How to Pair a Smart Doorbell With a Smart Lock (and Why)

Smart locks and video doorbells are two types of popular smart home devices that are tailor-made for your front door. In many cases, you can link both devices together to see who is at the door and let them in from a single app.

Why Pair Your Smart Lock and Doorbell?

A smart video doorbell can show you exactly who is at your door, no matter if you’re in the bedroom upstairs or thousands of miles away on vacation. With a smart lock, a single tap on an app can lock and unlock your home.

The top reason to pair your smart lock and doorbell is convenience. Before pairing both devices, you would have to fumble with two companion apps to see who is at the door and then unlock the smart lock. After putting them together, you can see a video feed from the front door and then unlock the door using the same app.

How to Choose the Right Smart Lock and Doorbell

Even though pairing a smart doorbell and smart lock together makes a lot of sense, the integration still requires a bit of setup.

The most important factor when selecting a smart doorbell and smart lock is your smart home platform of choice. There are three major smart home platforms to select from—Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, and Google Home. Both devices will need to be compatible with one of those three ecosystems.

If you’re new to smart home technology, take a look at the ins and outs of all three platforms to make the best choice for your home. There’s also Home Assistant, an open-source smart home platform that is much more powerful at the cost of complexity.

While it’s unfortunate, the ability to pair a smart lock and video doorbell isn’t widespread. If you’re an Apple HomeKit user, take a look at using the Ecobee Smart Video Doorbell and Yale smart lock like the Assure Lock 2.

You will also need an Ecobee Smart Security subscription, which starts at $5 per month or $50 per year.

If you’re an Amazon Alexa household, you can pair any modern Ring video doorbell with a selected number of smart locks. One of the best is the Schlage Encode Smart Wi-Fi Deadbolt.

For Google Home, take a look at the Google Nest Doorbell combined with the Nest x Yale Smart Lock. Just to note, being able to pair together a smart video doorbell and smart lock to use in a single app is different from smart home automation. Even if your smart lock and smart doorbell can’t be paired together, it can still be easy to use the products together.

For example, in Apple HomeKit, you can automatically see a video from the door when someone rings your doorbell. If you want to open the door to let them in, just a quick command to Siri (even using the Apple TV remote) can work. You can also customize the Apple Home app where you can quickly access the front door lock right from the live view of the doorbell.

Pairing the Smart Lock and Video Doorbell Together

Pairing a smart lock and video doorbell should be a straightforward process. I’ll use the method for pairing my Ecobee Smart Video Doorbell and Yale Assure Lock 2 Plus as an example, but the process should work similarly with other models.

I started by heading to the companion Ecobee app for the iPhone. Next, it’s a case of tapping the “+” plus on the top right screen and then pick Add a device. After that, the next step is to link to your Yale account which was created while installing the smart lock. Once the accounts are linked, you can select up to two locks to add and control with the Ecobee app.

Getting Started With Using a Paired Video Doorbell and Smart Lock

Once the two devices are paired together, home security is even more convenient. With the Ecobee and Yale integration, you can see the lock’s status on the main Ecobee My Home page right along with your other devices, including a thermostat, sensors, and the video doorbell. Just hit the lock icon to remotely lock and unlock it. And when someone rings your doorbell, the lock status is available right on the same page as the live video. Just tap the icon to unlock the door.

Instead of having to juggle two apps, having the ability to unlock the door on the live doorbell view makes a world of difference and is very convenient. Even though you’ll need to pay an additional subscription, there is a big advantage when tying together a lock and Ecobee video doorbell. Your door will automatically lock when you arm the Ecobee Smart Security system. It’s a modular system that includes door sensors and indoor cameras.

Even though pairing a smart video doorbell and smart lock together is convenient, always make sure to keep your smart home secure. There are multiple, simple ways you can better secure your smart home right now.

While the combination of a smart video doorbell and smart lock are perfect companions that can improve your security, they might be cost-prohibitive for you. If so, take a look at a number of cheaper alternatives to a smart doorbell.