Modes vs Smart Notifications

[cupoftea]

We have a few "Arlo Essential Outdoor Security Cameras", connected to wifi, no hub.

I'm using "Smart Notifications" to get notifications for people but not pets

I notice with the Mode feature you can also set schedules.

Do those two features overlap? e.g. if I set a schedule, when the camera is active will it still only notify me for People but not animals?

(because the way the UI is arranged it seems like two completely separate features)

Other questions:
- It looks like if you want to set a schedule for 'all night', it has to stop at 23:59 and then restart the next day at 00:00. Seems like there's a 1 minute hole there?

- Is there a way to combine schedules and rules? e.g. "during the day just record, but at night record and notify"

Many thanks

[StephenB · Accepted solution]

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@cupoftea wrote:

- It looks like if you want to set a schedule for 'all night', it has to stop at 23:59 and then restart the next day at 00:00. Seems like there's a 1 minute hole there?

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It's supposed to stop at the end of the minute, so there shouldn't be a gap.  Not something I've ever tested though.

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@cupoftea wrote:

- Is there a way to combine schedules and rules? e.g. "during the day just record, but at night record and notify"

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You schedule modes (and each mode is a set of rules).  So this is combined (and also integrated with geofencing).

So yes.

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@cupoftea wrote:

I'm using "Smart Notifications" to get notifications for people but not pets

I notice with the Mode feature you can also set schedules.

Do those two features overlap? e.g. if I set a schedule, when the camera is active will it still only notify me for People but not animals?

(because the way the UI is arranged it seems like two completely separate features)

This is a bit confusing (and somewhat limiting).  If notifications aren't enabled in the mode/rule, then no notifications will be sent at all.  If they are enabled, then the smart notificationn filtering is done.

It would be ideal if notifications could be scheduled (and geofenced) for the specific phone/tablet (including friend accounts).  But that can't be done.

[cupoftea]

Thanks thats really useful.

It looked to me in the UI that 'Scheduled' mode was separate to the other modes

But you prompted me to look again and now I see that when you add a schedule, the block that gets added has a 'mode' name in it, and you can choose which mode the schedule activates. Thats brill!

Its not obvious at first because if you havent added any other custom modes, 'Active' is the only option

OK I think I can do what I need to do.