‎How SimpliSafe® Products Respond During an Alarm | SimpliSafe Support Home

How SimpliSafe® Products Respond During an Alarm

Updated 

SimpliSafe’s® Professional Monitoring protects your home or business across many types of alarms. If an alarm is triggered from your system, you’ll be immediately notified through App Push Notifications or Alarm Text Messages. Depending on your monitoring plan and alarm type  you can also interact with our in-app Alarm Screen experience to cancel alarms or request assistance from emergency responders.

The types of alarms that can occur are divided into four categories:

  • Burglary (Entry, Motion, Glassbreak, Panic Button, Duress)

  • SimpliSafe® Active Guard Outdoor Protection Alarms (Pro, Pro Plus plans only)

  • Life Safety (Fire and Carbon Monoxide)

  • Environmental (Water and Temperature Alerts)

If the system is disarmed within moments of the initial alarm signal, this will be considered a false alarm by our monitoring center. That means you will not receive a phone call or an Alarm Text or Push Notification, and emergency services will not be requested to your location. 

If you receive an Alarm Text, you’ll have the option to cancel the alarm or request dispatch of emergency services. If you respond to the text with a C during the grace period, you won’t receive a call from our monitoring center. Alarm Texts for life safety events are only to alert you of the hazard, and cannot be used to cancel the alarm or request dispatch.

If you have alarm Push Notifications turned on you will get a notification that will take you to our Alarm Screen feature in the SimpliSafe® app where you can cancel your alarm or request help with the touch of a button. 

If the alarm is not cancelled by any of the above methods within the grace period, the Primary Contacts will receive a call from our monitoring center. During this call you will be required to provide your Safe Word to the agent you speak with to cancel the alarm. Please note that providing the wrong Safe Word, or no Safe Word will result in a request for dispatch. You won’t be told you got it wrong to protect anyone who may be under duress. Additionally, missing the phone calls to your Primary Contacts will also result in a request for emergency services to the location that your system is registered to. Note, due to the potentially life threatening nature of carbon monoxide events, you are unable to cancel these alarms through any method and emergency services will be requested to your location.

We encourage you to save the monitoring center number to your phone. 

That number is 855-693-4911.

Once saved to your phone, you’ll also want to allow us access to bypass Do Not Disturb and Silent Profiles. This allows for Critical Alarm Notifications to get through to you, regardless of your phone’s volume or profile status.

You can navigate each section below to learn more about how our products respond during these key alarm moments.

Entry Sensor, Motion Sensors, Glassbreak Sensor

When your system is in an armed state (Home or Away mode) and one of these sensors is triggered, a countdown will begin unless you have configured Instant Trigger. The entry delay default is 30 seconds, however, this can be adjusted at any time within the SimpliSafe® Mobile App. If you do not disarm your system before this entry countdown elapses, the alarm will sound.

Panic Button

When the button on the Panic Button is pressed for 2 seconds, it sends a notification to the *monitoring center that you require assistance at your location. Your Panic Button can be configured in several ways, which results in different scenarios that play out in the event of an alarm, depending on your monitoring plan. Under all configurations - except Silent Alarm - you’ll receive an Alarm Text and a phone call to confirm the status of your location. 

Please note that alarms triggered by Panic Buttons are not able to be cancelled via Alarm Text in order to ensure your 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.

*The Panic Button will only alert the monitoring center of the emergency at your location when subscribed to a professional monitoring plan.

Duress

SimpliSafe® Security Systems are equipped to set up a Duress PIN that you can enter if you are being forced to put in your system information. This PIN type is for emergencies. If you are subscribed to a monitoring plan that includes 24/7 emergency dispatch and enter the Duress PIN into your Smart Lock’s PIN Pad or Keypad, our monitoring team will request dispatch of emergency services immediately. You will not hear an alarm siren or get a phone call for your safety. 

We hope you never have to use this feature, but it’s important to set it up and learn more about it to arm yourself with the knowledge to protect yourself.

When you pair your Outdoor Camera Series 2 with a Pro Plus or Pro Monitoring Plan, you’ll get access to SimpliSafe® Active Guard Outdoor Protection. Once you’ve enrolled your camera(s) and armed your system, your cameras will be on the lookout for intruders. When someone who does not match a Familiar Faces profile is seen on camera, our monitoring specialists will choose to engage with the individual through the camera’s two-way audio, and request dispatch to your location as necessary.

Smoke Related Alarms

When the Smoke Detector or Smoke & CO Detector detects particulates consistent with smoke, it will sound the alarm to notify you of the potential hazard.

After the alarm has sounded, two things will happen at once, depending on your monitoring plan. The first Primary Contact(s) of that location will receive an Alarm Text, and the first Primary Contact will also receive a phone call from the monitoring center. Alarm Texts for life safety events are only to alert you of the hazard, and cannot be used to cancel the alarm or request dispatch. 

For the phone call placed to the first Primary Contact for your system, you will be able to cancel the alarm for smoke over the phone without the need for your Safe Word, or place a request for dispatch from your local fire department. You can also cancel by disarming your system with your PIN at the Keypad. If you do not answer the phone or cancel the alarm at your Keypad in a timely manner, our monitoring team will automatically request dispatch from your local fire department, who will be dispatched to the location address on file for your SimpliSafe® system.

Carbon Monoxide Related Alarms

When the Carbon Monoxide Detector detects carbon monoxide, it will sound the alarm to notify you of the potential hazard. 

After the alarm has sounded two things will happen at once, depending on your monitoring plan. The first Primary Contact will receive an Alarm Text, and also a phone call from the monitoring center. Alarm Texts for life safety events are only to alert you of the hazard, and cannot be used to cancel the alarm or request dispatch. 

For the phone call placed to the first Primary Contact for your system, you will be able to place a request for dispatch from your local fire department. Due to the serious and potentially life-threatening nature of carbon monoxide poisoning, there is no way to cancel carbon monoxide alarms. If you do not answer the phone, our monitoring team will automatically request dispatch from your local fire department who will be dispatched to the location on file for your SimpliSafe® system.

Temperature Sensor

The Temperature Sensor will sound the alarm when it detects that the temperature within your home or business has gone above or below the temperature range that you set. This can help alert you to the potential hazard at hand, such as the potential for freezing pipes, or the cooling within your home no longer working during a heat wave.

Depending on your monitoring plan, you may receive push notifications, Alarm Texts and/or a phone call in the event this alarm sounds. The call is placed to the Primary Contact first, followed by the Secondary Contact in the event the Primary Contact does not answer. If neither answer, don’t worry - this call is simply a robocall from the monitoring center to alert you of the active situation. It does not result in a request for dispatch to your system’s location.

Water Sensor

The Water Sensor will sound the alarm when it detects water in its chamber. This could be the result of a small leak, or something more dangerous like flooding within your home or business.

Depending on your monitoring plan, you may receive push notifications, Alarm Texts and/or a phone call in the event this alarm sounds. The call is placed to the Primary Contact first, followed by the Secondary Contact in the event the Primary Contact does not answer. If neither answer, don’t worry - this call is simply a robocall from the monitoring center to alert you of the active situation. It does not result in a request for dispatch to your system’s location.

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