When installing a security system, most customers have a few goals in mind. Of course, creating a siren-based response to an attempted break-in sits at the top of the list. Additionally, our monitored alarms also create a central station response and even a police dispatch to alarm events when necessary. This extra layer of security goes a long way towards creating both security and peace of mind for any customer. However, we often surprise people when we present our full array of alarm-based alerts. We can provide notifications that keep you “in the know” for just about any alarm event or status change. In this post, we will show you how you can use Alarm.com notifications to create the security experience that suits your security needs!
First, we’ll explain the Alarm.com monitoring service. Obviously, you will need to have this knowledge in place before we get too specific with our alerts. From there, we’ll look at alerts that let you know of unexpected changes to your alarm’s status. These include emergency-related notifications, as well as some helpful security system maintenance messages. From there, we’ll show you notifications based on some other events. These include messages regarding standard alarm status changes, which you can customize quite a bit. Additionally, we’ll also look at how you can add and receive updates about alarm-connected smart security products. Now, let’s dive in with a look at our Alarm.com monitoring service.
Understanding Alarm.com-Based Security Monitoring
As we mentioned above, our alarm monitoring service creates a central station-related response to emergencies on your property. In order to monitor a security system, we must create a connection between an alarm and our central station. Traditionally, this involves using a property’s existing phone line to create this communication. Unfortunately, this does not provide the most consistent and reliable form of monitoring. After all, phone lines can go down due to bad weather. Furthermore, burglars often cut their victims’ phone lines before attempting a burglary in order to disrupt alarm monitoring. For this reason, we recommend installing our Alarm.com-powered cellular dialer for alarm monitoring. This dialer creates a consistent, cell network-based path between your alarm and our central station. This keeps your alarm monitored without depending on your phone lines at all.
Moreover, our Alarm.com dialer also adds the benefits of interactive alarm monitoring. We use the term “interactive” to describe a direct connection between your security system and your smartphone. Alarm.com users can arm and disarm their security systems remotely. Furthermore, they can receive text or push alerts based on alarm events and status updates. Finally, we can also connect smart home devices to the Alarm.com dialer. This allows customers to control their smart appliances and receive smart home device-related updates. We’ll spend the rest of this post going over all of these types of alerts in detail. Let’s get started with a look at Alarm.com notifications created by unexpecetd alarm activity.
The ability to immediately verify or cancel an alarm can lead to a more efficient response to a potential emergency.
Alarm.com Notifications for Unexpected Alarm Events
As you can imagine, burlary-related alerts sit at the top of the security priority chain. In this section, we’ll discuss how Alarm.com notifies you to an alarm activation or unexpected status update. For starters, an actual alarm emergency will create an alert on your phone, accompanied by the pictured screen. As you can see, you have a couple options at this point. Cancelling the alarm means that you have reason to believe this alarm represents a user error or equipment malfunction. In this case, the central station does not dispatch anyone to the scene. On the other hand, confirming the alarm can add to the speed with which authorities show up to the property. The central station treats these events as “confirmed” alarms in the sense that you have now requested a police, fire, and/or ambulance response. This raises the priority level above that of a request for a police dispatch unaccompanied by any customer contact.
Furthermore, you can also set up alerts regarding other unexpected alarm-related events. While these events do not not necessarily constitute emergencies, you’ll certianly want to stay informed about them. For example, if your system loses power, you can receive a message from Alarm.com. This lets you know that power has gone off at your home. Likewise, you’ll also receive an alert when A/C power gets restored! You can also receive notice if the system backup battery or any wireless sensor battery gets low. This proves especially helpful during an extended absence, so you can make sure someone can get to your property to fix the issue. Now that we’ve seen how you can stay informed of unexpected alarm activity, let’s see how Alarm.com notifications can help you track more “standard” alarm events.
Additional Alerts to Add Security
The alerts mentioned above represent the most important and pressing of our available Alarm.com notifications. As such, customers tend to focus on these. Of course, part of this stems from the fact that many customers do not know that these other notifications exist at all! Therefore, this section may prove educational even if you have Alarm.com-based security monitoring. Let’s get started with a focus on alerts that let you know who is using your security system, and when.
System Arming and Disarming Alerts
When we work with our customers to create their Alarm.com settings, we put extra attention into creating and managing system arming and disarming alerts. These alerts can inform you about every arming and disarming event, if you so choose. As long as you provide every alarm user with separate alarm codes, you’ll even receive notice of who is using your alarm as well! This can greatly increase your knowledge of alarm use and general activity at your home or business.
Finally, you’ll also have the ability to create alerts based on when you expect someone to arm or disarm your security system. This means that if your alarm does not get disabled by the time you expect it to, you’ll receive an instant alert. The same goes for your alarm not getting armed by a specific time. Therefore, either one of these events occurring will create an alert to allow you to check on the situation. As you can see, these notices keep you informed of your alarm’s activity in quite a unique and personalized fashion. Let’s now look at one final type of Alarm.com notification that we provide our customers.
Smart Security-Related Alerts
Our Alarm.com customers can install smart devices that connect to our cellular dialer’s Z-Wave smart home receiver. The term “Z-Wave” refers to a mesh network providing communication between our Alarm.com dialer and smart home devices that operate on this network. As one of the most popular smart home platforms, Z-Wave technology gives you many options to add smart security devices. Our customers control these smart home appliances with the same Alarm.com app that they use to control their security systems. For example, Z-Wave keypad locks allow you to let contractors or house sitters into your home without providing a key. Z-Wave thermostats allow you to control your home’s temperature remotely and even create heating and cooling schedules based on your comings and goings.
Installing cameras allows to receive instant alerts upon detecting motion, such as this Alarm.com smart camera alert.
Alarm.com smart cameras allow you to check in on your property in real time on your phone. Moreover, these cameras also store a months’ worth of motion-based video clips in the cloud for future viewing. On a similar note, our Alarm.com video doorbells provide a unique level of door security. These devices allow you to review both live and recorded video, just like standard Alarm.com smart cameras. Additionally, they also allow you to have a 2-way conversation with anyone at the door.
These devices will create customizable notifications to help you track activity around your property. For example, the aforementioned locks will alert you when anyone locks or unlocks them. If you program different codes for different users, it will even tell you who accessed the lock! Likewise, smart thermostats will alert you to temperatures above or below a customizable threshold. Finally, both smart cameras and doorbells can also send you live clips upon detecting motion. As you can see, all of these products go a long way towards helping you better secure your property!
Finding the Alarm.com Notifications that Work for You
We hope that this post helps you find the Alarm.com notifications that work best for your security needs. As always, we encourage you to contact us with any questions this post may raise for you. We will happily answer any and all of your security-related inquiries. Additionally, we also invite you to have us out for a site survey. We offer free security audits regardless of whether or not you already have security installed on your property. During our visit, we can recommend upgrades to your existing security plan, including adding some unique monitoring features to make your alarm as effective and user-friendly as possible. Together, we can help you keep your property, and everyone on it, as safe and secure as possible!