iOS App Update - why change the layout?

[SirV]

The latest app update is a downgrade as far as I'm concerned

Why have you removed the simple indicators of battery level and now you have to click further into the app to find them, who thought that was a good idea.

[SeranM]

Why did you remove the battery status and the brightness function from the camera live feed in the latest October 2018 android app update? I live in north qld Australia and the brightness here varies from low to EXTREME! I used that brightness on the live feed to adjust the image EVERY DAY! Now I have to ditch the live view and go into the settings to adjust it to the time/light of the day. It's really irritating. Also, I dont know the status of my batteries because you removed the icon from the live feed. Again, I have to go into the settings. Why did you do this? So annoying.

[Prowl]

So Interestingly my buddy's smart home company was  in the process of specing out Arlo for a Building firm to cover various high end new builds and flats  and for high end installation and to integrate into smarthings.

A mix of Pro2's, Go and Q Plus ( even Arlo Baby's for each new house!)   -  The Cost about £134,000!!

He has now binned that as it stands... Not specifically because of the interface changes, but because of Netgears inability to even have the courtesy to work up an offical statemnt about this in 2 weeks, for something as important as a security system. 

[RChobby]

Arlo is independent of Netgear. Separate companies.

[pc2k17]

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@RChobby wrote:
Arlo is independent of Netgear. Separate companies.

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Not entirely true.......from an article I read.........

Arlo will remain close to Netgear even after the company goes public. Netgear, which makes networking hardware, will have more than 50% of the voting power of Arlo’s common stock following the IPO, meaning that Arlo will be a controlled company. That allows the company certain exemptions, including in regards to the number of independent directors on its board and the makeup of its compensation committee.

In its IPO filing, Arlo said that Netgear will continue to provide it some shared administrative, information-technology, and other related services for a fee.

“Our ability to operate our business effectively may suffer if we are unable to cost-effectively establish our own administrative and other support functions in order to operate as a stand-alone company after the expiration of our shared services and other intercompany agreements with Netgear,” the company listed among its risk factors.

[MemphisRiverRat]

From October 25, 2018 release notes for iOS App version 2.6.1:

• Battery indicator behavior: The battery indicator will appear next to a camera only if battery is running low. To check the battery level at any other time, tap the three dots next to the camera name and “Device Settings.”

I have updated to iOS 2.6.1 and it didn't fix anything. I have two low cameras and the low battery indicator does not show up on the Devices page. Like before when I open the Devices page intially a low battery indicator appears for a few seconds for all cameras and then dissapears. I still have to tap the three dots, tap device settings and then I can see the actual battery status, for each camera.

Fortunately my live view works fine for all cameras, so far. I did notice that if I am viewing the Devices page a motion indicator will pop up while a camera is detecting motion. I have not checked to see if the audio indicator works.

Either way still no improvement to the disaster of the 2.6.0 release.

[JamesC]

We are monitoring and appreciate the feedback on the changes made with the new interface updates.

I do not have any information on future changes but if any are to be made, the changes will be noted in future release notes.

JamesC

[Fortress10]

Can someone from Arlo who monitors this forum please acknowledge the isssue created with app 2.6.0 and 2.6.1
We need confirmation the issues are acknowledged and what the plan is to correct
This is not a layout issue
This is a serious functionality issue as the update has caused issues with live streaming audio and image refresh

Thanks

[superfurry]

Seems like the battery indicator on the homescreen of the updated iOS app is now gone with not apparenty way to turn this back on. Means I need to dig into each camera to find the battery level. Any way to reinstate this? Thanks!

[nzkiwiboy]

Hi

The new Arlo App does not have the icons on the front preview of the camera the old App had i.e. Battery indicator, WiFi signal strehngth, Outline of man showing if camera was armed or not, or recording.

My concern is that I can no longer see if my camera or cameras are now armed at a glance infact I cannot see if the system is armed or not I just have to trust that my schedule etc. is working.

Are you able to bring back the outline of the man or is there another way to check at a glance that the camera or cameras are actually armed?

