What are Alarm Texts and how do they work?

SimpliSafe® customers subscribed to either Fast Protect™ (formerly Interactive Monitoring) or Standard Monitoring can receive Alarm Texts to alert them to the status of their system. These SMS messages will be sent during alarm events to all primary contacts associated with your SimpliSafe® account and will provide information about alarm events. 

With Alarm Texts, users will receive texts when an alarm is triggered and will be able to cancel burglary alarms within the first two minutes or request help through text messages. 

Since the messages go directly to the phone numbers provided for your primary contacts, a Safe Word is not required to cancel alarms via text. 

While in Practice Mode after first setting up your system, you’ll receive texts letting you know that an alarm was triggered and what sensor triggered it. Since emergency services are not requested during an alarm event while in Practice Mode, you will not be able to cancel these alarms.

Alarms triggered by Panic Buttons, Smoke and CO Detectors, Water Sensors, and Temperature Sensors are not able to be canceled via text in order to ensure safety. Similarly, alarms triggered by entering your Duress Pin will not receive Alarm Texts in order to retain the discretion of the Duress alarm event.

Alarm Texts will be sent from our 5-digit SMS number, 82539. This is the same number that sends the rest of our text alerts. Phone calls from our monitoring center during alarms will still come from our monitoring center phone number, 855-693-4911—make sure to save this number to your contacts!

If you cancel the alarm or request emergency services through the Alarm Text, you will not receive a phone call from our monitoring center. Our monitoring center will only call you if the Primary Contacts do not respond to the Alarm Text.

How do I turn Alarm Texts on or off?

All primary contacts on your account are automatically opted in to receive Alarm Texts and will receive three initial texts to introduce them to the messages. You can also opt out of Alarm Texts at any time via the SimpliSafe® mobile app: 

1. Open the SimpliSafe® Mobile App on your phone or tablet

2. Choose My System from the navigation bar at the bottom of the app

3. Select Alerts & Notifications

4. Tap Alarm Triggered

5. Scroll for SMS Alerts and toggle ON or OFF

We don’t recommend replying “STOP” to our text messages to opt-out, as this will opt you out of all SimpliSafe® text messages in the future.

What happens if I have more than one primary contact on my account?

When an alarm event is triggered, all primary contacts will receive Alarm Texts unless you have chosen to opt out of the texts via the SimpliSafe® mobile app.

In the event of an alarm, if one primary contact cancels the alarm but another requests help, the request for help will always take priority to ensure you are always protected.

Will I still receive calls from the Monitoring Center during an alarm?

If the Primary Contacts cancel the alarm or requests assistance from emergency services via Alarm Texts within 2 minutes of receiving the text, you will not receive a phone call from our monitoring center.

If we receive no response from the Primary Contacts via Alarm Text within that 2-minute window, our monitoring center will call you to confirm the alarm event and assist you further.

Is there any way to make sure I never miss an Alarm Text or phone call?

You can opt-in to Critical Alarm Notifications using the settings on your iOS or Android device. This will allow you to set up a bypass to silent profiles and Do Not Disturb functions for SimpliSafe®.