Doorbell Camera Pre-Sales Query

[adhdave]

I'm currently using the Nest Hello and wondered what sort of delay the Arlo Video Doorbell has in terms of how long it takes between an event being triggered and the notification being dispatched. Google Support claims they have a cooldown period of 30 minutes which they went on to explain that this means any events triggered within 30 minutes after the first event will not send any notifications.

I wondered if this cooldown timer is standard for all video doorbells and if so whether Arlo takes longer or less time to send notifications compared to Google, which I worked out to be around 27 seconds (comparing the time the event occurred to the time the email was sent by their server). The email is sent to a Gmail account and the headers suggest it's only taking 1 second to arrive.

Also does the Arlo Video Doorbell support "familiar faces" or have any plans to support this feature in the future?

[jguerdat]

No idea what support is talking about, especially if you actually talked to the official support found in the Contact Support link at the bottom here. There is NO cool-down period. There's a reset period of 5-10 seconds between recordings but that's it. Push notifications are close to instantaneous (can be slightly delayed if using Arlo Smart which requires server post-processing to determine what type of subject triggered the recording).

[adhdave]

Sorry, but I didn't speak to Arlo Support, it was Google Support who told me about the cooldown period with their own doorbell product.

I have included below what Google Support sent me.

Just to clarify, I am not trying to reach out here to resolve my issue with the Google product; I am trying to find out how Arlo's notifications compare to what Google have said, and ultimately replace it with an alternative product, such as the Arlo Video Doorbell.

If what you're saying about Arlo's notifications still stands, then I will purchase the Arlo Video Doorbell. 👍

Thanks for reaching out to the Google Nest Customer Care Team.

It's expected behavior for notification to take up to 30 seconds to appear on your mobile device. This is because the camera is uploading it's video data to the Nest/Google service which then processes the data. During the data processing the Nest/Google service will create the notification event then send that even to your device. The device then pushes the notification.

There is a cool down timer between notifications of about 30 minutes. Say you get a notification at 2:12 pm, the another event is recorded at 2:15 pm, one created at 2:20 pm, and another one at 2:50 pm. You'll only receive push notification for the events that occurred at 2:12 pm and 2:50 pm. The events at 2:12 pm and 2:50 pm will be pushed to your device as a notification because they were 30 minutes apart.

Depending on your plan these records will appear as either snap shots or you may be able to scroll back and view the recorded feed.

Sorry for the delay and have a wonderful day.

[jguerdat]

Ah, I see what you're talking about. The "cool-down" is for the notifications so you don't potentially get a bunch in a row. Arlo will send you a notification for each recordings, regardless of how close together they are. That seems to be the major difference between the two brands, at least for noptifications.