"Ok Google, show Front Door on Living Room TV." Your Google Assistant now works on all

[AngeloM]

Arlo now works on the Google Assistant. Now, you can use your voice to livestream your Arlo cameras hands-free on your Google Chromecast-enabled TV, Android tablets, and smartphones. Just say "Ok Google, show..." followed by where your camera is located and on which device you want to see it on.

Meet your Google Assistant. Ask it questions, and tell it to do things. The more you use it, the more useful it gets. Now, you can type or talk to your Google Assistant to live stream your Arlo camera on your Chromecast, NVIDIA Shield TV, Android, and iOS devices.

To connect Arlo to the Google Assistant, just follow these short steps:

• Get the Google Assistant app on your Android phone or iPhone.
• Go to Assistant settings and select Home control.
• Add your Arlo cameras.
• Ask away! Your Google Assistant is ready.

All Arlo cameras are compatible with the Google Assistant, including Arlo Pro 2, Arlo Pro, Arlo Go, Arlo Baby, Arlo Q, and Arlo Q Plus.

For more information on Arlo with the Google Assistant, click here.

Google, Google Home and Google Chromecast are trademarks of Google LLC

[Drache22]

@brh - a huge Congrats to you! Glad that you were able to get it working. I still am either getting a dark screen or just a static view of my Arlo Pro 2 cameras after they initially attempt to stream (i.e., no continuous streaming) - using Google Home.  Hmm, I've never turned my cameras off and on - perhaps since I've managed to connect all of them (including external cameras) to AC via an adapter. Do you do this because some of your cameras are battery powered only?

[brh]

@Drache22

I did it for a couple of reasons. One was that I wanted to test to see what it would and not do, especially since I use Smartthings to control my cameras.

Secondly, you are correct. I leave all of my cameras disabled, because none of them are on AC power. I only turn them on when the house is empty or at night.

Sometimes the video was choppy. I have a fast internet with Spectrum, but I have a lot of devices. As a test I purchased two EZVIZ cameras for $35 each on Amazon and I leave them constantly streaming through windows, (similar to what the Arlo Q would do without all the frills).

I may need to up my internet speed but I probably won't use this feature very much, because when streaming, the cameras don't record. I haven't found a way to manually record when live streaming. Every time I tell it to record, it opens my iPhone camera, LOL. (Disable Siri?

I was pleasantly surprised that it works very well with Smartthings and it runs all of my routines. So when I arm Smartthings, the cameras are turned on ready to record on motion.

If you start using this, will you need to upgrade your internet speed?

Brian

[Drache22]

@brh
Cool about live streaming your EZVIZ cameras - wish that were possible for Arlo (without them timing out). I have pretty decent internet speeds (typically 125Mbps Down / 14Mbps Up via Comcast), but since I only occasionally stream data rich content that's usually not an issue.

I also have my cameras integrated with SmartThings, but became frustrated by what appears to be a Smart Home Monitor limitation: recording on all my cameras when a motion is sensed on any single one of them. I recently noticed in the SmartThings community the posting about ArloPilot ("trigger Arlo system modes changes based on either SmartThings system mode changes, or Smart Home Monitor alarm states") (https://community.smartthings.com/t/release-arlopilot-enhanced-arlo-system-integration/117581). So I'll give that a try to change the Arlo system mode (e.g., Armed) depending on the SmartThings mode (e.g., Away).

I'm was also going to try turning off camera recording in SmartThings' Home Monitor, while Arlo is on the SmartThings mode. But I believe you mentioned that streaming cameras via GA isn't possible in this Arlo mode.

[brh]

@Drache22

Wow, you covered a lot of ground in your post!

Ok, firstly, ArloPilot is not a finished product yet and Steve has been too busy with other projects lately to answer questions. It is a neat app, but not ready for prime time yet. I tried it but ended up deleting it until he gets the app a little more polished and starts answering everyone's questions.

Secondly, it is easy to have one camera trigger multiple cameras in Smartthings. I am currently doing that. The trick is to use Custom Rules. It has been a while since I set my Smartthings up to do this, but if you want I will go back and see what I did and give you walk through.

Your internet seems sufficient for streaming so I don't know why it isn't streaming. It takes a little bit to actually start streaming and sometimes the video stutters.

I bought the EZVIZ for an immediate need that I had and to try before you buy so to speak before purchasing the Arlo Q. If these cameras had zones and could br controlled by Smartthings, they would be awesome. But they don't so I simply use them for live streaming so that I can see what is going on outside while I am home.

Brian

[Scott2ya]

Yes, I've had smartthings working well with Google Assistant for a while now. I still don't use the smartthings mode in Arlo due to the 5-7 second delay from motion sensed to recording started. I do use smartthings Arlo Pilot to change custom modes.

[brh]

@Scott2ya

Hi Scott.

I believe you have newer cameras and probably have them plugged in all the time. Unfortunately, many of us have the original Wire Free HD cameras. Conserving battery life on these is paramount as there is no authorized way to keep them powered on, the batteries are expensive and don't last all that long. Therefore, if we could just leave the cameras on all the time we could do as you have done. 

