Arlo and Alexa - false alarms

[Retired_Member]

I recently set up the Arlo skill in Alexa to get trigger announcements on my Echo device.  When there are genuine triggers Alexa makes an announcement 😀.

However, from time to time Alexa makes false announcements (when I know there has been no trigger) and there is no alert on my iPhone nor any recordings in my library.

(Could it be possible that the false announcements occur when there is movement captured outside my defined Activity Zone???)

[ShayneS]

Hello, 

Thank you for all your reports and assistance, Your efforts are appreciated. At this time what you are experiencing is the expected behavior. We have sent a request to change this behavior to the engineering team. This will be evaluated for an adjustment regarding the activity zones/announcements. 

[Dpor007]

I have the same problem.  I have tried multiple things to resolve this.  It is true that any motion on the camera is triggering Alexa, even when I have the smart detection set to “animal” only. It will trigger when a person causes motion walking up the sidewalk.  Had the problem several times  today.  Named the camera the “Scout Raccoon” so when the camera detects a raccoon, Alexa alerts “Motion detetected on Scout Raccoon” in the house and my dog goes out the dog door to save our fish from the raccoon.  I trained him in 2 days to go to the pond when hearing the Alexa cue….however with all the false alarms, only announced on Alexa and not on my phone, I had to turn it off.  Arlo, please get this fixed.    

[Dpor007]

Why is this closed as solved?  It is not solved.  When will this be fixed?  Are there any progress updates?  I don’t see any from the moderator since late August.  It’s now October.

[mazdaspeed]

I just installed the Arlo Pro Spotlight and connected directly to WFi. Arlo app on iPhone works as expected. However, I’m getting motion alerts from Alexa and SmartThings (exact same time) when no motion is reported by Arlo app.

The interesting thing is, I don’t have the SmartThings Alexa skill installed, so it’s not Alexa alerting SmartThings, nor vice-versa. Some are stating they are relying on detection areas set in Arlo app to keep Alexa (and in my case, also SmartThings) from reporting spurious movement.

Because Arlo is utilizing PIR and IR to detect movement, only the Arlo app is obviously using the Arlo detection area algorithm. Alexa and SmartThings are monitoring the PIR and IR sensors, directly, not the Arlo app.

To further diagnosis the issue, my rule for sustained motion in SmartThings is variable. Right now I’m requiring 6 seconds of movement before SmartThings responds, and I’m still getting alerts from both Alexa and SmartThings. I will continue to push the SmartThings sustained movement until it’s high enough to not trigger when Alexa does.

Another interesting note is that my viewing area for this camera is within my covered front porch and does not view the street because it’s mounted on the front porch’s 10-ft ceiling. Viewing area only begins at the end of my my porch steps and first viewable thing is the feet and legs of a person, not seeing full body until they advance another 15 feet.

So, Alexa (which has now undesirably alarmed over 10 times as I’m writing this) and SmartThings are not concerned with what’s in the camera lens. They are getting and processing information from the extreme ranges of the PIR and IR that are built into the Arlo (hence, Arlo’s statement about expected behavior).

One way to do away with this behavior would be for Alexa and SmartThings to get their info from the Arlo app, and not directly from the camera’s PIR and IR. This would greatly simplify false reporting, yet it could be an interference for SmartThings because SmartThings can use the PIR and IR sensitivity to control other devices (I don’t know about Alexa Guard, as I’ve never tried it). For instance, in SmartThings I’m using the Arlo camera as a device to sense movement and turn on the porch light, which I think is much better than attracting attention to my camera using its spotlight. Therefore, I have the Arlo spotlight disabled. This should save on battery and also keep someone from quickly locating my camera and stealing it or knocking it away from the viewing area (though mounting at 10’ should hinder this, also).

So, during the time of writing this I’ve now bumped SmartThings to 7 seconds and SmartThings has only alerted once, yet Alexa is still going wild. This means I should turn off Alexa notifications for Arlo, and rely on SmartThings. The only possible issue I see here is that some delivery people aren’t on the front step in excess of 7 seconds. Hopefully, Arlo app deals appropriately with this.

Turning off Alexa’s notifications doesn’t mean you can’t still communicate with someone at the door, using Alexa. All other Alexa functionality should remain (though I don’t understand why the Alexa app is reporting “Arlo — Live view not supported.” Maybe someone could shed some light on this fact??? Exactly what is Arlo Live view on Alexa?

Next step is to see if installing SmartThings Skill on Alexa can trigger Alexa alert via SmartThings criteria. I had removed the SmartThings skill almost 2 years ago because of bad behaviors between the two.

Bottom line for Alexa alerts is to have Alexa app adjust sustained movement before alerting, or take its cue from the Arlo app and not the camera’s motion sensors. For SmartThings, we want alerts directly from motion sensors to have have full functionality of SmartThings sensors, or at least a choice (switch) within SmartThings to get info from Arlo app vs sensors.

My final assessment is Arlo is functioning as expected, and it’s Alexa and SmartThings and/or any other integrated system that has to change/develop their app behaviors.

Arlo, can you put some pressure on these 3rd-party developers to enhance their functionality? Honestly, I think getting triggers from the Arlo app makes the most sense, though who knows the liability issues that could be involved for Arlo.

We’re a long ways down the automation road for consumers to be bearing the financial brunt of alpha and beta testing, yet that’s essentially what the industry is doing (thanks, but no thanks, to Microsoft and Windows 10 for starting and sustaining this trend). We, the consumer also bear responsibility for giving in.

If just one automation developer would only release devices after thorough beta testing and solid field testing results, then we as consumers could throw our weight behind that developer/manufacturer.