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Will I be able to use Apple Homekit if I purchase Arlo hub for my Arlo Pro 5 camera?

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Snizhana
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I have recently purchased Arlo Pro 5 camera and I'm happy with it.

 

Will I be able to use Apple Home if I purchase Arlo hub for my Arlo Pro 5 camera? 

 

I would like to automate something like when I get notifications on motion or person on my front door camera, I would like Homepod to play some sound to wake me up. Or is there anything I can do without Appe Home not to miss such notifications on motion/person at night?
Thank you!

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StephenB
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@Snizhana wrote:

 

Will I be able to use Apple Home if I purchase Arlo hub for my Arlo Pro 5 camera? 


Homekit support isn't available for the Pro 5s yet.  While Arlo says it is "coming soon", I recommend waiting until it is actually here before investing in a smarthub.   That is assuming that you aren't interested in local storage, but only want homekit.

 


@Snizhana wrote:

Or is there anything I can do without Apple Homekit not to miss such notifications on motion/person at night?


You might consider adding the home security system.  I don't recall off-hand if you can get it to generate an audio alert when the camera triggers.  But it does have its own sensors that you can put on your doors and windows (and which can be also be set to detect motion).  Those can trigger an audio alert on the security system panel. 

Snizhana
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Thank you, Stephen! I'm an Apple fan and I have three Homepods mini around the house... I though the camera itself doesn't have Apple support but it has if I purchase a hub..  good to know that so I do not invest in something I do not need. I'm pretty happy with camera, I was selecting between Arlo Pro 5, Eve outdoor camera and Netatmo outdoor camera, but I do not need a wired version (therefore, not Eve) and I found not very good reviews on Netatmo, I needed just something that could be powered by a plug (maximum) or ideally with the batteries. 

 

This is my first experience with the camera, we have recently moved with my kid and my elderly mom to a new house and a couple of days ago a hooligan approached our house and has broken one of the door glasses. Mom was really scared and there was no camera around. So I decided to add something for a better security and confidence. I just want not to miss the notification if someone will approach the front door when I'm asleep. Ideally to play some sound so that I can wake up and see what is going on and then react/switch the siren manually, not to activate camera siren immediately as an automation because I read sometimes the system may glitch and do false alarms.

 

I am actually considering adding a door sensor for my front door (the one from Eve) that can trigger a sound from HomePod mini via Homekit but I would also want to be aware of the alarms from my outdoor camera at night as maybe the door sensor is not very secure by its own... 

 

I see that my camera (Arlo Pro 5) supports Alexa... Will I be able to get Alexa speaker play some alert/music/sound at night if I purchase Alexa Echo Dot? 

 

 

(I'm also considering adding an Arlo wireless doorbell and chime as although I like the quality of imaging from the outdoor camera, I would like more focused and detailed images of the visitor's faces, so maybe this Echo Dot can help me to build ecosystem around Arlo until they come up with the Homekit solution). 

 

 

 

 

StephenB
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@Snizhana wrote:

 

I see that my camera (Arlo Pro 5) supports Alexa... Will I be able to get Alexa speaker play some alert/music/sound at night if I purchase Alexa Echo Dot? 

 


More details on that is here:

It's not a feature I use myself.  But the article doesn't say you need a base for it to work.

 

Note the Pro 5s camera is also known as the VMC4060P (which is listed at the top of the article).

Snizhana
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Thank you so much for your help!

Another solution that I managed to work out while waiting for Arlo support for Homekit.

 

I've purchased Arlo Doorbell with Chime 2, to add it to my ecosystem and found out that Chime 2 can be programmed in such a way so that it can play alarm sound (there are several ones, you can select it in the app) when there is some trigger, like motion detected on outdoor Arlo pro 5. 

 

I haven't tested it yet (and hopefully I will not!) but it should work fine. 

I added the rule - every evening to shift to an Armed Away mode in which if there is a motion on front door camera is detected, it automatically records and initiates a siren. In its turn, if this is triggered, then Chime 2 plays alarm sound indoor. 

StephenB
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@Snizhana wrote:

 

I haven't tested it yet (and hopefully I will not!) but it should work fine. 


I don't have a chime 2, but that should work.