how, and until when; Amazon’s example is a dog walker allowed in on Tuesdays between 2 and 3 p.m.

The dial

This is the part worth a second look: instead of a backup key, Ring puts a dial on the lock and lets you crank it back to life. Siminoff told GeekWire it takes five to ten turns. I have nothing to say about how well it works, because Ring hasn’t said how long the lock stays up afterwards, and I couldn’t find a hands-on report.

What stays local, what doesn’t

At the door

Amazon says unlocking happens on the device itself, so you aren’t left waiting on a network to get in. That’s the minimum I’d expect from any lock, and it’s good that Amazon states it plainly.

Everything else

Remote locking, status updates and PIN syncing travel over Sidewalk, which Amazon describes as a shared network powered by nearby Amazon devices. Both Amazon and Ring add that Sidewalk coverage “may vary by location and is subject to change or interruption.” So the remote side is Amazon’s network end to end, and none of it is your hub.

Home Assistant

Today there’s nothing to connect to:

• The official Ring integration is cloud polling. It logs into your Ring account and checks Ring’s servers every 60 seconds.
• It covers doorbells, stickup cams, chimes and intercoms. It has no lock platform.
• Ring Alarm reaches Home Assistant through the community ring-mqtt bridge, which is also cloud.

Even if that changes in 2027, a lock that reports through Ring’s cloud on a 60-second poll is the wrong foundation for the automations I care about, like locking up when the house empties.

From my own doors

I run two locks, and between them they cover what this one is trying to fix. My August Wi-Fi Smart Lock has stayed connected the whole time I’ve had it but leaned on the cloud until I moved it to Yale’s Bluetooth integration; the card links the current 4th-gen model, and mine is the 2nd generation. My Aqara U300 is Matter over Thread and local, but an unlock from a button can take upwards of 10 seconds, and I haven’t pinned down whether that’s the lock or my Matter network. The keypad is what saves it. The Ring lock has a keypad too, and the dial goes after the dead-battery problem. It just doesn’t give a local hub anything to talk to.

Buy, wait or ignore

Home Assistant house

Ignore it. Buy by radio, as before: a Z-Wave deadbolt like the Yale Assure Lock 2 with its Z-Wave module, or a Matter over Thread lock like the Aqara U200. Both work with Home Assistant with no vendor cloud in the path.

Apple Home or Google Home house

Ignore it for now. Nothing announced connects it to either platform. If Ring adds Matter before launch, that changes, and I’ll update this page.

Ring and Alexa house

Wait. Today, Ring’s own route to a lock in Ring Alarm is a Z-Wave deadbolt; Ring lists the Schlage Connect at $239.99 (out of stock when I checked on October 14), and it needs Ring Alarm or Alarm Pro and a Ring Protect subscription to connect. The new lock costs about the same, adds a fingerprint reader and the dial, and Amazon says it works with Ring alarms. GeekWire reports that none of its features needs a subscription, which would make it the cheaper option to run. What I can’t tell you yet is whether it needs a Ring base station or an Echo nearby. If you already own a Ring Alarm Pro, there’s no reason to buy a Z-Wave lock this winter just to beat the Ring lock to your door.

Budget buyer

Ignore it. At $249.99 it isn’t a budget lock, and you can’t buy it until 2027.

Does this change my picks?

No.

• Best smart locks with local control. No change. That guide ranks locks by their local path from Home Assistant or Apple Home, and nothing announced gives the Ring lock one.
• Smart lock ecosystems compared. The Alexa section is the one this touches. Ring now has a first-party lock for Alexa households, which is worth knowing, but it’s a 2027 product with no published spec sheet. I’ll revisit that section when it ships and someone has run one.