Solution to night alerts/iOS - Bypass Do Not Disturb AND 30 sec. alarm, (no 3rd party app necess

[daniel0319]

For iPhone users, here is the solution to (a) keep your Do Not Disturb secure so that you can sleep through the night, and (b) actually set an alarm to wake you up if an intruder comes by.  This is a work around for not having a different notification option through the Arlo app, one that lasts longer and can be customized.  IFTTT and other third-party apps do not work well.  Just follow these four steps on each device.

STEP 1

Must first login as admin (on any device) and enable Email Alerts for each event that you want this to work with.  So if you have a rule called "Night time" and have two areas of motion or sound detection, make sure you check email alerts on both of them.  When you enable the Email Alerts, use the chart that has already been provided regarding phone carriers.  You should Google your carrier's Email to SMS Gateway to confirm these are still accurate or check yours if it isn't on the list; I’m re-posting the one from earlier in the post here.  Just be sure to enable the email notifications and put in the correct phone number and email format.  I would recommend checking it by setting off your motion detector and confirming you receive a text message about it.

Carrier	Email to SMS Gateway
Alltel	[10-digit phone number]@message.alltel.com Example: 1234567890@message.alltel.com
AT&T (formerly Cingular)	[10-digit phone number]@txt.att.net [10-digit phone number]@mms.att.net (MMS) [10-digit phone number]@cingularme.com Example: 1234567890@txt.att.net
Boost Mobile	[10-digit phone number]@myboostmobile.com Example: 1234567890@myboostmobile.com
Nextel (now Sprint Nextel)	[10-digit telephone number]@messaging.nextel.com Example: 1234567890@messaging.nextel.com
Sprint PCS (now Sprint Nextel)	[10-digit phone number]@messaging.sprintpcs.com [10-digit phone number]@pm.sprint.com (MMS) Example: 1234567890@messaging.sprintpcs.com
T-Mobile	[10-digit phone number]@tmomail.net Example: 1234567890@tmomail.net
US Cellular	[10-digit phone number]email.uscc.net (SMS) [10-digit phone number]@mms.uscc.net (MMS) Example: 1234567890@email.uscc.net
Verizon	[10-digit phone number]@vtext.com [10-digit phone number]@vzwpix.com (MMS) Example: 1234567890@vtext.com
Virgin Mobile USA	[10-digit phone number]@vmobl.com Example: 1234567890@vmobl.com

STEP 2

After that is completed, go to your iPhone Contacts.  Create a new contact with any name (a good one would be Arlo Alert, so let’s go with that for this.)  Name the new contact Arlo Alert.  Press the edit button.

In edit mode, create a new email address, and it needs to be exact: alerts@arlo.com

STEP 3

While still in Edit Mode under your new contact called Arlo Alert, select Text Tone.  At the very top of the next screen, Select Emergency Bypass (this allows the bypassing of Do Not Disturb Mode.)

STEP 4

Now go down to where it says Alert Tone.  I would recommend skipping this section because Alert Tones will not wake you up and last about five seconds.  Instead, proceed down to Ringtones (yes, you can use a Ringtone for your texts if you set it up this way.)  Select your Ringtone, which is essentially a 30 second alarm, and there are a lot of options.  I chose “Alarm” from the Classic menu at the bottom, but you can’t really go wrong here.  You are setting up an alert, disguised as a RingTone, in whatever style you want, to let you know that your Arlo has detected something. 

Save your changes so that your new contact, Arlo Alert, is permanently set to Emergency Bypass and is assigned a ringtone alarm.  Go ahead and put your phone on Do Not Disturb.  Go set off your motion detection.  There is a slight delay sometimes (maybe 30 seconds), maybe better if on cellular, as this process takes a little extra time to complete it’s cycle.

[pc2k17]

Good idea. This can be done on android as well. (steps might be a bit different, but same concept). I have a couple contacts setup for services I use that alert me with a ringtone when I get a text notification from them, but never thought of doing it for Arlo. I mighty have to try this out and see which way I like getting notifications from arlo better, from the standard app notification or from a text.

Thanks for sharing.

[daniel0319]

Thanks.  I would be glad to put the Android version on here as well.

Also, just to clarify to everyone, this is to configure it so that a customized alarm that goes off on your phone (even in Do Not Disturb mode), not the immobile alarm at the access point/router of your Arlo system.  That option is obviously available but presents problems to many people.  This is a personal alert option through your phone that provides a customized, longer alarm option instead of a small beep.  I would recommend it for many people to have rather than a siren that may go off for a false alarm or scare/wake up kids when a squirrel wanders by.  Because I was not even woken up by Arlo’s mere beep and didn’t want to use the Arlo siren (which would just wake up and scare my kids and probably wouldn’t even faze a burglar, since it’s not even positioned in the right place to scare off a burglar), my car was robbed twice in the last six months.  I hope this solution will help you to fine tune to your own needs.  My only complaint with Arlo is the night time burglar prevention did not really help given several options with big tradoffs.  Having a third party app fill in these gaps was disastrous to setup and unnecessary. 

[ek2016]

Hello,

I love this work-around!  I tried setting up a yahoo account with name@verizon.net (which is now the way verizon does it.  It won't let me do it.  Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks!

[daniel0319]

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@ek2016 wrote:

Hello,

I love this work-around!  I tried setting up a yahoo account with name@verizon.net (which is now the way verizon does it.  It won't let me do it.  Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks!

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I actually use Verizon....use the instructions in the original post.

Verizon

[10-digit phone number]@vtext.com [10-digit phone number]@vzwpix.com (MMS) Example: 1234567890@vtext.com

So, you don't need to even setup a new email account.  All you need to do is tell your Arlo alert to send an email to that address (this is not a real "email adddress"; it is just a way of converting your text number to an email address format); this is essential to this work-around because it forces communication with the Arlo Alerts emal address which allows the other bipassing and customizing.

[ek2016]

Thank you for your reply.

I'm likey missing something simple, it's still not working.  I have Verizon and I've been a customer long enough that I do have a @vtext.com email address.  I spoke with Verizon and on tech support person told me it should work and the other said I can't use it...

[hairtumor]

Good work around. The only problem I see is when not in do not disturb mode you will be receiving extra alerts.

[fehren2800]

I have followed these steps and I am getting text notifications, but the sound absolutely refuses to change.  I get my normal text sound alert. I am up to date on all camera and base station firmware and running latest ios 12.1.4

Thanks.

[jbrown111]

This does not work for me. I get this text to number 999-999-9999 but no ringtone. I think it is because the text is not being sent to arlo@alerts.com but is instead being sent to 999-999-9999.

In order to get it to work, I had to add the phone number 999-999-9999 to my alerts@arlo.com contact.