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Wednesday, October 21st, 2020 6:28 PM

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Sensor Activity in Timeline in Off Mode

Oddly, timeline doesn't seem to record activity from any of the regular entry / motion sensors.  It's mostly focused on camera feeds, which are often spotty.  I'd recommend adding other sensor activity to the timeline as well.  Notifications can be set up based on personal preference, but there should always been a central repository for all recorded data, including sensors.  Also, a filter on the timeline would be EXTREMELY helpful if you're looking for something specific...  like activity on a certain camera, but without knowing exact time.  Recommended filters: date, time, camera / sensor.

Community Admin

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516 Messages

3 years ago

Hello @JCmax82,

It sounds as though setting up Secret Alert for your sensors in Off mode may help fill your needs. After setting your sensors for Secret Alert, anytime that they are triggered will then post an event in your timeline as well as trigger recordings on your cameras. Please note that if Secret Alert is set up you will no longer receive a chime when that Entry sensor is opened.

SimpliSafe Social Team
SimpliSafe Home Security

103 Messages

3 years ago

RE: Simplisafe

I get that you can set up secret alerts to get notifications like JCmax82 wanted, but that's kind of like cutting off your nose to spite your face. It's not unreasonable to ask a security system to log when sensors are tripped, regardless of arming status, and still have said sensors provide alarmed protection when needed.  It's a very common feature on every prior system I've personally had, and was a bit befuddled to see it was not included in yours.

The practical applications to have a record of every time a door is opened seems to be very obvious to me.  With your proposed "solution" you've either got to put 2 different sensors on each door or go in every night and change the settings from secret alert to alarm.  I don't want to sound like one of "those" people, but if you did a survey with your customers, I would bet an overwhelming percentage of customers would welcome this feature into your product.

1.3K Messages


On November 1st, 2020 danieljustice says:
RE: Simplisafe

I get that you can set up secret alerts to get notifications like JCmax82 wanted, but that's kind of like cutting off your nose to spite your face. It's not unreasonable to ask a security system to log when sensors are tripped, regardless of arming status, and still have said sensors provide alarmed protection when needed. It's a very common feature on every prior system I've personally had, and was a bit befuddled to see it was not included in yours.

The practical applications to have a record of every time a door is opened seems to be very obvious to me. With your proposed "solution" you've either got to put 2 different sensors on each door or go in every night and change the settings from secret alert to alarm. I don't want to sound like one of "those" people, but if you did a survey with your customers, I would bet an overwhelming percentage of customers would welcome this feature into your product.


With "New" Simplisafe (SS3) system you can set some of the sensors to secret alert in the "OFF" mode, but still have them trigger the alarm as normal per their home/away settings. So, one would have timeline entries in all modes and alarm triggers in home/away, without needing to change the sensor settings every time nor needing to put two sensors on the door.

https://support.simplisafe.com/hc/en-us/articles/360029729771-How-do-I-change-my-All-New-SimpliSafe-device-settings-What-are-the-default-settings-#h_8530d982-be97-4f06-aceb-80105de741eb

Follow the link above then scroll down to the Entry Sensor settings and Motion Sensor settings.

So, yeah, it's not unreasonable to ask but the ask is already present in SS3 system, albeit at cost of entry chime when set to secret alert in the Off mode.

4 Messages

Agree here. Why wouldn't doors opening show in timeline?. Seems it's an oversight in the addition of the base station should announce which door opens instead of a simple chime.

1 Message

agree, I just bought the latest system, and there is no secret option available in the app and the history of my doors opening unless the system is armed, is not available. The lack of this logging is really surprising and Im ready to send this system back.

1 Message

3 years ago

+1 @JCmax82 - filter on the timeline! If you have lots of camera events it is challenging to review the timeline.

4 Messages

2 years ago

I love the system but seek SimpliSafe to add sensor (entry & motion) activity to the timeline within the app~! I track when my kids arrive home in my prior system and found this extremely helpful. I'm hoping this is a quick fix which many would appreciate. Thanks!!

Note: This comment was created from a merged conversation originally titled Add Sensor triggers to Timeline even when system is Off

Community Admin

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5K Messages

Hi HHome,

It sounds like you're asking about the Secret Alert function, which you can set through the SimpliSafe app, under Device Settings. For each Entry, Motion, or even Glassbreak Sensor, and for each of the three modes, you can set Secret Alert to get a notification without it triggering a full alarm.

