What are Alarm Texts and how do they work?

SimpliSafe® customers subscribed to Pro Plus, Pro, Core (formerly Fast Protect™), or Standard Monitoring plans will automatically receive the Alarm Text feature when setting up Primary Contact(s) in the SimpliSafe® Mobile App. 

Alarm Texts are messages sent to Primary Contact(s) when an alarm is triggered. Depending on the alarm type, your Primary Contact(s) can request the dispatch of emergency services, or cancel an alarm by replying to these texts. Each alarm type has specific messaging designed to provide you with clear insights into what triggered the alarm and what your next steps may be for canceling or requesting help. 

Alarms triggered by Panic Buttons, Smoke and CO Detectors, Water Sensors, and Temperature Sensors are not able to be canceled via text in order to ensure safety. Similarly, alarms triggered by entering your Duress Pin will not receive Alarm Texts in order to retain the discretion of the Duress alarm event.

How to ensure I am contacted during an alarm?

Alarm texts will be sent from our 5-digit SMS number, 82539. This is the same number that sends the rest of our text alerts. Phone calls from our monitoring center during alarms come from our monitoring center phone number, 855-693-4911—make sure to save these numbers to your contacts and add them into your Do Not Disturb settings so you never miss a call or text from our monitoring center.

You will need to use a US-based number in order to receive text alerts from your system. International numbers are not supported for text-based (SMS) communications.

If you cancel an alarm using Alarm Texts, our monitoring agents will quickly cancel it and therefore no longer need to call you. If you reply to the Alarm Text requesting the dispatch of emergency services, our monitoring agents immediately receive that request and start working on dispatching emergency services to your location. They won’t call you to confirm this request, since they received it by text.

You can reply to an Alarm Text to cancel an alarm or request the dispatch of emergency services up until our monitoring agents have requested dispatch.

Since the messages go directly to the phone numbers provided for your primary contacts, a Safe Word is not required to cancel alarms via text. 

How do Alarm Texts work in Practice Mode?

While in Practice Mode, you’ll receive texts letting you know that an alarm was triggered and what sensor triggered it. While in Practice Mode, you won’t receive emergency dispatch, so your Alarm Texts during this period will reflect that as well. 

How do I turn Alarm Texts on or off?

All Primary Contacts on your account are automatically opted in to receive Alarm Texts and will receive initial texts to introduce them to the messages. We recommend staying enrolled in alarm texts for an optimal alarm moment experience, however you can opt out of Alarm Texts at any time via the SimpliSafe® mobile app: 

1. Open the SimpliSafe® Mobile App on your phone or tablet

2. Choose My System from the navigation bar at the bottom of the app

3. Select Alerts & Notifications

4. Tap Alarm Triggered

5. Scroll for SMS Alerts and toggle ON or OFF

We don’t recommend replying “STOP” to our text messages to opt-out, as this will opt you out of all SimpliSafe® text messages in the future.

What happens if I have more than one primary contact on my account?

When an alarm event is triggered, all primary contacts will receive Alarm Texts unless you have chosen to opt out of the texts via the SimpliSafe® mobile app.

In the event of an alarm, if one primary contact cancels the alarm but another requests help, the request for help and dispatch of emergency services will always take priority to ensure you are always protected.

Will I still receive calls from the Monitoring Center during an alarm?

If a Primary Contact cancels the alarm or requests emergency dispatch services via Alarm Texts before our monitoring center calls you, you will not receive a phone call. This is because our monitoring specialists will immediately start processing the request and either cancel the alarm and therefore will no longer need to call to confirm cancellation or request help and will immediately begin outreach to request emergency services vs calling to confirm the request for help.

Is there any way to make sure I never miss an Alarm Text or phone call?

You can opt-in to Critical Alarm Notifications using the settings on your iOS or Android device. This will allow you to set up a bypass to silent profiles and Do Not Disturb functions for SimpliSafe®.