[TomMac]

It's a SW change, no way to undo.... but the battery icon does appear on top of main screen if it falls to 15%

[superfurry]

Where best to complain about this and request a rollback on this? It's a real step backward in usabiliity.

[RChobby]

I was informing users who leave messages “to Netgear” to fix the Arlo app. Arlo is now a separate corporate entity.

[NSJS]

Arlo,

The new app is really poor.  Thankfully I have retained my old app on my iPhone.  The new app doesn’t stream video it shows a static picture and that takes a couple of attempts to conenct.  It shows live but it is not I assume the red dot means no but who would know.

Regards

[Pootle78]

Several users have also taken to Twitter to voice their frustrations, but all we get in response is “The new app design aims to declutter the app's interface. Icons like the battery life will appear on the camera's frame when it shows important alerts like when battery life is low, connection is poor, or when it detects motion.”
Can someone from Arlo please respond to address the complaints regarding this serious UI design problem with the latest update?
Even with the claimed functionality, many report it isn’t working properly (e.g. battery icon is supposed to show when low, but it doesn’t) and more importantly nobody seems to think that this version is an improvement.

[Upsman87]

I am using Iphone X ios 12, Ipad Pro ios 12 and PC.  I have 100+mbps internet speed and Orbi Mesh Router for great wifi coverage.  My cameras all show the Max on wifi connection.  I am on the 2.6.1 Arlo version and prior to the 2.6 update my cameras worked very well.

New update has rendered this system useless.  

Live streaming is delayed at least 30 seconds.

Notifications used to be about 2-3 seconds, they are now around 10 seconds.

Snapshots on Device Page do not always show the last time the camera was triggered, and if it does the elapsed time showing is usually way off (example, camera triggered 2 minutes ago but elapsed time is showing 8 hours).

Layout on IPAD is horrible, I want to see all my cameras on one page and not have to scroll to see each one.

I want all my indicators and buttons back visible on the Device Page.

Microphone button is hard to use.  Once you press it with your finger you can no longer see the status of the microphone... is it on?  You have to roll your finger to the side to try and get a peek at the icon to see if the microphone is active.  When it is active I have found the connection time to be anywhere from 3-10 seconds to connect to camera.

[JamesC]

Our intent with the app update is to streamline the user experience to allow users to focus more easily on the device list as our portfolio grows. The resulting design alerts users only when the battery is low – the battery icon will always appear on the home page when the battery is at 25% or less. A yellow icon will appear to represent 25% battery life, and if the battery falls lower than 25%, it will change to red. The same goes for a weak WiFi signal. However, for our wire-free cameras, the plug icon will always appear on the screen when the device is plugged in.

For more information on these changes, take a look here:

What enhancements are included in the Arlo app release version 2.6.0?

Arlo Development Team

[pc2k17]

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@JamesC wrote:

Our intent with the app update is to streamline the user experience to allow users to focus more easily on the device list as our portfolio grows. The resulting design alerts users only when the battery is low – the battery icon will always appear on the home page when the battery is at 25% or less. A yellow icon will appear to represent 25% battery life, and if the battery falls lower than 25%, it will change to red.

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Hmmm............ streamlining the user experience as the Arlo device portfolio grows sounds like a good idea, but only for the people who are going to buy other Arlo products besides cameras. My guess is that percentage is considerably lower than people who only buy cameras and will never buy any other arlo products, simply because they don't need them. So enhancing the app layout to cater to the minority of your base customers usually doesn't work out well.

Seems like good intensions on the battery icon, but it should show all the time, then go to yellow at 25%, then go to red at 15%. The app alerts you by push and email when your battery is 15% so why would you ignore that figure and set red at less than 25%. Consistency in your app and system is highly recommended. If they app alerts you at 15% the icon shouldn't turn red at 25%, it should turn red at 15%. Plus not to mention that colors aren't needed, just a % figure is all that's needed. I for one don't want to see a red battery icon in the app for what could be months while my battery goes from 25% to less than 10% and time to recharge.

Just my 2 cents......

