Schedule motion detection on Outdoor Cameras

It would be great if I could schedule each camera for motion and alert detection. I would arm mainly at night, so I do not have to go in and turn on and off every day for each camera.  Otherwise we have a lot of activity in back yard wearing down battery and triggering many events.

When I am out doing yardwork or just enjoying my backyard, I get constant alerts from my 4 outdoor cameras plus all the motion detection drains the camera batteries.  Thankfully, it is currently possible to disable and enable the motion sensors and notifications for each camera individually.  However, this is a bit of a chore when you have many cameras, worse when you are in a rush, and it is very easy to forget to re-enable them all and thus not be protected by the cameras until you remember to reenable them.   It would be great if it was possible to enable/disable motion detection all at once for all cameras, and even better if I was able to disable them temporarily for a set amount of time (perhaps even with some choice of time intervals), then have them re-enabled automatically when that time period is met, and receive a notification that they have been re-enabled.   Any chance this feature can be added to the backlog?

It's been the better part of 2 years since you made this excellent request and there's still no camera notification scheduling. The competition like Arlo and Blink has had it for years. I'm pretty happy with Simplisafe except for this glaring omission. It's hard to understand why they don't offer this even for monthly premium subscribers, especially in light of the recent subscription price hike. 

Another request for scheduling time windows for receiving camera motion alerts / both for all cameras or individually for each camera - this is essential and long overdue. 

to everyone else: I suggest everyone place a call to customer service directly and take the time to adamantly request the feature live to a rep and ask them to pass it along. 

Seems it would be very simple to give the user the option to link camera activity to Home and/or Away modes with the option to have it set for Always On. To have the ONLY option as ALWAYS ON for over two years this feature change has been requested is ridiculous. Turning motion off on the cameras is a pain and a hidden feature in the UI.  My front door camera runs out of battery within 24 hours - essentially making it a useless camera. How very disappointing that this hasn’t been changed/added yet. 

I just got a Simplisafe system for my business and I had no idea that there was no way to toggle the cameras to just turn on when we turned it on the system at night, and then off when we turn it off in the morning. If I can find the time to return the system before the 60-day trial is over, I will. Having to remember to futz with the app twice a day is ridiculous. 

Please enable/develop this feature. I have 5 cameras. Everytime I mow my lawn, I have to go into settings on each camera to disable motion alerts or "snooze" them individually. A single toggle would be beneficial.

I agree with everyone, this is so needed. I have mine plugged into the solar panel and it's still not enough to stay charged with the amount of activity during the day. It's pretty rediculous that Simplisafe still does not have this feature after all of these comments. It's been two years! 

I would love this feature.  

Davey, please let us know what "the Product Team" is saying about this   Is it not important enough?  Have they asked their customers via market focus or happened to look at the community forum devoted to customer feedback?

This is not a rocket science monumental programming task.  It should be .about as easy as they come.  A binary radio button (off/on) for notifications for each camera with a sliding time schedule.  Let's not forget that we put a man on the moon in 1969.

The tendency is for customers, who are given lip service, to seek other modalities to air their grievances.  Before we start doing that, could you please remind the Product Team that their customers are approaching the end of their patience with this utter lack of transparency.  Thank you.

Davey,

Over the last two years we have been trying to explain to you that the issue is that we need more control of the cameras. This is serious.  We have not had any specific feedback from you or managment.  Your Development Team needs instructions from upper management to seek specifcations and solutions to address the issue.  Your job, should you decide to accept it, is to bring this issue to the attention of the proper managment.  Please allow me to delineate the specific problems and propose the specifications for resolution.

Currently, I see two main problems.  First, your customers are inundated with multiple camera notifications over the course of every day.  With the multiple triggering of camera(s) via motion detection, battery life is shortened dramatically.  The "Crying Wolf" nature of multiple notifications and the need to constantly recharge batteries dramatically reduces the usefulness of the Simplisafe system.  Your customers are being worn down and you will lose them to other security systems the unless an adequate solution is promptly enacted. Management should also be made aware that new customer recruitment can be affected by social media posts about this problem.

Please allow me to propose the following ideal specifications for a solution:

1. Give users the options to tie FILMING with each camera (separately) to be "ON" with either an alarm status (Off/Home/Away) or a sliding time schedule.  Each camera should also have a "Camera Off Switch".

2.  Also give users the options to tie the NOTIFICATIONS with each camera (separately) to be "ON" with either an alarm status (Off/Home/Away) or a sliding time schedule.  Each camera should also have a "Notifications Off Switch".

This customization would likely be set once at the time of installation, but could be easily modified for special occasions.  This ability to customize will address the surveillance needs of customers ranging from intruder warnings to the oversight of children playing in the yard.  This level of solution would also move Simplisafe from last place in serving customers in this regard to first place.  Management should appreciate how solving this problem, which is suspected of reducing customer retention and acquisition (as highlighted in customer comments), can morph into an opportunity to retain and build your customer base. 

I hate myself every day since I replaced my Arlo cameras with SimpliSafe.  I thought it would be awesome to have everything under one app but if I had known the complete limitations SimpliSafe has on their devices I would not have wasted the money.  The only smart thing SimpliSafe has done is to make these boards only available to members and not the general public.  If the general public knew the limitations with SimpliSafe they wouldn't sell another camera.

I agree, it is a total waste of battery life to have my exterior cameras recording during the day.  I get long lists of my dogs running around or me sitting outside.  Please update the system to allow schedule motion detection on the cameras.

I’d like to go further and ask for sensitivity adjustments based on day/night schedules. We had vehicle break-ins across our neighborhood recently and few if any cameras in the neighborhood picked up on the burglars. I bought a 6th outdoor camera and mounted it above the garage door since the driveway is a bit out of the 30’ range advertised for my other cameras. To my dismay, the camera range for detecting people is downright poor during the day and non-existent during the night. I could even enter the car without setting off the motion sensor at night a mere 10’ from the camera with sensitivity all the way up. I have lights on either side of the driveway on all night long, so there is ample light for the camera without the spot light. Called support and tried three different mounting locations and angles. Ultimately sent it back and now realize these cameras are useless at night unless the motion is square center in the camera field of view at very short distances. This must be improved or the news will get out that your cameras are useless.

During the day however, I get tons of nuisance recordings from cars up the street. Which makes me think that if we could set the sensitivity lower during daylight hours and Even Higher at night, it might work better.

I t would be highly beneficial if your product could evolve to include scheduling features for outdoor cameras to detect motion, rather than requiring manual adjustments through the app each time. As a UX professional, it seems quite outdated for a security product to lack the capability to automatically schedule exterior cameras based on the user's presence at home.

This oversight feels akin to purchasing a car but having to install the steering wheel every time you need to drive.