Chat about HomeKit with Greg Falgiano, Director of Product Management, 8/09 10 a.m. PST

[JamesC]

This week Arlo released Apple HomeKit integration for Arlo Pro and Pro 2 cameras. Please join Greg Falgiano, director of product management for software services at 10AM PT this Fri 8/09/19 as he shares the highlights of this update and takes your questions about HomeKit integration.

Greg will be live in this Arlo Community discussion thread from 10AM PT to 11AM on Friday 8/09/19. 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. Greg will come back and respond to the questions you leave outside the time of our scheduled chat.

Greg Falgiano is the Director of Product Management for Software Services at Arlo Technologies where he is responsible for the company’s Arlo Smart services business, program management and key partnerships. Prior to Arlo he worked in the consumer electronics and IP phone industries. Throughout his career, he has held roles in Product Management, Channel Marketing, Marketing Communications and Business Development.

We look forward to having you join the conversation!

Thank you!

[Arlo-Greg]

@SammyNZ  @PTLux  Yes, Arlo Ultra is the next product to be certified for HomeKit. Our goal is to have that completed by Q4 of this year. Arlo does not currently plan to support Apple HomeKit Secure Video, but we will support a range of other features that will enable Arlo cameras to participate in the HomeKit ecosystem

[Arlo-Greg]

@Hoity-Toity  @jfabula1 @GarrickO @Retired_Member @jonesaus @Maxxchiki 

We're excited to see so many users interested in HomeKit integration!

You may have to restart your base station before it gets the token to use HomeKit. We had so many people trying to setup homekit at once, the servers were working at full speed to deploy tokens. 

For more information on troubleshooting this, take a look here: HomeKit says that my Arlo base station is an uncertified accessory; what do I do?

[illuminous]

@Arlo-Greg  wouldnt Homekit Secure Video help to resolve the issues with slow Arlo Smart notifications? My understanding is this will allow processing of video to happen locally on Home Hubs, which should be superior to Arlo Cloud processing

[Retired_Member]

@illuminous wrote:

@Arlo-Greg  wouldnt Homekit Secure Video help to resolve the issues with slow Arlo Smart notifications? My understanding is this will allow processing of video to happen locally on Home Hubs, which should be superior to Arlo Cloud processing

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Probably so, but wouldn't HomeKit Secure Video cause Arlo to lose a money maker in Arlo Smart? Would make sense why they wouldn't want to use it.

[IAMSAMMICH]

Any plans to include the Security Lights into Homekit? Also, my Wife and I can't view the video feed at the sametime, Is this a limitation of Homekit itself?

[illuminous]

@Retired_Member not necessarily. Shouldn't be any reaosn why Arlo couldn't charge for access to Arlo Smart whether it is cloud or local. It could still be an add on feature.  This is just about having a smart subscription service that works as best as possible.

Take car manufactuers as an example. Some allow Apple Carplay natively and for free... others like BMW charge for Carplay to be enabled.

[sean7512]

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@Arlo-Greg wrote:

@Hoity-Toity  @jfabula1 @GarrickO @Retired_Member @jonesaus @Maxxchiki 

We're excited to see so many users interested in HomeKit integration!

You may have to restart your base station before it gets the token to use HomeKit. We had so many people trying to setup homekit at once, the servers were working at full speed to deploy tokens. 

For more information on troubleshooting this, take a look here: HomeKit says that my Arlo base station is an uncertified accessory; what do I do?

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Not sure where those instructions came from, but when clicking into HomeKit from where his article says, it is the setup screen and there is no way to remove it. We are getting uncertied accesory ebfore even adding the Basestation....

[Retired_Member]

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@illuminous wrote:

@Retired_Member not necessarily. Shouldn't be any reaosn why Arlo couldn't charge for access to Arlo Smart whether it is cloud or local. It could still be an add on feature.  This is just about having a smart subscription service that works as best as possible.

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You would pay for Arlo Smart still if you wanted the fancy notifications IN the Arlo app and to choose between person, animal, general motion, etc. As well as package detection. But, Secure Video would be an option to get away from really using the Arlo app because you could use the Home app pretty much exclusively. That's how I took it from WWDC keynote.

[Arlo-Greg]

@krypttic  During the setup process, Apple takes control of a few steps in the middle where devices are named. Their default is to use the serial number of the product. I agree it would be better if we could pass the name of the camera, but this is an area where we don't have direct control. We added a step at the end where you can revisit the device names to make sure they are easy to remember and use with Siri commands. Thanks for the feedback!

For the HomeKit automation with your Hue light, I don't have specific experience with that. You may want to check Apple's forums for more info.

