Cannot see ARLO base under Home AWAY automation with Google Home

[alex_loo]

I have successfully linked my ARLO account to Google Home (GH), and added my ARLO SmartHub VMB5000 as a device to the "devices" page.

Issue is:

With "Home Away" automation of GH, I do NOT see the ARLO smarthub listed as a device, ready for "actions"

Is this by design, or a known issue? @JamesC  @BrookeN 

also tagging @brich4750 who has done google home automations too.

Alex

(ps: above is as opposed to the situation with general "household routines" >>  "adjust home devices".  There, I can see the smarthub as a device, and change it to ARM HOME or ARM AWAY)

[StephenB]

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@alex_loo wrote:

With "Home Away" automation of GH, I do NOT see the ARLO smarthub listed as a device, ready for "actions"

With "Feed", the modes are set for the location (and apply to all smarthubs in that location).  They cannot be set for individual smarthub or wifi-connected camera (as they are with "Library").

[alex_loo]

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@StephenB wrote:

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@alex_loo wrote:

With "Home Away" automation of GH, I do NOT see the ARLO smarthub listed as a device, ready for "actions"

With "Feed", the modes are set for the location (and apply to all smarthubs in that location).  They cannot be set for individual smarthub or wifi-connected camera (as they are with "Library").

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apologies may be I haven't asked the question well.  I was asking about ARLO's integration with Google Home Automation environment, not the ARLO app features.

Alex

[StephenB]

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@alex_loo wrote:

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@StephenB wrote:

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@alex_loo wrote:

With "Home Away" automation of GH, I do NOT see the ARLO smarthub listed as a device, ready for "actions"

With "Feed", the modes are set for the location (and apply to all smarthubs in that location).  They cannot be set for individual smarthub or wifi-connected camera (as they are with "Library").

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apologies may be I haven't asked the question well.  I was asking about ARLO's integration with Google Home Automation environment, not the ARLO app features.

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I understood that.  But your base simply doesn't have modes anymore, so there really isn't much you could control  after selecting it with Google Home.  All you could do is restart it.

Of course Google Home should be able to put the location into any of the three modes.

[alex_loo]

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@StephenB wrote:

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@alex_loo wrote:

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apologies may be I haven't asked the question well.  I was asking about ARLO's integration with Google Home Automation environment, not the ARLO app features.

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I understood that.  But your base simply doesn't have modes anymore, so there really isn't much you could control  after selecting it with Google Home.

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Not really.  If not for "Home Away routines", I can select my ARLO base and set it for ARM HOME --- under "personal routines" of Google Home automation.  It is just absent under "Home away routines", which is what I am asking here.

Alex

ps: I no longer rely on the messy geofencing of ARLO app for mode switching.  Instead, I am using "personal routine" of GHA to switch to ARM HOME, 15 minutes after I have physically returned home.  More background here .

[StephenB]

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@alex_loo wrote:
I can select my ARLO base and set it for ARM HOME

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What do you think would happen if you had two bases in your home location, and made that selection for one of them???

[alex_loo]

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@StephenB wrote:

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@alex_loo wrote:
I can select my ARLO base and set it for ARM HOME

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What do you think would happen if you had two bases in your home location, and made that selection for one of them???

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I don't know.  That's a question for ARLO, not me.

I just know that ARLO is providing capability to integrate with Google Home.  As a result, I have successfully linked my SINGLE ARLO account to my Google Home, and have been able to set my ARLO environment (which happens to be having only 1 base) to say ARM HOME.  Great.

What if there are 2 bases?  As said above, it's a design question for ARLO.

My version of answer to this question, anyhow: If I have 2 bases to take care of the same single ARLO environment, then I would expect a single ARLO "device" available from within GHA, for me to control the same single ARLO environment --- just like before.  Such "device" should NOT be thought of as a HUB, since I agree with you that we should not imagine a hub to be representing an ARLO environment, where there can be multiple hubs.

Alex

[StephenB]

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@alex_loo wrote:

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My version of answer to this question, anyhow: If I have 2 bases to take care of the same single ARLO environment, then I would expect a single ARLO "device" available from within GHA, for me to control the same single ARLO environment --- just like before.  Such "device" should NOT be thought of as a HUB, since I agree with you that we should not imagine a hub to be representing an ARLO environment, where there can be multiple hubs.

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And of course the same issue arises if you have no hubs at all.  And if you have two locations, it should be possible to control both locations independently.

FWIW, I think that the google automation wasn't updated to handle the new feed interface.

[alex_loo]

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@StephenB wrote:

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And of course the same issue arises if you have no hubs at all.  And if you have two locations, it should be possible to control both locations independently.

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Agree.

And after thinking about your point here, I am feeling that ARLO has made a wrong design on its integration with Google Home Automation (GHA).  Instead of presenting my hub's name to GHA, it should present a list of locations associated with the linked ARLO account.  And then let GHA decide which location for automation (and of course that will depend on the GHA user's preference), before setting the location to ARM AWAY/ ARM HOME/ STANDBY.

@StephenB  do you have a chance to try/test this ?

Alex

[alex_loo]

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@StephenB wrote:

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FWIW, I think that the google automation wasn't updated to handle the new feed interface.

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It WAS updated!

latest info: I have finally succeeded to switch to any of ARM AWAY/ ARM HOME/  STANDBY, via GHA

[alex_loo]

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@alex_loo wrote:

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latest info: I have finally succeeded to switch to any of ARM AWAY/ ARM HOME/  STANDBY, via GHA

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for how to switch to ARM AWAY, using GHA's geofencing (instead of ARLO's), I have more details here .

Alex