‎How to arm when at home while sleeping? | SimpliSafe Support Home
 
J

Saturday, November 28th, 2020 9:11 PM

How to arm when at home while sleeping?

If I've set it to "Home" but it's during the day time, we don't want to have to disarm every time we're opening the front door for example (unloading groceries, spouse leaving for errands, etc.)
However we do might want to have an alarm set if it's 2AM and everybody's sleeping.
Is there a way to configure that?
We have a base station, entry sensors and a motion sensor.

Official Solution

Community Admin

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742 Messages

4 years ago

Hi @jgq85,

At this time, there is no way to change which sensors are armed in a particular mode based on the time of day. Currently, your best option would be to configure Home and Away mode differently such that you can use one mode for one circumstance, and another mode for a different circumstance.

SimpliSafe Social Team
SimpliSafe Home Security

2 Messages

So is it best to just set to "Home" when we want to be extra safe at night while sleeping so an alarm will go off if a window breaks or the front door opens?
But when we're awake, walking around the house, cleaning, etc, just turn it off?

@simplisafe_admin​ That is extremely frustrating. I am sorry I switched from Guardian. At least with them I could configure as many different alarm situations and name them whatever I wanted, It was extremely convenient. Only having Off, Home and Alarm is very restrictive. I wish I hadn't switched.

Community Admin

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742 Messages

4 years ago

While that is an option, it really depends on your individual situation and what's best for you and your family. Depending on how your sensors are set up, it might make sense to arm the system into Away Mode at night. That is, of course, assuming that your motion sensor would not be triggered by someone getting a glass of water in the middle of the night or something else like that. If you're able to do that, then you could set Home Mode to not arm the Front Door Entry Sensor, which could give you the desired results.

SimpliSafe Social Team
SimpliSafe Home Security

Captain

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6.2K Messages

4 years ago

@jgq85 the SS3 system is extremely flexible and can be configured many ways.  If you put down on paper (or a spreadsheet) how you and your family go about your daily schedules first, you can then most likely figure out a way to configure the system to match it, as the Simplisafe social team suggested.

For my wife and I,  we live in a suburban, low crime area. During the day, the system is off with several sensors set to "secret alert" when off. (More on this later).  When away, all motion sensors in the house (garage, six on first floor and 4 on the second floor, are all active.  Entry delay is shortened to 20 seconds. ALL sensors are set to instant trigger except the kitchen basement door but motion in garage door and the entry sensor on the garage door give secret alerts.

For home mode, my wife and I are asleep on the 2nd floor at night. The entry delay is set to 0 and the motion in the garage and entry sensor on the garage door are set to alarm. Motions on 2nd floor are off. We are not expecting or wanting anyone at night and SS3 is configured to keep it that way!

Now back the beginning of my post. Attention Simplisafe: We have 3 entry sensors on basement windows that have not been opened in 33 years. They won't be opened by my wife and I for another 33 years if we live that long. Need to be able to have sensors set to ALARM even when the system is off. From a programming point, should be an easy thing to do and avoid the need for using a zone feature.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

1 Message

4 years ago

The real solution here is to enable customers to create custom modes, and possibly edit the existing ones. I would like to be able to create a "Home - Awake" so that I can configure the front door and window sensors to send me a push notification when the front door or windows are opened. I also want to create a "Home - Asleep" where I can configure those same sensors to sound the alarm instead.

That's the next level of customization SimpliSafe needs to incorporate. SimpliSafe, please add this to your software dev teams backlog. There are power users out there who would be 100% comfortable creating a new mode / editing existing ones. I'm a software engineer, and have previous experience with surveillance and alarm systems, and really need this level of customization.

Community Admin

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742 Messages

4 years ago

Hi @niblettc,

Thanks for the suggestion. I can definitely see more than a few use cases for some additional "custom" modes in addition to the standard Off, Home, and Away. while I don't know exactly where this would land in the priority list, I have sent this on to our dev team.

SimpliSafe Social Team
SimpliSafe Home Security

8 Messages

4 years ago

I use my modes as follows (I am single person in house)--
Note--I have interactive monitoring.

