Smart Alarm Indoor Camera

During the onboarding process of your Smart Alarm Wireless Indoor Security Camera, you’ll have the option to enable intruder intervention as a subscriber to the residential or business Pro Plus, Pro, or Core monitoring plans. This feature is optional, but when paired with Video Verification helps to maximize your professional monitoring coverage inside of your home.

If you wish to enable this feature, or if at some point you wish to turn it off, you can do so at any time from within the SimpliSafe® Mobile App.

1. Open the SimpliSafe® Mobile App on your phone or tablet

2. Choose My System from the bottom navigation bar

3. Select Camera Settings

4. At the bottom of this page you’ll see intruder intervention with the option to toggle this on or off

For alarms where intruder intervention* is triggered, our monitoring agents can view the live stream from your Smart Alarm Wireless Indoor Security Camera.

If our agents see someone in the home, they will activate the 2-way audio on the camera and attempt to speak to that person. When doing so, the agent may ask for the Safe Word or ask that the person leave the premises. If the individual is asked to leave, the agent will request a priority dispatch and inform the intruder that the police are on the way.

If the safe word is provided to the monitoring agent during an alarm, the alarm will be canceled and we will not request dispatch from emergency authorities. If an incorrect Safe Word is provided, the agent will immediately request police dispatch. Primary contact(s) will be contacted if no Safe Word is provided and the person seen in the camera claims to be an authorized guest (e.g. a house-sitter).

*Available with a residential or business subscription to Pro Plus, Pro, or Core monitoring and opted-in to intruder intervention.

Intruder intervention is a way to add advanced protection for your home or business using the Smart Alarm Wireless Indoor Security Camera with your residential or business Pro Plus, Pro, or Core monitoring plan. In the event an alarm is triggered at your system's location, our monitoring agents are able to view the live stream and engage with any potential intruders in real time. During this interaction, the agent may ask for your Safe Word in the event an alarm was triggered by mistake. Providing an incorrect Safe Word will result in an immediate request for dispatch. Whereas if someone is claiming to be an authorized guest (e.g. house-sitter, employee, etc.) our Monitoring Center will attempt to verify the individual with the Primary Contact prior to requesting dispatch. 

During a Fire alarm, we’ll also be able to make contact with you if you are in view of the Smart Alarm Indoor Camera to determine if you need assistance, or if the alarm was triggered by mistake.

After the monitoring agent ends their stream, you’ll receive a timeline event of the recording including what they saw, heard, and said via 2-way audio.

To get these benefits and more, sign up for either the Pro Plus, Pro, or Core residential or business monitoring plan and opt into video verification and intruder intervention via your SimpliSafe® Mobile App today.

From the moment we developed intruder intervention, ensuring our customers’ privacy remains secure has been a top priority. We’ve taken several steps in this regard.

Monitoring agents do not have access to live camera streams outside of alarm events. Temporary access is only granted when an alarm signal reaches the monitoring center. Canceling the alarm remotely by disarming the system, responding with “C” to an alarm text, or canceling the alarm via app within the false alarm grace period, or by providing a Safe Word over the phone or through the camera) will end the agent's live video access.

Any time an agent streams live during an alarm event, the Status LED of that camera will blink Amber instead of Blue, giving persons in the home the ability to simply glance at a camera and know if an agent is viewing that camera live.

At the beginning of an alarm, when the agent opens the Video Verification app for that location and gains access to your camera(s), you’ll receive an event on your timeline indicating and documenting this access. When an agent streams live from the camera(s), the entire duration of their stream is recorded. You’ll receive a timeline event with each recording, so you’ll be able to see what our agents saw, heard, and if they activated 2-way audio, what they said. If they activate 2-way audio, you’ll also receive a push notification and timeline event indicating this. During this period, the agent will have access to a short video clip(s) from any recordings made by any camera on your system caused by this alarm event. Finally, when an agent’s access to your camera(s) ends (either because you canceled the alarm, or the 20-minute window expired), you’ll receive an event on your timeline. 

To get these benefits and more, sign up for residential or business Pro Plus, Pro, or Core monitoring and opt into Video Verification and intruder intervention via the SimpliSafe® Mobile App!

