Smoke/CO Alarm Interconnectability

@emily_s​ 

Hi Emily,

This is a great suggestion by Austin. Wondering if your development team has had a chance to review and if so how long something like this feature would take to develop and push an update to base stations?

This would be a huge safety feature

Thank you

Brendan

Hi @Bth579,

I agree, this would be a great feature. I can confirm with you that our dev team has seen this request, but I don't have any timeline on when an update like this would be available. Once we get any word from them about it, an update will be provided in this thread.

Thank you

I just hopped on Simplisafe (best system on the market by far) to see if there was a way to interconnect my detectors.  In my opinion, this is going to be the standard by state law in most states before the sale of your house and these types of detectors that interlink are available at big box stores so outside of the obvious increase in safety you have to think about the competition.  I just replaced six 10 year old first alert non interlinked  with simplisafe so not to have 2 systems to deal with but thought long and hard about them not being interlinked and it continues to gnaw at me.  Please put this at the top for development and hopefully without having to replace the current detectors if possible.  Thank You, Hugh, Vermont

@emily_s​ Any update on this? 3 months seems like a long time to get a software update for this important feature. I was ready to purchase 3 of these but now I'm on hold.

Thanks

@blakehornsby​ What a bunch of BS !! The "Siren Alarms" that SimpliSafe already sells has the "chip" or circuit board already inside itself and the siren alarms (essentially repeaters) already have this function and do this.... Therefore, SimpliSafe already has the "chip" technology to make all of their smoke and CO alarms to do this already.  Just put that chip into your existing smoke and CO alarms now!!!   Stop trying to BS all of your customers!!

@jebeje​ What a bunch of BS !! The "Siren Alarms" that SimpliSafe already sells has the "chip" or circuit board already inside itself and the siren alarms (essentially repeaters) already have this function and do this.... Therefore, SimpliSafe already has the "chip" technology to make all of their smoke and CO alarms to do this already.  Just put that chip into your existing smoke and CO alarms now!!!   Stop trying to BS all of your customers!!

@GaveDrohl​ What a bunch of BS !! The "Siren Alarms" that SimpliSafe already sells has the "chip" or circuit board already inside itself and the siren alarms (essentially repeaters) already have this function and do this.... Therefore, SimpliSafe already has the "chip" technology to make all of their smoke and CO alarms to do this already.  Just put that chip into your existing smoke and CO alarms now!!!   Stop trying to BS all of your customers!!

@RHB​ What a bunch of BS !! The "Siren Alarms" that SimpliSafe already sells has the "chip" or circuit board already inside itself and the siren alarms (essentially repeaters) already have this function and do this.... Therefore, SimpliSafe already has the "chip" technology to make all of their smoke and CO alarms to do this already.  Just put that chip into your existing smoke and CO alarms now!!!   Stop trying to BS all of your customers!!

@Aro​ What a bunch of BS !! The "Siren Alarms" that SimpliSafe already sells has the "chip" or circuit board already inside itself and the siren alarms (essentially repeaters) already have this function and do this.... Therefore, SimpliSafe already has the "chip" technology to make all of their smoke and CO alarms to do this already.  Just put that chip into your existing smoke and CO alarms now!!!   Stop trying to BS all of your customers!!

@tdsedney​ we sincerely understand where you’re coming from, and we appreciate your passion. We feel the same way about protecting our customers!

Our system is designed to meet industry standards for fire safety, specifically UL-985 for fire safety warning systems. When one Smoke, CO, or 2-in-1 Smoke & CO Detector is triggered, the Base Station itself will also sound a siren, and so will any Wireless Sirens that are attached to the system. And let’s not forget the app notifications and the call from the Monitoring Service (for those with a Monitoring Subscription). SimpliSafe’s approach is to build a system that works together to keep your family safe.

@davey_d​ What a bunch of BS !! The "Siren Alarms" that SimpliSafe already sells has the "chip" or circuit board already inside itself and the siren alarms (essentially repeaters) already have this function and do this.... Therefore, SimpliSafe already has the "chip" technology to make all of their smoke and CO alarms to do this already.  Just put that chip into your existing smoke and CO alarms now!!!   Stop trying to BS all of your customers!!

