Do you need the monitoring service to use the Mobile App?

@JEKaslow apologies for the extreme wait. As I understand, our Support team had a very busy holiday weekend. But if you weren't able to get through, you should have an easier time today.

@davey_d​ Fill in the blank (Comcast, ADT, Sirrius Radio).  Not acceptable. I would have chosen the Customer Service option, on a recorded line, authenitcate, say cancel, confirm they heard, say thank you and would be gone in a NY second.

@johntipo You can arm, disarm and push alerts but that's about it. Note that Amazon continues to push features behind their paywall, not going the other direction.  Before dropping SS, I would research carefully.

As far as cancellation, you do have to call, provide secret word and then say cancel. That's it.

This link should help.

https://support.simplisafe.com/articles/alarm-events-monitoring/what-are-the-service-plan-options/6344794a013ba90af0bce6a4

@johntipo​ We have SS for about 2yrs now, just recently cancelled the monitoring plan and my app just became useless! Can’t arm or disarm thru the app, it’s asking me to set it up again and everytime i do it wants me to setup a subscription, I can get to the part where i have to connect my Homebase to the wifi but thats where it stops, it wouldn’t connect and app tells me to call customer service! Alarm and all the sensor works but just couldn’t use the app, kinda stupid and frustrating, cause the main reason I went with SS is the ability to have the alarm with no monitoring service.

Hi @arvin519​, 

You can absolutely use your SimpliSafe system and app with our Basic App Control (free) plan. When you called in to cancel your monitoring plan, it looks like your account was cancelled instead of being downgraded to Basic App Control.

If you reach out to our Support team, our agents will be able to reactivate your account under this free plan. 

@tim24​ Are you on a monitoring plan? You need to setup  your cameras in the app. I suggest you call support, ask the questions and have them assist you setting your new system up.

thank you.  And we're not on a monitoring plan but will be soon.

@tim24​ As Captain11 mentioned, you do need to add your camera to your system using the SimpliSafe mobile app, but a monitoring plan isn't required to install a camera. I agree with Captain11, I would contact our Support team about this. They'll be able to take a look into your account and help you set up your camera in real time.

@jimparker41​ Some monitoring plans offer additional types of push notifications, but even if you don't have a monitoring plan you should get notified once a camera detects motion. 

I would first check your camera's settings in the SimpliSafe mobile app to ensure that their motion notifications are turned on. This can be done by navigating to the Cameras tab on the bottom of the screen > tap the gear icon on the top right corner > select [your camera] > Motion Detection > toggle Motion Notifications on > Tap Save in the top right corner to save your settings. 

This is how mine used to work. Then I stopped getting all push notifications (nothing for when the system was armed or disarmed or secret motion sensor alerts) and support informed me this was actually correct—without monitoring you aren’t entitled to push notifications and I had only been getting them in error. So once they saw I was getting push notifications (how decadent!) they revoked that using the latest iOS update. 

SS is a great idea but confusing and scammy in execution. I was forced into a monitoring trial then had to call and listen to a litany of horror stories basically asking me to agree that yes, I want my family to burn alive instead of paying you money,

before they’d let me cancel.

You really aren’t getting full functionality of the sensors without monitoring. So I’m not thrilled I bought a bunch. After all, what’s the point of secret motion sensor alerts if you can’t get the live alerts/push notifications? If I log into the app they are listed in the timeline but that’s worthless. I’m not staring at the timeline in the app all day to see if someone’s in my house. We now get a push alert if the alarm is actually set off and that’s it. Maybe cameras still get them, idk, luckily didn’t buy those. 

The mass confusion among customer service agents (many told me different things while trying to fix my notifications) and mistakes (didn’t notice the app was giving me extra services for months?) does not inspire me to pay for monitoring. I would rather pay a different company who at least appears to have their act together on the surface. SS can’t even manage that.

Enjoy the notifications while you have them. The honeymoon won’t last.