I just picked up a two-camera Arlo kit this last week and have been working on getting it installed and optimized. A couple of things perpelexed me in the UI of the app.
First, motion sensitivity.
Wow. This should be dead easy, but it had me totally confused. Why? Because the icons at either end of the slider are exactly opposite of what the motion sensitivity slider actually does!
On the left, we have sensitivity at zero. This would, I assume, mean that no matter how much motion is being detected, video will not be recorded. On the right, we have sensitivity at 100%, which I would assume would trigger recording with the slightest amount of motion.
And yet, the icons show someone sitting still with sensitivity at zero, and running through the frame at 100%. If sensitivity is set lower, more motion is required to trigger a recording. With sensitivity set higher, less motion is required to trigger a recording. The icons are totally wrong for illustrating how the sensitivity control works, and it's totally misleading. On the left, I would put a pictogram of a person doing jumping jacks, with arms and legs waving. On the right, just slight motion indicated. And perhaps add text as well, indicating that less sensitivity = more motion required to trigger recording, and vice-versa.
Second, modes and rules could be greatly simplified.
There seems to be a lot of redundancy in the app, with the same settings available in multiple places. This is confusing, and should be consolidated into a more streamlined interface. The options are a little confusing, as well. Is there any situation where I would want to record video on Camera 2 if motion is detected on Camera 1? If the idea is to enable recordings on ALL cameras if any one of them detects motion, this could be much better implemented on a single screen, so all the rules for a particluar mode are visible at once.
Third, motion "detection zones" would be a great addition.
I know that motion is detected by the PIR "eye", but it seems to me that adding in user-defined "detection zones" to determine whether recording and/or alerts are executed would be a smart way to conserve battery and/or bandwidth. I've used the app manything in the past, and it used zone-based motion detection (along with a sensitivity threshold) to enable recording in particular areas. This greatly reduced the number of "false positives" reported by the app.
And finally, user-defined alert sounds.
This is something that every app with push notifications needs to allow the user to do: select their own notification sound, either from the built-in audio library, or a custom sound. I get alerts on my phone all day long, from numerous apps. It's a HUGE source of frustration to not be able to identify the source of the alert from the sound alone. Some apps have their own sounds, many use the generic alert sound. I would like to know, without pulling my phone out of my pocket, that Arlo has detected motion, and ideally, on which camera. At the very least, give Arlo its own unique audio signature, so we can identify it easily and distinguish it from the dozens of other generic notifications we get.