Home--I am home, but wanting to know if someone would be trying to enter door at opposite end of house/basement.  Interior doors sensors are off.  Motion sensors are off.

If I am going in or out of my house, I turn the system off during that time.  Otherwise, all of my entry sensors are on instant trigger.

I leave it in this mode when I am out of the house because of the cats roaming around and more of the house is open.

Away--This is for when I am home and settled down for the night.  Now all of the motions sensors and entry sensors (instant trigger) are on.  This includes interior doors.  However, the way things are set up, I can move around in the bedroom section of the house, which has a bathroom, without coming across any motion sensors.  Motions sensors have to take into account cat movements.  

I do have bedroom doors locked from inside.

I would agree with those suggesting having custom programs, but that would have to also be built into the keyfobs, which I use mostly.

Captain

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6.2K Messages

4 years ago

I would be happy if I could just "arm" a single or more sensors to alarm even when the system is "off" like I can with a secret alert. I have 3 basement windows that haven't been open for 30+ years and would love them protected all of the time.

1 Message

4 years ago

Yes. I agree! Simplisafe needs a home, away, and asleep mode!!!! And then it would be perfect.

2.2K Messages

4 years ago

No, it would not be "perfect", but it would be "better".

2 Messages

4 years ago

So I asked about this EXACT issue very pointedly with Sales before ordering my system a week ago.  Apparently the sales person either did not understand my question or understand the product, because I was assured there was the ability to create an additional mode beyond simply Home or Away.  My previous (wired) system had a 3rd mode for 'Night' that was used to add certain sensors that would not normally be armed with a day time 'Home' mode, like the Garage entry and motion sensors for example.  I'm a bit disappointed to find out it isn't an option yet.  It looks like a feature request was made for this back in December.  Is there any update as to if it will be added or when?  Any chance it's in the new 2.1 firmware update?

Community Admin

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742 Messages

4 years ago

Hi @ns1jab,

Sorry for the late response. Our representative most likely thought your question was more about if our existing modes were customizable. To answer your question, this feature will not be included in our current rollout of the 2.1 firmware update. Our development teams are aware of this request, however as we would prefer not to let down our customers with false expectations, we can't give out any updates as to when this feature could be added.

SimpliSafe Social Team
SimpliSafe Home Security

6 Messages

3 years ago

Hi,

We just got our system and were under the impression that we could configure devices to be enabled during a specific timeframe, e.g. at night while sleeping. That is what we were told. However, we do not see any way to do it and searching we came across this thread. 

So the question we have is this feature available and we just don't know how to do it? If the answer is no what are the plans to add this feature and a timeline?

Thanks!

Bill

Captain

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6.2K Messages

@bneumann​ The short answer is no, you can not configure a sensor by time.  SS did just add a feature where the system will send a reminder at a specific time to arm.  As far as a timeline to add the feature, that will be up to Simplisafe but it may quite a while. If this is a deal breaker for you, remember the 60 day no questions asked return policy (from the date you received the system). I have been a customer 10 years this April and highly recommend it to coworkers, friends, family etc and have placed 34 systems, with more pending. All are very happy with the product and service overall, with the expected bumps in the road at times.

6 Messages

Thanks I will check into the feature you mentioned.

6 Messages

BTW, as a programmer etc. this would be an enhancement that seems would be added value to a lot of customers and I think a simple approach would go a long way. For example, keep it simple by adding an at home night mode. This mode would have a single start time and stop time for any sensors added to it as well as the ability like the other modes to enable to disable. So let's say one has 50 sensors monitored in home mode and let's say they have 5 motion sensors that are normally off during home mode that they would like to have on at night. The new mode would allow one to add those sensors that would be enabled during the night mode time frame. I don't see this as a major challenge from a programming perspective. Off the top of my head it would require interface changes (web and app) and a keypad firmware change. I don't think a revised key fob would be needed as this enhancement would be kept to night mode and things could be programmed so that if one wants to disable night mode early from the key fob then just select home mode or away mode as warranted. 

