Login & Smart Notification Suggestions

[PenguinCam]

I have purchased numerous Arlo cameras for both my house and my elderly mother's house - and I have been very frustrated by the delay and complication of accessing the Arlo App on both the iPhone and iPad, and also the shortcomings of the Arlo Smart Notifications.

I appreciate that Arlo is constantly working to improve their product. I strongly request that these two suggestions be added to the current Arlo system:

1. The ability to keep the Arlo App logged in at all times.
2. Smart Notifications that only are sent when activity is in your customized activity zone, but still record all activity within the camera's view.

I understand the importance of app security, but if app security interferes with the ability to use your security cameras in a critical moment, the usefulness of security cameras is notably diminished.

The other night, my elderly mother who is recently widowed and very anxious of living alone, was awaken and startled by the doorbell ringing at 4am in the morning. Righteously, she did not want to look out the window to see who was ringing her doorbell at this pre-dawn hour. She went to her iPhone and was unable to access the app without being asked to enter her email/password or use the Touch ID. My mother is 75 years old, and not at all tech savvy. We have setup Touch ID for her, but she still struggles with it. Getting her to remember passwords is difficult, even under non-stressful circumstances. At a time that she really needed to be able to access her Arlo camera quickly, she was unable to jump through the security hoops and access her Arlo app. We bought the Arlo cameras to help her feel protected and safe. At a time when we needed them to work, they didn't - instead they added to her anxiety and discomfort.

I am very savvy and comfortable around computers and apps, and have had the same frustration when I needed to access the Arlo app quickly. Even using Touch ID, I am still forced to do the Touch ID two times in order to open the app. I have woken up in the night to noises and also went to my phone to check my Arlo app and been stymied because of the laborious login and security features that are made even harder when you are suddenly awaken by a loud noise out of a sound sleep in the middle of the night.

Not every app requires you to login every time you use it. I believe it should be the user's decision if they want the Arlo app to log them out. There is already a delay in the camera accessing the internet... the extra time delay that is caused by the confusing and multiple steps necessary to login can be the difference of someone pounding on your door and breaking in your door.

We have spent over $1000 on Arlo equipment over the last couple of years, and I hate to admit - I'm pretty disappointed. More often than not, the cameras do not pick up activity that we needed. Just today there were car thieves checking car doors in front of my house. I know this not because my Arlo camera picked it up... but instead my friend that was standing on the porch recorded it with their phone camera. The mere fact my friend was standing on my porch should have triggered my cameras to begin recording. The Arlo cameras only partially recorded the time on they were on the porch - and of course, it wasn't the moment we were looking for.

I could list so many other times activities were missed and should have triggered the cameras to record. I will acknowledge some of them are user error - I may have not had the settings correct or appropriate in order to trigger the cameras under a certain situation - but not all. The same action is sometimes, sometimes not recorded. I don't know what variable I am missing that would cause the cameras to have such inconsistency in their recording  accuracy.

Another big issue for me is Smart Notifications. I pay for the Arlo Smart Plan. I want  the camera to record ANY motion within range of the camera, but ONLY be notified when something occurs in my customized activity zone. Can you please add this feature.

Otherwise, the notifications are equivalent to the "Boy Who Cried Wolf." My alerts go off so often, I have stopped looking at them and at this point, have simply turned them off. When I had them turned on for just my customized activity zone, the cameras weren't triggered to record my next door's neighbor's car being stolen even though it was in the range of my camera. When the police came to my door and asked if I had any recordings I could share with them, I had sadly had nothing even though the neighbor's driveway is within my camera view.

Thank you for your time and attention to this.

Currently active equipment: Four Arlo 3 cameras with a paid Arlo Smart Plan.

[jguerdat]

Can't speak for app differences but the Android app doesn't require you to login every time. I can set up the need to use additional authentication (fingerprint) but I chose not to. Why not just turn off that feature?

Sometimes the activity zone issue is due to camera positioning. Reflections of IR from an object outside the zone bouncing off something inside the zone can cause this. I solved it on my video doorbell by not only creating a zone that eliminates the street while also lowering motion sensitivity to 25 gives me virtually no false triggers while still capturing people on the sidewalk 20-25 feet away. 

Use the available capabilities to help out. Give us screenshots and links to videos if you need so we can see what you do.

[PenguinCam]

Thank you for the suggestions. As far as turning off the fingerprint... that feature is suppose to skip over the need to enter email/PW... it is not suppose to be for extra verification.

That is interesting to know that you don't need to login into your Android app every time. Then the question lies - why do you have to with the iPhone & iPad app? And why can't you override this and just select to not have it log you out?

Changing the motion sensitivity could help get more consistency in activating recording in the customized activity zone. I will try your suggestion and change it to 25.

