Turn any old apartment buzzer interface into a smart one with Buzr

There once was a time that having a buzzer on your wall by the door to talk to guests was a thing of the future. Especially for larger apartment buildings with multiple stories where guests need to be buzzed in to access the front door. However, that was quite a long time ago. Now, these buzzers don’t offer much new excitement to brag about. Unless, of course, you swap yours out with a smart one that links to your phone with something like Buzr.

Now you have something that could turn any old apartment buzzer system into your own personal smart doorbell device. Kind of like a Ring, only minus the video. If someone rings your apartment/space/suite, you can opt to get a notification straight to your phone. This way you can answer your guest even if you aren’t at home and even choose to buzz (or “buzr”) them in or not.

They say that all you have to do is swap out the original outdated boring buzzer and replace it with Buzr. No other modifications need to be had and it makes use of the original wiring. It simply acts as a gateway between the building’s buzzer system and your new smart experience.

It makes for an interesting idea that should have been touched on by now. Why hasn’t it? Sure, they have smart(ish) solutions out there right now, but these are brand new systems from the ground up. So being able to use the one that is already there and simply turn it smart seems like a win-win (as long as you don’t lose the original unit if you are renting as you’ll want to put it back before you move on).

The MSRP will be $229, so it is a little pricey for something that doesn’t have video. Especially, when you can find things like Ring for less than half of the cost that offer more features than this (although these made for a slightly different scenario, it all falls into the same market). Their subscription is also $7/mo or $75/year which is also above the average $0-$5/mo that other services are offering for answerable devices (despite audio or video support). Thankfully, the subscription is not necessary unless you want the extended app features.

It does come at a cost for those looking for luxury, but it does look nice at least. And again, it is something new that converts yet another technology into the world of IoT. You can find out more information from their website here.

They plan to start shipping sometime this summer.