Advocate

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653 Messages

Secret alerts require a specific tier (read: the most expensive) of paid monitoring though per https://support.simplisafe.com/hc/en-us/articles/360023809972-What-are-the-service-plan-options- which isn't great, honestly.

I think what they're asking for isn't so much push notifications for real time alerts as just a history in the timeline that says, "entry sensor blah opened at blah blah" or similar. Historically information vs. real time information.

4 Messages

Thanks for the reply but it is a history lookup I seek not an active or secret alert.

Community Admin

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5K Messages

@HHomeI understand. Yes, Secret Alerts do generate an alert notification every time that sensor is activated. But it's also the only way to log those triggers when the system is in Off Mode.

Of course, when the system is armed in Home or Away, it would be the Alarm triggers that are recorded.

Advocate

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653 Messages

What I think they're asking for, and what I am if they're not, is that you simply show every single time an entry sensor is triggered, regardless of alarm state, in the timeline. That's it. Some of us want to be able to go back at times and see that the front door opened at times x, y and z. We don't need to be alerted in real time with a secret alert (and not everyone wants to drop $28 a month for that....) but we do want to see it in the timeline when we go look.

Does that make sense?

11 Messages

2 years ago

This is a suggestion to SimpliSafe:

- when I open the app, give me the real time status of my system, push it, not make me drag down to see the current status.

- include the entry sensor activity in timeline without having to go to a secret notification. 

these are two basic functions that other alarm systems have, and it could be a simple software update. 

Note: This comment was created from a merged conversation originally titled Entry Sensor Activity in Timeline in Off Mode

3 Messages

Please add a log entry to the Timeline for entry sensor open/close activity. I understand the Secret Alert feature, but am not really looking for a text alert for each event. I would simply like to be able to open the Timeline and see a record of the entry sensor activity. From my review of the FAQs I think this enhancement would be very well received and is important to many users. 

Note: This comment was created from a merged conversation originally titled Entry sensor Timeline activity

1 year ago

Please add sensor events to timeline with or without secret mode! Thank you! :)

6 Messages

9 months ago

Here it is 2 years after the first request and still the events haven't been changed. I too was shocked when the timeline did not show any of the door entry events. All the camera events show but none of the entry sensors. Seems like a pretty easy application update.

3 Messages

4 months ago

I'd like to request a new feature added where I can monitor device activity over a timeline. This would show not the current status as of this moment but what doors/windows were opened/closed and what time those actions occurred. This is similar to the 'Timeline" in the app where the automatic test signal is sent each day only it would be a timeline showing actions of the devices.

Example below as this is a Airbnb rental but this I feel would be useful to all.

Wednesday

415pm Back Patio door opened

511pm Back Patio door closed

615pm Primary Bedroom window opened

****It rained heavily OR we had a break-in (example only)

Thursday

745am Primary Bedroom window closed

837am Front Door Opened

837am Front Door Closed

In this example the guests left a window open, we had a resulting break-in or it rained and damaged the wall. We can see when they opened it and when they closed it. Currently I'd check the app and see it's closed and have no idea it was left open all night. This is important from a security perspective if guests are leaving the house with door/window open and allow us to help police with a break-in or simply identify fault of the guest when damage occurred. 

Second example - it's 100+ degrees in Texas right now, guest complains the AC isn't working well in the house and it's hot inside. We identify in the timeline that the guest left the window open for 8hrs today and they've caused the house to be hot, no issue to the AC but they forgot about it. We could clearly note the problem with them instead of sending AC techs out to evaluate a potential repair/replacement of our system.

This idea would be a lifesaver for us, hope the idea proves useful to others. Please share your feedback or support if useful for you too.

Note: This comment was created from a merged conversation originally titled Feature Request - Device Activity Timeline

Community Admin

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1.8K Messages

@koreybenton​ Thank you for your suggestion! This request sounds similar to another request we have about showing Entry Sensor activity in the timeline, so I have moved your post here. We have submitted this idea to our dev team for their consideration. If we get any news from them, we will provide an update here.

3 Messages

@emily_s Any updates on this enhancement? It would be great to see if this could be on the 2023 roadmap!

Community Admin

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1.8K Messages

@koreybenton​ At this time, I don't have any updates on this feature request. Once we get an update from our devs, we'll be sure to post it in this thread!

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