Arlo|Smart Home Security|Wireless HD Security Cameras
× Arlo End of Life Policy Notice
To view Arlo’s new End of Life Policy, click here.

Widget/Individual buttons to arm and disarm modes on my phone

I would like to have two "buttons" on my phone

 

 

"arm"

 

and 

 

"disarm"

 

(or one for each mode would be nice)

 

This was, I can arm or disarm with one press of a button,

 

NOT

 

open app

select mode page

(wait a ling time for that page to load)

selct "modes"

select which mode I want.

 

ONE PRESS OF A BUTTON INSTEAD OF 6

Comments
Snn5
Apprentice

It's been three and a half years since this topic was even started. I think we can take that as a sign.

 

Arlo has been so busy trying to separate from Netgear and come up with new products that they haven't even fixed all the issues with the first generation camera system or even fixed the speaker issues with the 2nd and 3rd gen and then had issues with the 4K and still have not come up with a working app that is intuitive and easy-to-use much less something as simple as a widget.

 

It should be a simple as a widget screen that has all of your preset modes and all you have to do is select one.

 

there has to be some way that a widget or the app can stay connected to the system so that you don't have to login every time wait for the connection choose the mode wait for the status and then change the mode to active or not.

XJW
Apprentice
Apprentice

It may need to work in the background to complete the transaction and then notify when complete.

 

The lack of any support for existing customers is hugely disappointing.  Word of mouth and negative reviews online can kill a product.  But Arlo don't seem to care. 

 

Perhaps if they get enough negative comments on enough websites they will pay attention to their existing customers. 

XJW
Apprentice
Apprentice

Ping.  Still no progress update...... 

Snn5
Apprentice

Yeah this app has not had a feature update in years.

 


@@
XJW
Apprentice
Apprentice

For goodness sake Arlo.  Just give us a simple shortcut to activate a chosen mode.

 

It is not much to ask and would finally make Arlo a less tedious system to turn on and off.

Boss281
Luminary

I ended up going the expensive route.  Early in this technology, I picked up Samsung's SmartThings Hub, and a few devices (motion sensors, light switches) and doiked around with that as well as IFTTT, trying to find workarounds to all this bull.  I simply wanted to have a phone app to turn things on or off.  Having "zones" and "modes" was cool if it worked.  Eventually, I abandoned a lot of it.  For now, I have motion sensors on the doors, and Arlo Cameras outside.  I arm everything at night, turn it off in the mornings, and if I leave the house, turn everything back on again.  I do this with a Samsung SmartThings widget which gives me access to 4 SmartThings commands, and 3 revolve around the cameras (all on, all off, cameras only on).  It works, but never lived up to the potential for automating the house security the way I wanted.  I don't think it's a lack of creativity and desire, but more a corporate decision on how many resources to fund for developing the software.  Really, as a former developer and then director of a large federal agency's IT group (say 200 folks, total), this type of programming is EASY.  EASY. And EASY to test--you have an entire community frothing at the mouth for updates and improvements.  When I turn my energy back to this problem, I'll likely abandon what I have and find another company that's devoted to excellence.

XJW
Apprentice
Apprentice

@Boss281 

A nice summary of your experience and our frustration with Arlo leadership.  Word of mouth from happy customers would be a great investment.

 

IFTTT  support for Custom Modes would be a major step forward.  It would allow us to work around the other deficiencies such as the tedious process for switching Arlo on/off or the ongoing Geofencing debacle.

 

Many of the customer reviews that you see are scathing.  But invest a little more to fix the key gaps and your customers will sell the product for you.

cruicky82
Novice
I desperately, desperately need home screen widget functionality (at least on Android) that has access to all base station modes. Must be able to access custom modes in particular.

I know this has been mentioned by various users in the past. Surely this is a very simple app update that would make the world of difference for the Arlo ecosystem?

So many use cases that would benefit from a simple 'one click' arm, disarm, custom arm, schedule widget!
GBitGiZMO
Novice

+1 Android widget please!

BHayley
Aspirant

I am eager to use a widget in my iPhone to arm/disarm Arlo. Is this still not available? I researched this comprehensively and it seems no progress has been made. The IFTTT app had roadblocks when I signed up.