2 Messages

3 years ago

I would simply like a alarm schedule like those that are on most smart plugs on the market. “Alarm set weekdays 10p-6a”

3 years ago

The night mode feature is extremely important to us as your customers.  If you’re not adding it soon I may have to return the system with the 60 day no questions asked policy.  

742 Messages

@karenmwalthall​ 

If you’re not adding it soon

I would bet $50 with anyone at any time this isn't coming in the next 12 months, much less "soon", if at all.  (Unless Gen4 comes out in the next 12 months and they do an overhaul but honestly, their ability to determine what actual customers want and implement seems extremely limited.) Also no one from SimpliSafe will even confirm or deny if something is being worked on much less give a timeline.

6 Messages

Yes, I am sure a lot of customers would like this feature added. I know myself we want this feature, but have not seen any ETA for it being added and it is quite a pain to have to set and unset everyday (night and morning). I agree it would be nice to get a commitment on when this feature will be added.

Captain

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6.2K Messages

I still cannot understand why this would be that important. The chance for false alarms seems to increase greatly and the consequences are much more significant than a IoT smart plug that turns a light on. There are much more higher priorities I would like to see, including zones and the ability to pass along to digital assistants an alarm state (to create routines so I can turn on lights during an alarm event).

Hey SS,  another topic for an interactive web event. They just keep on coming.

(edited)

4 Messages

3 years ago

Hi there, 

             I am having the same issue. I am about to make my second police report in less than 2 weeks because someone has been accessing my apartment at night while I sleep and when I am away. If you look at my last post, you will see that until today I was unable to complete the set up for my alarm system using the app as it has a major glitch issue and deletes everything constantly while trying to set up. My first initial po report was made and the next morning, the items that had consistently gone missing 4-5 days in a row, including a credit card that was IN my bedroom drawer, were suddenly IN my bedroom the following morning! 

                   Now today, some much more serious items are missing and I also need SimpliSafe to create a way for us to sleep while having the motion sensor active without sounding the alarm if I get up for water. Maybe they could send a text message asking if it is a real or false alarm? I know that sounds like it could get a bit obnoxious, but it's better than giving them our fingerprints as any system could get hacked. I definitely appreciate you making this post as it raises even more awareness for SimpliSafe to get on it in creating a motion sensor with this extra feature. Having a motion sensor OFF while in HOME Mode doesn't help with my issue either. I sincerely hope and pray that when I do go to sleep tonight, if someone does access my unit, the alarm sounds.  Come On, SimpliSafe! Lets get this issue resolved quickly for more peace of mind. 

742 Messages

@avanthof1​ 

First, I am providing this information in all seriousness and it is not intended to make light of what you're experiencing. You can choose to believe that or not but I assure you the purpose of this entire post is positive and I am trying to a) help you solve a problem and b) provide information to assuage your concerns.

Second, based on your description of things changing locations in your apartment w/o your knowledge I am immediately reminded of the reddit post about the guy who reported similar (and other) things happening and it turned out to be a CO leak. Just curious, do you have a CO detector in the apartment and if not, can you get one? The likelihood that it's CO is almost nil but it IS possible and it's an easy thing to check and if it IS a CO leak then it could have literally lethal ramifications. Since you're in an apartment it's possible that the CO isn't even coming from your unit but may be affecting you anyway.

Third, do you have cameras? Is it possible to set them up so that they cover the areas being disturbed? They don't even have to be SS cameras and could in fact me another brand, just something to provide additional proof.

Finally, regarding this statement:

but it's better than giving them our fingerprints as any system could get hacked

You're not giving SimpliSafe (or any other app owner) your fingerprint when you use fingerprint identification. In fact, a digital hashed copy of your fingerprint is only stored locally and securely on your device and never goes to Apple or Google either. When an application uses thumbprint identification it asks the operating system of your phone, "Hey, does this thumbprint match?" and gets a yes or a no from the operating system and then proceeds from there. It trusts Google or Apple to vouch for you and that's it.

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