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boomerst3

14 Messages

Wednesday, October 12th, 2022 1:56 PM

New alarm text capability

Sounds good on paper, but what if someone breaks into your home and has your phone? They could respond that the alarm is false, whereas on a phone call you can give a wrong safe word to alert that there is a problem

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2 years ago

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davey_d

Community Admin

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5.6K Messages

2 years ago

Hi @boomerst3 ,

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, Alarm Texts is a new feature that is now rolling out gradually, starting with current gen Standard and Interactive subscribers. When enabled on your account, you’ll get a text message immediately after an alarm event, and you can respond via text to either cancel that dispatch, or request immediate help. It’s part of our ongoing goal of getting you the assistance that you need, even faster. You can learn about the feature in more detail in our Help Center article here.

One important thing to note about this new feature is that the Alarm Texts feature is in addition to, and does not replace, the dispatch call sequence that you’re already familiar with. When there’s a burglar alarm event, the Primary Contacts will get the text messages, and you have 2 minutes to respond. But at the same time, the emergency phone call sequence is still initiated.
If you respond to the text, that will cancel the phone call as well. But if you don’t respond to the text, and do not use the app or Keypad to cancel the alarm immediately, you’ll be able to speak with a Monitoring Center operator, and go from there.

As I mentioned, the feature is rolling out gradually across all accounts. It is turned on by default, because we really want to enable as many of our customers as possible, to get the fastest emergency alarm response possible. When Alarm Texts become available for you, you’ll get that email the day before, as well as a welcome text message. These notifications would also include instructions for how to opt out, should you wish to.

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boomerst3

14 Messages

@davey_d​ You say the text message gives you 2 minutes to respond, and the phone call is still initiated. Does the call happen right away, or after the 2 minutes, which is a long time to wait.

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2 years ago

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davey_d

Community Admin

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5.6K Messages

@boomerst3​ typically you get the phone call in less than a minute. But to be clear, the 2-minute timer on the text message doesn't delay the phone call sequence. As soon as our Monitoring Center gets the signal, they're already going through the protocol to initiate the phone calls.

It's just at if you happen to respond to the text within the 2 minutes, it interrupts the call sequence - either to send the police right away, or cancel the event.

(edited)

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2 years ago

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captain11

Captain

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6K Messages

2 years ago

@boomerst3 I saw this requested years ago but was not aware anything has been implemented. I too would not use it for the reason you have in your post, can you clarify where you read this? My apologies if somewhere here in the new online community as I am still trying to figure out the overall structure and navigation.

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boomerst3

14 Messages

2 years ago

I got this email this morning:

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captain11

Captain

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6K Messages

@boomerst3​ Thank you for taking the time and trouble posting the notice.  Questions I have are not answered in this notice, as I am sure is the same for you. What would be helpful, SS? A time flow graphic, with the exact specific timeline events as the process stands now, and another with the new process. And SMS?? Hardly a secure and reliable method, as stated in your own app that says push alerts are quicker. A stealth rollout for monitoroing? Not a great start; get it widely, easily visible to your customers now. 

BTW, the reason for the timeline request for the two processes is to illustrate if there is a time delay. I believe with the current process COPS waits 30 seconds prior to calling. In the new process, it appears two minutes elapses before a call is made.

(edited)

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2 years ago

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worthing

702 Messages

Hardly a secure and reliable method

Which is why it still bugs the crap out of me that this is the only option for MFA/2FA. Simplisafe, PLEASE offer support for Google Authenticator and other OTP apps.

I believe with the current process COPS waits 30 seconds prior to calling. In the new process, it appears two minutes elapses before a call is made.

I don't follow this, sorry. Can you explain?

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2 years ago

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worthing

702 Messages

2 years ago

but what if someone breaks into your home and has your phone

If they have your phone they can cancel the alarm from within the app already. If they do it within 30 seconds of it going off then SS will consider it a false alarm (assuming it was triggered by entry, glass break or motion) and won't call. So you're already at risk, so to speak, and I don't know that this really increases your risk that much?

Not saying you're wrong, just offering up additional information / different perspective.

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boomerst3

14 Messages

@worthing​ First off, if someone breaks into your home, the alarm goes off immediately. I doubt they would have time to unlock (which they probably could not do), open the phone, find the app and cancel the alarm, all within 30 seconds. A stranger cannot get into your phone, and the app,  if it is locked. The only way this text communication would work is to require your safe word, and have the same capability for a fake safe word to alert them that there is a problem.

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2 years ago

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shiherlis

731 Messages

2 years ago

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