@davey_d​ 

The language in the FAQ on the combination smoke/CO detector is problematic and you all should change it. ASAP. It reads:

Q. If the Smoke & CO Detector siren is going off, will my other SimpliSafe sirens sound as well?

A. Yes, SimpliSafe Gen 3 products with sirens are interconnected meaning that your Base Station and other sirens such as your SimpliSafe Outdoor Camera or Extra Siren will sound in unison when there’s an emergency.

This language reallllly suggests that your other detectors will also go off (after all, they have sirens in them, yes?) and it clearly says they're interconnected which I think virtually everyone would agree means if one goes off, they all go off. (Behavior which many of us have become accustomed to in existing wired systems.) Sure, it doesn't explicitly say that's what will happen but it also doesn't explicitly state that it won't happen. (And again, the added confusion due to the use of language such as "interconnected")

There is no good reason for the language in that answer to be that ambiguous and misleading. Please have someone fix that ASAP.

@ajkuchar​ What a bunch of BS !! The "Siren Alarms" that SimpliSafe already sells has the "chip" or circuit board already inside itself and the siren alarms (essentially repeaters) already have this function and do this.... Therefore, SimpliSafe already has the "chip" technology to make all of their smoke and CO alarms to do this already.  Just put that chip into your existing smoke and CO alarms now!!!   Stop trying to BS all of your customers!!

They really need to update the text on the product pages for the smoke detector and the smoke/co combo detector to explicitly state they are not linked. Currently the pages say:

"Triggers siren in Base Station" (Smoke detector)

"Built-in internal siren and triggers the siren in the Base Station" (Smoke/CO) combo detector)

Which is better than nothing but it's not good enough, IMO.

@timothyanderson09​ I have 6 SS Smoke Detectors still in their original packaging and shipping box from Jan-2022.  I had intended to replace my Nest Detects with SS, to gain monitoring, and have a completely integrated solution.  By the time I got around to installing them and realized this significant problem, the return window had closed.  I won’t rely on non-interconnected smoke / fire detectors.  A remote alarm at the base station isn’t enough.  My Nests, which are older, are not only interconnected, but when they all go off, they tell me which detector detects smoke, e.g., “Warning, there is smoke in the kitchen,” so I know where to look.  Nest has been doing that for more than a decade.  It’s time to catch up, SimpliSafe.

Agreed. It’s the only thing keeping us from replacing a whole house alarm system from ADT with Simplisafe.

Can you please tell me when you will have this interconnected feature working  to alert all detectors or will I need to repurchased these detectors or will simplisafe replace the ones I have bought at no cost?

No, they can't. Or won't. Or both. SimpliSafe has a long history of refusing to give timelines for literally anything being worked on. (Check the history of this forum.) There are requests for functionality that are 5+ years old that they've acknowledged they're working on but still haven't implemented.

Will they implement the specific thing you're asking about? I can't say for sure. What I can say for sure is that if you need this functionality you shouldn't wait for SimpliSafe to implement it. (This is true of any vendor, really, but SimpliSafe has an especially bad track record with it, IMO.)

Agree - please share an urgent update on this, Simplisafe. 

@JBUSA2024​ 

I will be having a final inspection in the next few weeks and if this is not resolved

There is 0% percent chance this functionality will be rolled out in "the next few weeks". I'd start doing some research on what you're going to buy.

Also, what state are you in? A lot of states, in addition to the interlinked functionality, also require units that are hardwired for power with a battery back up. Further still, some states require that battery back up to be a non-replaceable battery that lasts for 10 years.

SimpliSafe's hardware lacks all three of these increasingly common features and the last post I made about it the response seemed to indicate they had zero plans to change anything at this time.

Fortunately for my code requirement's I can do a non-hardwired unit with 10 year replaceable batteries which some units offer. I knew functionality rolling out in a couple of weeks was seemingly not possible, but considering this thread was started almost a year ago now they have had plenty of time to resolve this issue, but are seemingly not willing to. Given the technology already used in simplisafe devices I am shocked this could not be developed and updated within weeks of the initial ask and need, not years.

Very disappointing coming from a company that preaches safety and security being paramount.