Just for clarification, because I always get confused about which way I should be going when changing the motion sensitivity: lower is more apt to capture static activity and higher sensitivity will be more apt to only capture fast moving activity? Is this correct?

In addition to this... I still hope Arlo will incorporate more sophisticated options for customizing and receiving smart alerts... e.g. only sending push alerts when people are in your activity zone - but still recording and sending to the cloud any activity that is within the camera range.

As my example mentioned, I don't what to receive push notifications every time my neighbors take their garbage out, but when their car is stolen and the police ask me if I have video of the incident that is within my camera's range - I would like to be able to provide that to them.

Thank you very much for your reply. I greatly appreciate it.

[jguerdat]

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@PenguinCam wrote:

Thank you for the suggestions. As far as turning off the fingerprint... that feature is suppose to skip over the need to enter email/PW... it is not suppose to be for extra verification.

That is interesting to know that you don't need to login into your Android app every time. Then the question lies - why do you have to with the iPhone & iPad app? And why can't you override this and just select to not have it log you out?

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Again, I don't know about the iOS app but generally if you don't use the logout menu item you should remain logged in - just background the app by going home. I would think the iOS app would be similar to the Android app where fingerprint or other similar step would only be useful if multiple people use the device so others can't access the app. Try it - it can't hurt.

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Just for clarification, because I always get confused about which way I should be going when changing the motion sensitivity: lower is more apt to capture static activity and higher sensitivity will be more apt to only capture fast moving activity? Is this correct?

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Lower sensitivity means just that - it will ignore more motion until it's large enough to go over the threshold. More sensitivity will activate on even small motion.

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In addition to this... I still hope Arlo will incorporate more sophisticated options for customizing and receiving smart alerts... e.g. only sending push alerts when people are in your activity zone - but still recording and sending to the cloud any activity that is within the camera range.

As my example mentioned, I don't what to receive push notifications every time my neighbors take their garbage out, but when their car is stolen and the police ask me if I have video of the incident that is within my camera's range - I would like to be able to provide that to them.

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The Smart feature is to specifically ignore certain objects. Everything is recorded but Smart will discard the video if it determines lack of need to keep it. That's where using a base station or SmartHub that supports local recordings would be useful since Smart doesn't (can't) delete those so you can check those recordings, too. If you choose to go that way, I'd suggest upgrading the current base to a VMB4540 so you can use the app to see those local recordings without needing to eject the drive for computer viewing. This would mean a system removal and rebuild to accomplish.

[dcfox1]

@PenguinCam  To add to the Iphone as long as I do not log out it keeps me logged in. Once in a great while it does prompt me but the user name and password are there and I just hit login. 

[Switchgeek]

I have the VMB4540 and use the Android App myself and I experience this, just like PenguinCam does.  I have the Arlo App on my two Android Tablets and also on my iPhone 11 (with face recognition).  My newer Samsung Tab S6 has fingerprint recognition, but my older LG GPad II does not.  On the Samsung, it only periodically asks for the fingerprint (even though I never close the app, same with my iPhone with the face recognition).  However, on my older LG--because it doesn't have a fingerprint sensor nor a face recognition sensor, at least once a day it requires that you put in your Arlo account username and password. 

I agree that for a multi user situation, you may want to lock down the ability to open the app, but most people don't share devices (unless with family, who you should be able to trust).  Because of that, you should be given the option to disable the log out feature in order to provide a faster way to view your camera(s) in an emergency situation.  I just bought my system a week or so ago (the Pro 3 system with 2 Pro 3 cameras, a wired doorbell and the VMB4540 base) and I am finding that this is still a MAJOR problem in the app as of today 7-6-2021!  How hard would it be to add a settings feature to be able to disable automatic log outs or time outs on both the Android and IOS app versions!!!  To me this is a potential lawsuit waiting to happen, which all could have been prevented with a simple settings disable button!!! 

I myself work in cybersecurity for a major international business and I deal with locking down multiple networked systems and servers as part of my career daily.  However, when functionality is more important than security, functionality usually wins!!   Fortunately, I have 80+ days to see an app update with this new ability to disable the log out or time out feature, or else I may just return this system to Costco and look for something else!!  I realize that Arlo has the best products out there, but if you can't use it for what you bought it for--especially in a hurry--what is the use?  At the very least your app should be able to click on a notification and have it show that video without having to log in to the app!!!  I realize that there are potential privacy issues by disabling logging out, but that isn't, nor should be the crux of this matter, right?

[grimlurk3r]

I've been using arlo for a while now and I agree, having a stay logged in feature would be amazing and is an absolute must. I don't have to log in to my gmail app (doesn't matter whether I close it or not) everytime I open it, and that is WAY more of a security risk than the arlo app. Please add this feature!!!!