Arlo’s New App 2.6.0 on Android Blows!

[GeckospotNixie]

The new app 2.6.0 on android is just bad totally bad!

Before I was able to open the app and see the battery status icon on each camera.

Now its two menus to get to the battery status! What that about?

Put the status icons back on the camera windows title bars!!

This new view is just painful!!

Put the status icons back on the camera windows title bars!!

Also if you start a live view of a camera there is NO stop or pause button??

What that about?

I had to close the app to stop a camera live viewing!

That is just a pain!

This new app blows bit time!

[Haakona]

I agree with you 100%.  Not being able to see the icons in the title of the window for the camera is a step backwards for this app.

And so is the live view.  Now once the live view is started, instead of just pressing the pause button at the bottom left corner of the window to stop it, we have to tap the live view window twice to get the stop button to show up.

This app has taken 2 steps backwards.  Whoever is responsible for making these changes, please put it back the way it was.

[AncientGeek]

The iOS app has similar, if not identical, issues.

As for the stop button, on the iOS app, I have to touch the screen during live view to get the stop button to appear in the center of the image.  The microphone, record, photo and mute icons also appear at the bottom of the image after I touch it,

[Applegeuse]

Seriously guys, you have now removed the battery icon status from the main devices tab in the updated app. That was literally the most useful thing to have for the wireless cameras. Now I have to go into settings of each camera to view battery status. I see from past posts around 2015 this was done as well. Guess you like causing yourself headaches and angering customers. Cant fix notifications so you decide to screw up something else to take the focus off I guess?

[JoeCymru]

Well everything is missing from the opening page under devices on Android app. Status for all cameras at a glance is no more. From moving a finger up and down to get overall system status, to having to check on settings for each and every camera for disabled / abled, battery, wifi connection strength. And the individually for  the base for the USB backup device being hooked up. The pause button for live view stop is gone also, to be replaced by tapping on the screen until you get a stop button. Live view will not rotate to full frame. You need to select the full frame icon to make it work. Then getting out of full frame requires one to stop the live mode. Tapping on the screen to bring up the stop button can give you some unexpected results in full frame, so one must be careful to estimate where the button should be (the stop button comes up for a few seconds when starting live view then disappears) and then be careful ... otherwise you just manipulate the screen. The view rounded corners and shadows are an actual enhancemet, though.

[Yazmine]

I am an Arlo pro 2 user for over a year. I l9ve the product and features. But with the last update i don't like everything is missing from the opening page under devices on Android app. Status for all cameras at a glance is no more availible. There are other so called enhancement that are not enhancement and poorly done. Please undo. Review issues on this site relating to this update to 2.6.0.
PLEASE UNDO WHAT YOU BROKE...

[JerryR]

Can verify all the above. Who the h*** decided any of this was a good idea? And, apparently, they didn't bother to have anyone test this before release. 

[MotoRider42HC]

It doesn't just blow, it blows big nasty chunks!!! Roll it back! Roll it back! Give us back our status icons!!!

[ChrisR_85]

Agree - the new interface is so bad.

The recording to the library has also seemed to stop which renders these pretty much useless. Not to mention geofencing still remains an issue.

Surely these things get tested before release....

[ChrisR_85]

So three days with no recordings showing in the library from any camera despite the system being armed (notification saying it is), motion turned on and knowing there has been motion that would ordinarily trigger a recording. This is really unacceptable for a supposed 'security system'.

Also noticed that the status tab no longer shows what mode is active if geofencing is selected - just a location pin - how am I meant to tell at a glance if it is armed or not?

[SolarDude]

I do not like the new Android app update interface either.

You guys can find the older versions of the Arlo app online and install them instead of the newest updated version.

I just did that by downloading the previous Android ApK from this place. After you download you will need to install the apk file and sometimes you need to give Android permission to install programs that are not from the app store which is simple to do.

Here is where I found the older software versions.

https://www.apkmonk.com/download-app/com.netgear.android/4_com.netgear.android_2018-08-08.apk/

[DocB1973]

Not sure why you dislike it. Looks and works better than the previous version.

