Chat with Jimmy Lin, Director of Product Management, 7/18 11 a.m. PST

[JamesC]

This week Arlo released a firmware update for Arlo Ultra 4K HDR cameras. Please join Jimmy Lin, director of product management at 11AM PT this Thurs 7/18/19 as he shares the highlights of this firmware update and takes your questions about Arlo Ultra.

Jimmy will be live in this Arlo Community discussion thread from 11AM PT to noon on Thursday 7/18/19. We will leave this thread open until the end of the day for you to post questions if you can’t make it during the live chat. Jimmy will come back and respond to the questions you leave outside the time of our scheduled chat.

Jimmy Lin is director of product management at Arlo Technologies where he is responsible for the company’s wire-free camera product line and associated accessories. Prior to Arlo he served on GoPro’s product management team and was responsible for bringing to market iconic wearable action cameras.  Throughout his career, he has held several roles in product, business, and engineering at companies such as Broadcom, Synaptics, as well as consultancy roles at Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

Jimmy holds a Master of Business Administration from Santa Clara University, a Master of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering from UC Santa Barbara, and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from UC San Diego. 

We look forward to having you join the conversation!

Thank you!

[Yeahs]

When will we be getting HomeKit support? Is HomeKit secure video coming as well?

[Austin29]

Notification Sound isn’t loud enough and has a major delay in the system

[Jhawk27]

Any update on HomeKit status? When can we expect this feature to come to fruition?

[Rocky71092]

Hello jimmy Lin, was wondering what new updates will be coming to improve the experience in the future like 2fa and some other things and what’s the latest update on ultra all about? Thank you

[colin1892]

I recently bought an arlo ultra however i’ve sent it back for a refund as the camera would record motion but then not send a push notification, everything worked fine with my arlo pro 2’s until i switched over to the new basestation , it seemed to affect all cameras as it was intermittent, sometimes it would work fine, however sometimes no push notification, is this a known bug? Also when will the new ultras work with the old arlo pro 2 basestation is a firmware update on the cards? thanks

[Kashok]

Homekit support was officialy announced by Arlo and was promised by End of Q1. 

This is one of the most requested fetures and yet we do not know when this will arrive. All we hear from Arlo is that certification is pending. 

You owe an explanation and a realistic time line so we all know when this feature will be released. 

Your comments please......!!

[JamesC]

Jimmy is currently reviewing your questions and will start responding shortly! We apologize for the delay.

JamesC

[JimmyLin]

Hi everyone, I'm on, thanks for waiting, been reviewing the comments

[JimmyLin]

@Yeahs  Thank you for your question!

HomeKit will be coming shortly by Q4

[JimmyLin]

@Austin29  do you mean the sound coming from the phone? 

[Kashok]

Dont get me wrong here.

Love your products they are exactly what I was looking for but I have a few complains

1. Reliability: We buy expensive products to protect our homes yet on many occassions Arlo was down

2. Application: Love your app but filled with lot of bugs 

3. Communication: Arlo needs to do a better job in interacting with customers. I see your social accounts are always active but little is done to fix problems reported by users

4. Homekit: SUPPORT HOMEKIT PLEASEEEEEE

5. Arlo Smart: Support for more than 20 cameras needed

6. Arlo doorbell: Need in built Camera 

Your cameras are expensive yet people buy them because they are good but lot of options are now availbale in the market. If you dont fix these problems soon you will loose customer support

[Rocky71092]

That’s awesome updates, just remembered. Can the siren on the ultra be boosted more in an update, to be 100% honest it’s so quite I don’t think anyone would be scared away.

[JimmyLin]

Hi @Rocky71092 thanks for joining

The fw update addressed feedback from many users on how to improve the system, including:

- improved WiFi stability

- increased battery life

- improved charging stability 

- lowered the noticeable "click" sound the night vision turns on

- improved / reduced false triggers

- some customers reported a blue tinge in their videos of which we addressed

- CVR event improvements 

- some users saw 0 second recordings of which we fixed

- overall stability of the solar panel 

- fixed bugs with activity zone detection

We expect 2FA to come by the end of the year 

[Ramiro9448]

Hi Jimmy,

There are big issues with geofencing because we (customers) are unable to remove old/unused devices from the “Enabled Mobile Devices” list. Because of this, the geofencing feature is completely useless. Geofencing capability was the main reason I chose this system over competing products. There is a 3-year-old thread in your forums detailing this with MANY complaints about the same issue, with zero resolution or support from Arlo. I’m interested in upgrading my surveillance system with more 4K cameras, but will be looking elsewhere if this isn’t fixed soon. Any word on this issue?

[JimmyLin]

@colin1892

Thank you for your questions. We’re sorry to hear that you returned your Arlo Ultra.

Yes, we've had some users report this as a bug and we are working on a fix.  

Backwards compatability is also an active feature we're working on, plan to get it out in Q4 at the latest 

[JimmyLin]

Thanks for the feedback, @Kashok 

See comments above, release in Q4

[Flicker6]

When can we expect you to eliminate your dependency on flash in the browser?

[Rlbnkk]

Are there any plans to make the Ultras compatible with Smartthings?

[JimmyLin]

Thanks @Kashok 

Glad you're super excited for a integrated video doorbell.  Arlo’s future lineup will be expanding to include a new video doorbell We had a press release about ours and you can find that here: https://www.arlo.com/en-us/about/press-releases/2019/ISC_West_Release.aspx

It will be coming!

We understand your concerns when it comes to system outages - here at Arlo we take your security seriously.  We have a status page here: https://status.arlo.com/ 

We just recently released an app update that included a much asked for feature - the ability to mute notifications.  We're always looking at user feedback to both squash bugs and give you all new features that you've been wanting.  We're also trying to get a more regular cadence of app releases - so more to come!

Hey, I'm not actually really on social media, but thanks for checking =).  Def want your feedback and check out these forums!  That's a big reason why I am here.  

Homekit support, please see other post on date. 

We'll look into the >20 camera ask you have below  But we're excited you've got so many Arlos!  

[JimmyLin]

Thanks @Rocky71092 we are looking at ways to enhance the siren feature.  

[JimmyLin]

Hi @Ramiro9448 we just released new app and cloud updates to address geofencing

see https://community.arlo.com/t5/Arlo/Geofencing-is-DNF-STILL/td-p/1703913 

[JimmyLin]

I agree with you @Flicker6. I do spend most of my time using our App, given its on the go flexibility.  

[Jhawk27]

Thanks Jimmy Lin! We as a community look forward to all of these new feature! I personally love the arlo echo system and know it will continue to grow and continue to be top dog!

[Jhawk27]

Is there any insight into the future roadmap of products features that you can elaborate on?