If the person has the newer cameras and can keep them powered up, there would be no need to use the routines, etc as I do.

BTW, off topic here. I couldn't figure out how to upgrade ArloPilot to the newest version. Do you know how to do it?

Brian

[Scott2ya]

Mine are the Arlo pros, and none are plugged in, they are all outside. I get a month to two months before I recharge. I never disable my cameras, I just use my schedule most of the time. I bought one of those grabbers to make pulling the down easier. And I have not tried updating Arlo Pilot. His original version is still sufficient for my purposes (being able to change custom modes) with smartthings. I set a virtual switch up to toggle modes that I can use Google Assistant with. Works like a champ.

[brh]

@Scott2ya

I am truly amazed at alt the things you have done to setup your Smartthings to work for your needs. You are way ahead of me. But, I chose to stick as much as possible with native Smartthings devices and smartapps to avoid what is happening to Smartthings this month. So when i make a recommendation to someone, especially new users, I try to keep everything as stock as possible. When I first purchased my Arlo system I could use any camera to trigger as many cameras as I needed for that event. I tried that lately and was not able to do that using Arlo's modes and rules. I use all sorts of sensors to trigger groups of cameras. Honestly, I find Arlo's Modes and rules too restrictive for my situation.

When we are forced to migrate to the new Smartthings app, I won't, hopefully, be affected too much, as the only things that I have that aren't Smartthings devces are some Bosch motion sensors, which are not supported in the new app because they use custom device handlers. 

Anyway, got to go. Have a good one.

Brian

[ccheun02]

My house has a long rectangular shape; thus, my backyard camera always only has 1 bar. I've tried moving the base station around, but in the end, I decided to improve the signal by installing 2 base stations on opposite ends of the house.

After I found out that there is a 5 camera per account limit for basic subscription, I decided to have 2 accounts as I have 2 base stations and use the Grant Access feature to share the cameras between the two accounts. This works great on the arlo app on my phone; however, when I linked it to Google Home, I only see my cameras and not the cameras shared with me.

Does anyone know how I can:

1) Link 2 arlo accounts onto 1 Google Home account?

or

2) have shared devices show up on Google Home as devices?

Right now, I can ask google to show me the front door on TV but not the backyard, while my wife can ask google to show her the backyard but not the front door.

[Scott2ya]

@ccheun02

I don't see an option to add another second Arlo account to Google Home. I also have access to my Dads account, and figured I would give it a shot. So I am guessing you are SOL unless Google allows adding additional accounts, but then I could see how that might be difficult to do due to the logic of differentiating the camera's and accounts. I highly doubt Arlo would want to, they would probably tell you to get a paid for account to solve your problem.

[wal83]

If you have 5 cameras or less you could always buy a wireless repeater(s) to extend your network to the backyard and only use 1 base station with the basic service. That would be the typically way to resolve this.

[ccheun02]

The camera's communication to the base station can be solved using repeaters? I have ethernet jacks in every room so the connection between the base station to the router is fine.

Besides, that solution won't work because I do have more than 5 cameras And I want a siren in the front and another in the back.

[wal83]

After some quick research apparently you can NOT extend the Arlo cam with a repeater, so you are right. I assumed they were IP cams. Not a good design and what about all the Americans with 5000+ sq ft houses?

[Drache22]

@wal83

Have you been able to get your cameras showing up on Chromecast yet. Or is anyone else having a similar problem? After trying every day, this still isn't fully working with my Arlo Pro 2 cameras. It shows on Chromecast what the camera is seeing only for a couple of seconds, then either Chromecast goes blank / black, or is no longer streaming (i.e., continues to only show a static shot of the original view). Firmware for the cameras / base station, wireless router, and Chromecast device are all up to date (and restarted all of them). Double sigh, since I can use my Echo via voice command to show the cameras on Fire TV (indicating that the issue is probably not with my network configuration or speed). 

[SarahK]

Hello,

I have an Arlo Baby + Shield TV, and when I'm saying to the shield remote: "ok google show me the arlo baby on shield" google confirms "now showing arlo baby on shield".

But I'm still stucked on the shield homepage.

Same when I trigger from my phone "now streaming on shield".

Does it launch some app or something on the shield tv?

I'm wondering if it's something wrong with my shield or with my camera, both are on the same WiFi network and linked into my google assistant

Thank you for your answer

[KArloYL]

I'm having the same issue with arlo baby and my Nvidia Shield.  Google assistant understands the command but nothing loads. 

[ralfyguy1]

I successfully linked my Arlo account and my 4 Arlo Wirefree and 1 Arlo Pro cam. They all show up and all have rooms assigned. NONE of the commands mentioned here work, not even turning cameras on or off, NOTHING. "Stream nor Available" or just web search results of youtube videos show up. Or "Cannot Process Command". I have a Chromecast connected to my TV and it should work, because everything else works with it. 

Just another Arlo failure.