Device Battery Level and Signal Strength Now Available in the SimpliSafe® Mobile App

@simplisafe_admin

Is it still polled every 24 hours or so and not live battery & sensor signal data?

Refreshing the sensors app page changes nothing, the two bars sensor signal stayed the same two feet away, I managed to refresh before the Wi-Fi to base dropped off.

I unplugged the base power and walked toward a weaker signal also does nothing after refreshing.

Well, it does disconnect the base Wi-Fi with power unplugged and prevent refreshing the app.

Base is evidently too slow and ancient to rapidly switch to access points and stay connected. Or other related & unknown issues.

After plugging it back in kind of proves that, it takes several minutes for the base to eventually recognize the primary SSID and accept the password.

Manually entering SSID & password fails also, after a power outage and plugging back in.

Better than nothing, I'll give Simplisafe that much I suppose, but it appears to me it's not live data either.

Refreshing sensors doesn't really do anything at all until sensors are polled and refreshed in the cloud, whenever that happens. IF I'm correct.

Users get to see potentially old battery and signal data. Which is my guess, and the same as waiting for a poll and getting a push notification of low battery or disconnected sensor, eventually...

It might be more useful for user troubleshooting weak sensors & batteries, if the app actually refreshed the battery & signal data instead of the cloud.

As in OPEN battery & sensor signals via the app.

IF my assumptions are correct. If not correct, then feel free to elaborate.

CORRECTION: This new functionality works on Android.  SimpliSafe technical support incorrectly stated it only works on iOS, but tonight the Battery Level and Signal Strength functionality came to life when my Android app auto-updated to version 7.52.

🪫 Battery “Gauges” & 📶 RF Bars — What’s May Actually Be Going On Here?

Based on my research and some speculation since it's a closed system. Unscientific & research as usual.

After some digging and hands-on testing with Simplisafe’s new app features, I’ve got mixed feelings.

They’ve added battery level indicators and RF signal bars for sensors, which at first glance seem like a step forward.

But once you peel it back… it’s mostly surface gloss, not a live diagnostic tool.

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🪫 Battery Gauges — Feel-Good, Not Real-Time

CR2032 lithium coin cells (used in many sensors) have a very predictable behavior curve:

New: ~3.0 – 3.2 V

Nominal: ~3.0 V

2.7 – 2.8 V: rapid drop begins

Below ~2.6 V: devices usually fail or throw low-battery alerts

For most of their life, the voltage stays flat. Then it hits the cliff near end-of-life and drops off fast.

That means a “battery percentage” or "gauge" will sit at full for months, then suddenly nosedive. And since Simplisafe polls battery status periodically, not continuously, the green gauge could still show “full” many hours after the battery is weak or dead.

Even if they were reading real voltage, this isn’t like a phone battery that drains smoothly. It’s basically “good, good, good… DEAD.”

So the new green battery icons look nice, but they’re mostly a feel-good widget, not a reliable early-warning system.

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📶 RF Signal Bars — Potentially Useful, with a Big Asterisk*

The new RF signal meter looks like a cellphone signal graph (1–4 bars), but it’s not actually live IMHO.

Simplisafe sensors use low-power proprietary RF (around 433 MHz), not Wi-Fi or Zigbee, all SS sensors closed, no public API.

Communication is polled, not constant. Constant polling might actually deplete the batteries. A quandary & based upon intentional design.

The base station or app reports the last known signal from a poll or heartbeat, which could be many hours old.

I tested this by unplugging the base and walking to a sensor that showed 1 bar low RF signal. The RF bars didn’t change, at all, even after multiple app refreshes 3 feet from the sensor.

Real updates happen on their schedule, not yours.

Consistently low bars probably do indicate marginal RF coverage through walls, which can lead to delayed or missed signals (or “ghost” false alarms). But this is a snapshot, not a live feed like Zigbee or Wi-Fi RSSI values.

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📝 Bottom Line

✅ The RF meter is a small step forward — if they increase polling frequency, it could become genuinely useful for diagnosing & troubleshooting weak RF sensors, allowing mitigation by moving the base or moving the sensors.

⚠️ The battery gauge, because of lithium chemistry and infrequent polling, probably won’t give much meaningful advance warning before failure.

With better data exposure or a public API or more frequent updates, both features could be genuinely helpful. Right now, they’re more “nice to look at” than practical troubleshooting tools. IMHO.😉

If Simplisafe feels my critique inaccurate, feel free to counter with some facts.