You CAN Arm and Disarm Arlo Smarthub via Google Home voice commands

[Wayne2]

I've seen some posts here about users wanting to be able to Arm and Disarm their Arlo system with Google Home Assistant voice commands. Unfortunately most of those posts have been closed and locked with no solution or resolution provided. So I didn't have a warm and fuzzy feeling when I linked Arlo to Google Home to do just that, simply Arm and Disarm the system with Google Home voice commands. But I was able to get it working, which quite frankly surprised me based on what I found, or didn't find, on this forum. So here is what you need to do, keeping in mind some limitations and notes that I will outline below.

First I linked Arlo to Google Home (GH) the basic way you add any device to GH. Then you need to go into the Arlo app or website and go to Settings/Profile/Assistant PIN and set up the PIN. You will see Smarthub and your cameras in GH as separate devices. I did not rename any of the devices and are referring to the default names here. You will see the icon for the Smarthub in GH sometimes showing as offline with a triangle with an "!" inside of it but don't worry, you can basically ignore that as it seems to just indicate if you've sent a command to it recently. Your voice command will still work even with the Smarthub icon showing it is offline. So far I have only found two commands that work in GH for controlling the Smarthub. One to arm and one to disarm. You can Arm or Disarm the system by saying "Hey Google set Smarthub to Armed" or "Hey Google set Smarthub to Disarmed". When you issue the Disarm command you will be asked for your PIN so you'll need to recite that and then it will disarm the system. (I found info here on the Arlo website that states that using the PIN only works with Alexa. This is incorrect. GH asks for the PIN when Disarming Arlo and works just fine.

One important thing to note is that by issuing these two commands you are only changing the status of the system and NOT the Mode! So for example if you have the Mode set to Geofencing, like I do, and the system is Armed and you issue a command to Disarm the system, it will Disarm but the Mode will not change, it would still be set to Geofencing, NOT Disarmed. This can be a little confusing since there are Armed and Disarmed Modes along with Geofencing, etc. The main thing to keep in mind is simply that the Mode will not change. And whether you Arm or Disarm the system, any change that Arlo is set to perform on its own (like when leaving or entering a geofence zone) will occur and the status will change accordingly as usual.

It's not much but it allows me to do what I wanted to do, which is when the system is currently Armed and I want to briefly go out into the garage or outside, where I have cameras, and I don't want to have them activate and start recording. So now I can give a simple command to Disarm the system, then go out and when done, come back in and Arm the system, all by voice alone, never having to use the Arlo app. I don't care about viewing cameras in GH, I use the Arlo app for that. But Arming and Disarming the system by voice, even if you can't change the Mode, I'll still take all day.

So hopefully this will help anyone who wants to use voice commands to Arm and Disarm their Arlo cameras via Google Home Assistant, limited as it is. 

[Wayne2]

Unfortunately I may have spoken too soon on this topic. After I made the previous post, my Arlo system became Armed due to a schedule I have set up and then I couldn't Disarm Arlo with a voice command. Google Home responded to my command as if it worked normally but the status stayed Armed. When it didn't work I manually changed the Mode to Armed and then the Disarm command worked but it changed both the Mode and status to Disarmed. And then when I used a voice command to switch to Armed, again the Mode changed to Armed along with the status. (When I made the previous post the Mode was set to Geofencing and the status was Disarmed.) So more experimentation is in order to figure out when these Arm/Disarm voice commands will work and when they won't. Figures 😞

[Wayne2]

Now I don't know what to think. I just tried it again, with the Mode set to Geofencing and the status was Armed, and the voice command to Disarm worked. Hard to tell why it worked this time and the last time it didn't. So maybe there's hope after all. All I can say is give it shot for yourself and see how it goes. Good luck to us all! 🙂

[Wayne2]

One more update: I have found that the voice command to Arm or Disarm does not work on the first try if it has been some time since the last time a voice command was issued. Because I found if you haven't issued a command in a while, not sure how long but it could be an hour or longer, that's what causes the command to fail on the first try but it will work if you say the command again once or twice more. And so far it has always worked on the third try. When the command does work to switch the status, it will work again on the first try to switch it back if it hasn't been too long since the last command was issued. Sure this is annoying but at least it's a way of Arming/Disarming via voice without having to be near a device with the Arlo app/website on it.

I hope others can try this and comment on the results and we'll see if it works the same for everyone or not. This would be good information for Arlo to know to help get Arlo and Google Home working properly together.

[ArloUser2673]

Hi!

Just wanted to say thanks a lot for your info. I tried it today and it worked for me and the partner. It seems a lot more convenient to turn it on/off using voice commands (instead of the app) whenever we want to pop into/out of the garden without setting off the cameras a million times lol. For reference, I have the Arlo Secure app on my Android whilst my partner has it on her iPhone. We both have the Google Home app, the Arlo Pro Smart Hub VMB4540 and direct our voice commands to a Google Nest Hub. Below are the modes on our Arlo Secure app 

On the Google Home app, the Smart Hub's default name was "Home's Base Station". We renamed it to "Smart Hub". Following that, we've found that the below voice commands work
1. Hey Google, turn off Smart Hub (Google Nest Hub asks for the PIN. If you give it correctly, it'll put the mode to "Standby")
2. Hey Google, turn on Smart Hub to Arm Away mode
3. Hey Google, turn on Smart Hub to Arm Home mode
4. Hey Google, disarm Smart Hub (Google Nest Hub asks for the PIN. If you give it correctly, it'll put the mode to "Standby")

5. Hey Google, set Smart Hub to Arm Away mode

6. Hey Google, set Smart Hub to Arm Home mode

We've found that the below voice commands do NOT work
1. Hey Google, turn on Smart Hub (Google Nest Hub tells you it doesn't know whether to set the Smart Hub to "Arm Away" or "Arm Home")

2. Hey Google, turn on Smart Hub to Arm Away
3. Hey Google, turn on Smart Hub to Arm Home

4. Hey Google, arm Smart Hub (Google Nest Hub tells you it doesn't know whether to set the Smart Hub to "Arm Away" or "Arm Home")

5. Hey Google, set Smart Hub to Arm Away
6. Hey Google, set Smart Hub to Arm Home

[ArloUser2673]

I forgot to mention whether your voice commands worked with our Google Nest Hub

"Hey Google set Smarthub to Disarmed": Works

"Hey Google set Smarthub to Armed": Doesn't work. Google Nest Hub says it doesn't know whether to set it to "Arm Away" or "Arm Home"

[Wayne2]

Just a quick note to mention that these shorter Google Home commands work fine for me. (I have renamed Smarthub to Arlo in Google Home so now I say Arlo instead of Smarthub.) 

Hey Google, arm Arlo

Hey Google, disarm Arlo (then it asks for pin, and as I mentioned before I have to issue this command twice for it to work if I haven't issued an Arlo voice command via Google Home for some time.