[Upr11s]

Well James,

‘I think you can see that your intention has failed.

the app is unusable on iPad pro

the battery icon is a small bug compared to not being able to see live view.

so when are you (Arlo) going to sort it out?

its already taken 2 weeks just to hear from you

[Pootle78]

“the battery icon will always appear on the home page when the battery is at 25% or less. A yellow icon will appear to represent 25% battery life, and if the battery falls lower than 25%, it will change to red”
So the icon will be non existent at 26%+, yellow only at exactly 25%, and red from 24% and lower, is that what you’re saying?
In your attempt to streamline the App UI, did you do any kind of user feedback/beta testing to understand the impact? Even if not, the extent of negative feedback from users seems to indicate this choice was a step backwards, and not a success.

[Cath1268]

Once again:

1/ IT DOESN'T WORK! I have a low battery since a few days, less than 10%, it went down to 4% today, AND THERE IS NO BATTERY ICON AT ALL!

2/ I don't want to check batteries status one by one with 2 sub-menus per battery. I want to be able to check globally at one glance. When I know I won't be home for a while, I won't go and wait for a battery alert once I'm away, I will check them all before going..

This need to be revert back!

[mattwjenk]

Have a camera with permenantly low signal (1 bar on settings page). No signal indicator on main page..

I have had 3 cameras with low battery, including 1 with no battery. No battery indicator on main page.

Agree with other posters that it is vital to be able to assess all devices at a quick glance. Before I go on vacation I need to know if everything is ok - it shouldn’t take a load of clicks to do this.

This is the first time I have EVER gone back to Amazon to post a review of a product after I have bought it (both Arlo Pro and Q cameras). I can not recommend this product until this software is fixed.

It’s just a shame because the hardware is really good - the software is the easiest bit for you to change!

Bottom line - if the Arlo business plan is based on encouraging people to buy more devices so more people are pushed beyond the ‘free’ decice limit then you will only achieve this by getting existing customers to buy in to more of your product.

I’m not adding a doorbell until you get this fixed.

[AncientGeek]

With regard to your doorbell comment:

I strongly recommend a multivendor solution anyway.  I think it is unwise to put all of my eggs in one basket and therefore I do not do it and I recommend that no one do it.  Find two or three trusted vendors and spread your systems purchases across those vendors.  What you lose in interoperability, you gain in domain partitioning and robustness of your solution.  Fewer single points of failure.

[JPC]

@JamesC

Your intent may work for you but it obviously not working for most of us customers.. You guys replaced the previous version right away.. Why? It should've been left alone and just release your newly enhance App and call it "Arlo Preview" and get feedback from it and maybe the transition would have been smooth.. I guess this idea doesn't seem to work for Arlo does it? I get it, it's about "This is the way we do it, deal with it" mentality.. Am I right? Look what happen now pretty much everything is a mess again not just the App but the Web also.. Issues after issues on top of each other that will take forever to fix... Very sad indeed.. 

[AncientGeek]

I logged into my 12.9” iPad Pro for the first time in two weeks and gleefully discovered it still had V2.5.5 on it.  I immediately disabled automatic updates and will keep it on 2.5.5 until we get back to that UI.

Oh how I miss thee.  Let me count the ways.  What a great UI it is!

I’d post a screen shot, but after I choose it from my photo album on my iPad and hit “post” the community web interface appears to barf, delete the chosen image and return back here without posting.

[MemphisRiverRat]

I wil also confirm the low battery icon does NOT appear on the Devices main page when a battery is low. The low wifi signal does not appear also, I have two cameras that work but have a low signal (one bar) and there is no icon showing up. Does it only show up if there is no wifi signal detected? I did confirm previously that the motion icon does seem to work on my system. I have not confirmed if the audio icon works, I will tonight. Guess one out of four is good right??

From the sound of it Arlo is not going to do much to fix the issues right away and I think there is no hope that we will get the old version back. I can't imagine how the system will work if Arlo puts out another "User Experience/Enhancement" release. What will they take away/move next??