Dear Simplisafe, I don't want to receive a "secret alert" notification every time a door is opened. I want to ability to go into my timeline and see if and when a door has opened in the event that my kids have been running around and I need to know when and where they exited the house. This is an essential feature to me and if I'd properly performed my research, I would've never invested in Simplisafe. I just assumed it was a standard feature with all security systems!

With so many users seeking out advice for this feature on the forums I've searched, I would assume you would have fixed this by now.

I agree. I am looking for the same feature and is considering changing to a different alarm system. 

Yes, I couldn’t agree more. I also assumed SimpliSafe would have this feature as I’ve used it on other alarm systems. I’m extremely disappointed as this is really the sole reason I bought this alarm system!!  I think I need to look for a better system. 

On November 1st, 2020 danieljustice says:
RE: Simplisafe

I get that you can set up secret alerts to get notifications like JCmax82 wanted, but that's kind of like cutting off your nose to spite your face. It's not unreasonable to ask a security system to log when sensors are tripped, regardless of arming status, and still have said sensors provide alarmed protection when needed. It's a very common feature on every prior system I've personally had, and was a bit befuddled to see it was not included in yours.

The practical applications to have a record of every time a door is opened seems to be very obvious to me. With your proposed "solution" you've either got to put 2 different sensors on each door or go in every night and change the settings from secret alert to alarm. I don't want to sound like one of "those" people, but if you did a survey with your customers, I would bet an overwhelming percentage of customers would welcome this feature into your product.

agree, I just bought the latest system, and there is no secret option available in the app and the history of my doors opening unless the system is armed, is not available. The lack of this logging is really surprising and Im ready to send this system back.

Hi HHome,

It sounds like you're asking about the Secret Alert function, which you can set through the SimpliSafe app, under Device Settings. For each Entry, Motion, or even Glassbreak Sensor, and for each of the three modes, you can set Secret Alert to get a notification without it triggering a full alarm.

Secret alerts require a specific tier (read: the most expensive) of paid monitoring though per https://support.simplisafe.com/hc/en-us/articles/360023809972-What-are-the-service-plan-options- which isn't great, honestly.

I think what they're asking for isn't so much push notifications for real time alerts as just a history in the timeline that says, "entry sensor blah opened at blah blah" or similar. Historically information vs. real time information.

Thanks for the reply but it is a history lookup I seek not an active or secret alert.

@HHome​ I understand. Yes, Secret Alerts do generate an alert notification every time that sensor is activated. But it's also the only way to log those triggers when the system is in Off Mode.

Of course, when the system is armed in Home or Away, it would be the Alarm triggers that are recorded.

What I think they're asking for, and what I am if they're not, is that you simply show every single time an entry sensor is triggered, regardless of alarm state, in the timeline. That's it. Some of us want to be able to go back at times and see that the front door opened at times x, y and z. We don't need to be alerted in real time with a secret alert (and not everyone wants to drop $28 a month for that....) but we do want to see it in the timeline when we go look.

Does that make sense?

Please add a log entry to the Timeline for entry sensor open/close activity. I understand the Secret Alert feature, but am not really looking for a text alert for each event. I would simply like to be able to open the Timeline and see a record of the entry sensor activity. From my review of the FAQs I think this enhancement would be very well received and is important to many users. 

@koreybenton​ Thank you for your suggestion! This request sounds similar to another request we have about showing Entry Sensor activity in the timeline, so I have moved your post here. We have submitted this idea to our dev team for their consideration. If we get any news from them, we will provide an update here.

@emily_s Any updates on this enhancement? It would be great to see if this could be on the 2023 roadmap!

@koreybenton​ At this time, I don't have any updates on this feature request. Once we get an update from our devs, we'll be sure to post it in this thread!

Thank you!

Hi @peterdstuart, 

Thank you for this suggestion, we'll pass it along to our devs! In the meantime, we do have the Secret Alert feature that sends you a notification whenever a sensor is triggered, which will also appear in your timeline as well. For more information on Secret Alerts and how to enable them, please check out this article in our Help Center. 

Any update on getting sensor activity on the timeline? (I do not want notifications with secret whatever. I'm looking for timeline activity.) Brand new customer and disappointed it's been 3 years of people asking and no movement. 

@emily_s​ is it possible to get an update or just a statement saying, "this feature is not under consideration at this time due to cost/complexity/ patent issues/data/etc. please just try to make due with the secret mode."

I think that would be more helpful than saying "we told someone about it". A lot of people get their hopes up and then realize that there has been zero visible action on this for years. Might as well just have that statement and this thread locked. Would save a lot of people time.

@DNish​ that's the truth of it, honesty - that this feature is currently not in development, but our Product team is looking into it. Though if many people like yourself are posting in this thread, that tells our Product team how important it is to our users, and that'll help us push for it to be prioritized.

@davey_d​ 

Thanks for the candid reply. I almost think the devs probably aren't paid enough / don't know how to do it is the other issue. 

Also, I went ahead and turned on the secret thing. It only tracks when the sensor says the door is open, not when it closes. So now I've lost my door chime and I don't even get information on when the door closes. And why does it have to be "secret" anything? I'm not over here trying to spy on anybody. I just want to know when the sensors has activity.

I'm throwing mine in the trash after reading this thread. Useless answers, useless device.