[SolarDude]

I disagree like most others on here. I dont want to have to hit 2 extra buttons to see battery level and wifi status along with if the alert is motion or audio based for each camera. Thats my main gripe about the update.

What is working better for you?

[joeflyer]

The new arlo app does not display the battery meter...Why not?

[Retired_Member]

I heard auto manufacturers will soon remove the gas gauge on every car. Tha gas gauge will only show up when you have 15% gas left in the tank. 

Apparently Netgear thought the battery icon wasn’t important for us users to see. What they should’ve done is to INCLUDE a % for each camera. If I want to see the battery % of my iphone it takes only one press of a button. 

[Zegor]

The recent app upgrade is shocking. Removing functionality and visibility of camera status - why? Just why?

[jguerdat]

The battery level is now seen in the camera settings.

[paddos]

Hey Doc,

Can you tell me one thing that is better on the new release? You got to be trolling to actual say the new release is better. Tell me you are kidding please!!!!

[GeckospotNixie]

Ok so I got an update to 2.6.1_22700 (10/23/18)

The only thing that I see they did was put the Stop Button back on the live video screen.

One step!

Now if we can get them to put the Mute Button back on that screen it would be moving in a forward direction.

Also before the update I did notices that the low battery icon shows in the camera title bar.

But only if it is a low battery and for anything else you have to go to the camera menu for that one.

[AncientGeek]

The iOS app hasn’t changed yet, but the icons you referenced are already on the screen for the iOS version.

The battery indicator also appears to flash briefly as “low “ until the app gets the data indicating the battery is not actually low....then it goes away unless the battery is actually low.

[SS_Camaro]

I have a Google Pixel 2 OS ver 9. The new android 2.6.1 app updated the other day and it is worthless! Under devices, there are no status indicators like battery life, wireless connection, etc for each camera. There is no option to turn on/off a camera anymore. Under modes, if I try to edit a mode...the app crashes. I have restarted the base station and a couple of the cameras...no help. I have uninstalled the app, restarted phone, reinstalled the app...no help. It sure would be nice to go back to the prior version of the app when everything worked. Thankfully I can manage the cameras online but what a hassle.

[fototx]

Some suggestions for the new Adroid app 2.62_22700 released on 10.18.2019....

Add Battery Icon Back:

I can appreciate wanting a cleaner look but leaving the battery icon out of the camera window is, IMO, a bad move.   I am often times away and the first thing I monitor, when logging in,  is the battery condition. Sometimes, its the only thing I view.  After all, it is a vital indicator.

Improve visiibility to the "last display time/day":

This time/day stamp shows as white text.  In half of my camera scenes, the time/day stamp is unreadable.  Why not put this stamp in the lower bar, next to the  camera name.  There, you can control the background and always make the stamp legible.

Reduce taps from live view Play to Stop:

In live view, why does it take 4 taps go from play to pause?  Should be 2.   Currently, when you tap play and review the live scene for more than a few seconds.... it take 3 more taps to stop/pause the live view - of which 1 tap is to remove the icons, the second tape to "wake up" and display the icons just removed and this time displaying the stop icon.  And a third tap to stop the live view.  Really? 

What else?

[SGW]

This was a backward step IMO. It was so easy before and now having to click on each device to see is not a consumer friendly approach at all. Hopefully the techs that decided it was unnecessary read these blogs. I do get alerts when they are running low, but a quick glance when you’re out of town was great for planning purposes. .

[danrocky55]

How do I go back to a previous version of Android software.  The new version updated on 10/20 is terrible. I no longer have battery status on each camera screen, and library viewing is no longer associated to each camera and must look through all camera videos to fing specific camera videos.  I want the old version back as was much better than the newer version.

[Wetzel402]

You can side load the older apk here:

https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/netgear-inc-2/arlo/arlo-2-5-3_22376-release/

Remember to disable automatic updates in the play store. 

I am having issues with the app ignoring my rules so I am going to roll back also to see if it helps.