For arming/disarming, we looked into this with the Apple team and the option isn't available for camera "device types." This applies to all cameras on the HomeKit ecosystem, not just Arlo. We passed the feedback on to Apple as we have heard this request from a few customers. We have to wait until it is officially supported before we can implement the feature though.

[IAMSAMMICH]

This isn't directly HomeKit related.. But with IFTTT, is there a reason I can use my ArloBaby Cam in this app? I want to be able to set triggers based on Movement/audio and it doesn't detect the camera as a valid device.

[illuminous]

@Retired_Member I'm no expert, but your description is my takeaway also from WWDC and reading other sources.

I, like so many other users, actively choose my smart home devices based on Homekit integration. But I purchased my Arlo Pro before most of my other Homekit devices and I really have to question whether Arlo Ultra is the best investment with others commiting to full Homekit integration.

If Arlo can support deep Homekit integration through a revenue model that works for them then I can only see upside. 

[Maxxchiki]

@Arlo-Greg in your msg you say to restart the base station but in the kb you linked it has the instructions to reset the base station. 

Can you please advise which one we should do? Restart or reset the base station? 

[JamesC]

@sean7512 

For those of you still experiencing the "Uncertified Accessory" error after trying the troubleshooting suggestions posted here, please contact the Arlo Support Team to further investigate the issue. You wlll find several options in the provided link for contacting support. If you need assistance opening a ticket, please reach out to me in a private message, I would be happy to help.

JamesC

[Arlo-Greg]

@jakesamp thanks for submitting this question, I believe this will be helpful for other customers to troubleshoot as well. I've also seen this issue with remote access when using the Apple TV as the Home Hub. We have discussed this with the Apple team and they are looking into the issue. When I tried it yesterday, I was able to stream over LTE with the Apple TV as my Home Hub. Hopefully it is just an intermittentissue.

[sean7512]

@Arlo-Greg Will it be possible in the future to use the Cameras as a result of an automation? Such as record when x happens, etc.

Also I wish it was possible to use the motion sensor in HomeKit even if it is not Armed

[Retired_Member]

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@illuminous wrote:

@Retired_Member I'm no expert, but your description is my takeaway also from WWDC and reading other sources.

I, like so many other users, actively choose my smart home devices based on Homekit integration. But I purchased my Arlo Pro before most of my other Homekit devices and I really have to question whether Arlo Ultra is the best investment with others commiting to full Homekit integration.

If Arlo can support deep Homekit integration through a revenue model that works for them then I can only see upside. 

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Agreed. I try to keep a lot of HomeKit integration but it's been limited lately. I've stuck with Amazon Alexa support since I have Echos and HomeKit support isn't widely used. I went with Arlo because, after doing research, they were the best cameras on the market at the time (I have Pro 2 cameras). Hopefully Arlo will continue their partner integrations.

[Arlo-Greg]

Thanks  @dalewright, I hope you like the new features with HomeKit!

We aren't currently looking into iCloud recordings or HomeKit secure video.

We aren't ready to make any additional announcements about future products with HomeKit, but we do want to bring more of the product portfolio into the HomeKit ecosystem 😉 

[IAMSAMMICH]

IF you need a Beta Tester for "ahem" a future video doorbell... Please let me know as I am ready to give up my RingPro in search of something less "Amazon".

[Arlo-Greg]

@illuminous thanks for the suggestion on Siri shortcuts. I agree that would be a good addition to the Arlo app.

As noted above, currently we don't have the ability to offer arming/disarming with HomeKit for "camera device types." If this feature becomes available in the future, we would like to add it.

[Retired_Member]

@Arlo-Greg I’ve tried that at least 4 times now, removing and re-adding. It makes no difference what so ever and I still get the same error time after time.

That’s all Arlo support seem able to offer as well and I’m sorry but that simply does not work.

[illuminous]

@Arlo-Greg 

Thanks for confirming not being able to arm/disarm camera device types.

Yes, Siri Shortcuts would be great 🙂

[JamesC]

@IAMSAMMICH If you're interested in applying for our beta program, take a look here for more information: Arlo’s New Test Portal Seeks Beta Testers for Field Trials

JamesC

[Arlo-Greg]

@Jhawk27 thanks for joining the chat today! Glad you are excited about additional products being added to the HomeKit ecosystem.

We don't have any announcements to make at this time, but we would like to have more of our products participate in the HomeKit ecosystem.

See my post above about HomeKit secure video.

[IAMSAMMICH]

@JamesC Thanks, I'm actually already signed up!

[Retired_Member]

@JamesC @Arlo-Greg

Those instructions are are quoting also are not correct as this is all I see when I click HomeKit in the Arlo Settings (ie nothing in there at all):