Sensor Name Announcement available now!

@crosby1612​ hey, I'm still just waiting for it to get to Android, ios has had it for a few weeks and I'm over here like why we got to wait so long lol

@crosby1612​ 

Repeating known pre-recorded phrases is one thing. Text to speech is another. It's obviously not impossible by any means but it's an entirely different level of complexity to implement. I'd love to have the functionality as well but I'm not at all surprised we're just getting pre-recorded names. This is also why I asked them to add a bunch more pre-populated options.

@Haziqbaluk​ if you have a SimpliSafe Gen 3, you should be able to get the Announce feature for all your Entry Sensors. The one thing that may be different is that the feature only works for the pre-generated sensor names. So if you set those "older sensors" with custom names, unfortunately the Announce feature won't work for them.

But you can rename your sensors through both the Keypad and the SimpliSafe app.

@Haziqbaluk​ All of my entry sensors are 2.5+ years old and they cause the name announce to work just fine. (Though I had to rename my sensors to something on the approved list.)

@tobywildasin​ When you select the Sensor Name Voice Prompt setting in the SimpliSafe mobile app, you do not see a toggle that says Announce Sensor Name?

In that case, I would recommend deleting the app from your phone and then re-download it to see if that retrieves the toggle.

@pastorgreg​ thanks for reaching out. To enable this feature, you'll need to make sure of three things:

• You are subscribed to either the Fast Protect or Self-Monitoring with Camera Recordings plan
• You have Entry Sensor announce enabled in the SimpliSafe app for each sensor under My System > Device Settings > [your sensor] > Entry Sensor Alert > Entry Sensor Name Announcement (this is the default)
• Your Sensor is given one of the default names. Unfortunately, we cannot support custom named sensors with this feature

@zhartman2013boy I checked and it appears you cannot do it on the web dashboard, as it is with other items too. SS, while it has improved the dashboard, it remains behind from the phone app. They have to make the decision for us customers' benefit to keep them the same or abandon the web portal in a browser.

I have full TTS with my home grown security system. Says whatever I tell it to say.

Still deciding whether it annoys me or not.

App & web browser access are identical.

Anyhow, good luck getting more here.

@michaelhauther​ Entry sensor announce is working for Android, if low tier paid monitoring $9.99 or high tier "I think" at $31.99+- or something. Only certain canned names available for sensors. Search for it.

My System, Device Settings, pick an entry sensor, turn on sensor name announcement. Sensor canned names I don't recall. Sensors need a canned name to work. It's lost in this forum somewhere. Custom sensor names don't work.

Super annoying that the "mid-tier" $19.95 monitoring does not get "integrations" or this voice feature. No clue what they are thinking.

@sabourinj​ 

It is now $21.99, and I agree. SimpliSafe has always made some head-scratching moves regarding the Standard Plan.

@dlpsr​ Thank-you! Got itnow!

@errodrigues​ It's not that it's difficult but 8in their thinking, features galore gets outside their core "Simpli" security system. Just my opinion of course.

I built my own, it announces if somethings been opened via TTS to my phone and/or bluetooth hearing aids and sends verbal reminders every 30 minutes, or as "I" setup, as well as push notifications.

Rather annoying at first.😂 Getting used to it now though as its kind of useful to know. She & I probably open one or two doors a 100 times per day.

There are many feature requests here that fall under home automation. Simplisafes just security mostly. Also personal opinion.

So, built my own reminders, among other things, in Home Assistant.

@SS_User_94941​ Yes. Don't get much with basic, but at least it still alarms.

@SS_User_94941 You are correct, if you downgrade your system to our Basic App Control plan, you will not have access to the Entry Sensor Announce feature. 

To learn more about what is included in each monitoring plan, check out the What are the service plan options article in the Help Center.

Considering Simplisafe and this is a core feature I'm looking for as I'm buying my first home and will be living alone. I need to be able to quickly tell which sensor is opened via voice. What is the status of this? Does the standard plan still not support this? Also, does this also support windows or is it just doors? From the default list provided last year, it looks like they are just related to doors. 

Also, if using this feature will it speak as well as chime? Such as *Chime* "Front Door"? Or, if this is enabled does it disable the chime for all of the other sensors with custom names. Would be great if there was a video demoing this but I can't seem to find anything. 

@kevonmayers31 The Entry Sensor Alert feature is not included with the Basic App Control or Standard monitoring plans. The Base Station is also only able of announcing our pre-selected names, but more names have been added to the Base Station's firmware since last year. 

When this setting is enabled and an Entry Sensor is opened, the Base Station will chime and say the name of the sensor. And if there are some Entry Sensors that have custom names, the Base Station will still chime when they are opened.

@divkri024 Yes, this feature is available on both the Android and iOS apps. However, this feature is only available to users subscribed to the Pro Plus, Pro, Core (formerly Fast Protect™), or Self Monitoring with Camera Recording monitoring plans. If you are subscribed to Standard Monitoring or the free, Basic App Control plan, this feature will not be available.