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jcsteffy's profile

Sunday, April 10th, 2022 11:20 PM

App No Longer Sends "Back-to-Back" Push Notifications

For almost a year now, my husband and I have both noticed that we do not receive "back-to-back" push notifications on our phones.  For example, someone comes up the driveway, and we get a motion alert from out driveway cam.  Then they get to the front door, and the doorbell sees them (the light goes on), but the app doesn't send another notification.  The back-to back notifications used to happen but they no longer do.  If I go into the app, it will show the multiple motion detections in the Timeline so I know the system is picking things up correctly, it's just not sending all the push notifications like it should anymore.  This also happens (or doesn't happen, if you will) when someone exits onto the front porch and then out to the driveway - it will send an alert for the porch but the driveway cam will not send an alert yet it still senses the movement.  SimpliSafe apps have been deleted and reinstalled on both our phones and our phones are up to date.  We know and understand how to turn on Push Notifications and they are enabled correctly.  It is not our wi-fi (as I was once told by Support) - our wi-fi speed is.  I truly don't think it's us as we've had our system for a number of years and have never had an issue before.  It is a huge dissatisfier to us as it is very helpful to know if someone was in the driveway and now on the porch without having to open the app every time.  Is anyone else having this issue?  Is there finally an update for the app coming that would fix this issue?

Official Solution

Community Admin

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5.7K Messages

3 years ago

Hi @jcsteffy ,

I'm looking into getting the right answer for you, but I have some questions so I can clarify when I bring this to our devs:

  • Is this a Video Doorbell Pro? And do you have issues with notifications from other components?
  • What phone model and operating system do you and your husband have?
  • What version of the SimpliSafe app do you both currently have?

(edited)

7 Messages

@davey_d​ 

Hello and thanks for your interest.  Please see my responses below:

  • Unsure what is meant by "Doorbell Pro".  It's the SimpliSafe doorbell with the camera so yes?  We do not receive a second notification from either the doorbell or the motion camera, depending on which is triggered first.  The issue is not with the doorbell.  
  • We both have iPhone's.  Mine is a 12 Pro model running iOS 15.4.1.  My husband has an 11 also running iOS 15.4.1.  Of note, this issue has been happening throughout quite a few iOS versions.  This has been an issue since early summer, 2021.  I first reported it in August 2021.  
  • App version for both of us: 2078.26.0  

Thank you

Community Admin

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5.7K Messages

3 years ago

Thanks @jcsteffy ,

I had to double-check to be sure. But it sounds like you're running into expected behavior. Specifically after a motion event, there's a 1-minute hold before the next push notification. This is to prevent users from being spammed for essentially the same event. The cooldown actually used to be 5 minutes, but it was recently decreased.

But I understand the concern with wanting to be able to 'track' intruders as they move about. I've already forwarded to our dev team.

7 Messages

@davey_d​ The scenarios that I am describing, used to work seamlessly.  If these "Holds" you are describing used to be set to 5 minutes, then what used to happen, would not have occurred since the notifications were (and still should be) back-to-back.  They are also from different cameras.  How is it okay to receive a notification from one camera but then not from a different camera?  Any motion should be detected and a notification should be sent.  That is the whole premise of a 'security system'.  It's not acceptable to tell a paying customer that it's totally normal to not receive multiple alerts from different cameras.  This issue needs to be looked at and not just brushed off as 'expected behavior'.  I would like this issue to be escalated as a legitimate functionality issue.   Thank you.

Community Admin

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5.7K Messages

I understand, and that's why I brought this up to our dev team. What I mean is that this is the current design, but our engineers are very open to user feedback. And I agree, the need to be able to track an intruder moving around your property is a very valid concern, and should be addressed.

(edited)

11 Messages

1 year ago

I just now noticed this post.  I too have the same problem.  If you have multiple cameras around your property (we have 9) you certainly can't rely on push notifications to alert you to activity.  If I understand correctly, if there were two intruders entering your property from different locations, you'd only see the push for the first camera to pick up the event and not the next if within one minute.  Another scenario could be an intruder is at the end of your driveway gate which triggers that camera, but your front porch camera doesn't send you a notice for the second intruder standing at your front door.  Front door camera being blocked out for one minute.  Using the timeline works fine but only in a post event mode.  That is, not useful in anything close to real time.  I've mentioned it several times during CS calls and just get a "huh..." response.  SS should at least expose the capability for users to negate this "feature".  Personally, seems to me if you don't like push notifications, then turn them off.  Doesn't seem to make sense to "limit" the time between push notifications unless you only have one camera.  With multiple cameras it becomes which cameras are blocked from pushing notifications.

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