Video Verification gives monitoring agents access to limited recordings of the alarm in the moments that follow the event triggering. These recordings may include critical evidence that can lead to priority dispatch for faster emergency response*. 

Intruder intervention offers an additional layer of protection on top of video recordings. It allows agents to help stop crime in real-time by giving them access to a live video feed and 2-way audio communications so they can see and speak with a person in your home during an alarm.

*vs. non-verified SimpliSafe® alarms.

Loss of audio to your camera feed can be caused by a dip in the Wi-Fi connection strength to your home network. When there is a poor connection, our devices will prioritize video over audio to best ensure the safety of your home.

If your camera loses audio frequently, you may want to consider taking some steps to improve the Wi-Fi connection, such as adjusting the position of your camera or installing a Wi-Fi extender near the camera. You can also take a few steps to improve your overall signal strength.

You can also toggle audio recording on and off in the SimpliSafe® mobile app by navigating to:

1. Choose My System from the bottom navigation bar

2. Select Camera Settings

3. Choose your Camera from the list of available cameras

4. Toggle Mic & Audio ON or OFF, as needed

1. This setting should be toggled ON by default

If your camera feed continues to lose its audio after taking the above steps, we recommend resetting your camera. You can find the steps to reset each of our SimpliSafe® cameras in the Help Center articles below:

• How to Reset the Outdoor Security Camera Series 2

• How to Reset the Smart Alarm Wireless Indoor Security Camera

• How to Reset the Wireless Outdoor Security Camera

• How to Reset the SimpliCam® Wired Indoor Security Camera

• How to Reset the Video Doorbell Pro

If the issue persists or you need further assistance, please contact customer support. We'll be happy to help!

This article will walk you through various scenarios where Wi-Fi troubleshooting may be needed to connect to and stream from your Smart Alarm Wireless Indoor Security Camera. You can scroll through the article, or click on one of the sections below to be taken directly to those steps:

• Trouble Connecting to Wi-Fi

• Red LED During Setup

• 'Connecting' Screen Times Out

• Poor Connectivity or Live Stream Quality

Trouble Connecting To Wi-Fi

You’ll want to make sure that you are connecting to a 2.4GHz (802.11b/g/n) network, as the Smart Alarm Indoor Camera can only connect to this network type. The indoor camera is not compatible with 5GHz networks. If your network shows up on the list of available Wi-Fi networks to connect to on the App, it is 2.4GHz compatible. For the best results, we recommend connecting to the same Wi-Fi network as your Base Station and having all of the devices within a short distance of each other if you are having trouble with the Finish Setup step.

Next, let’s test the Base Station connectivity. From the Keypad, establish a fresh connection between your Base Station and network by re-entering your Wi-Fi password. You’ll do this by going to Menu > Entering your Primary PIN > System Settings > Wi-Fi > Edit Network. Then confirm the connection was successful by accessing System Settings > Diagnostics > Wi-Fi and look for Internet: Reachable. If the test was unsuccessful, please check your router’s settings to confirm that it is working properly for other devices on your network.

If the Base Station test was successful, please try the following to reset your camera.

1. Press the tiny pinhole button down on the Smart Alarm camera for 1 second. This should do a soft reset on the camera

1. The small pinhole button can be found behind the larger setup button on top of the Smart Alarm Indoor Camera

2. Try the Finish Setup flow again by going to the Cameras tab, tapping on the camera you were setting up, and selecting Finish Setup.

   1. If the camera fails to set up when clicking Finish Setup, please remove the camera from your system using the Keypad

3. If the camera still will not add, hold down the larger pairing button on the Smart Alarm Indoor Camera for 10-20 seconds, or until it chimes and starts blinking white. This will factory reset the camera

4. Begin the device setup flow from the very beginning using the SimpliSafe® Mobile App

Red LED During Setup

A solid red LED on your Smart Alarm Indoor Camera during setup may indicate that the camera is too far from the Base Station. Please move the camera closer to the Base Station to complete the setup.

‘Connecting’ Screen Times Out

If you’re connecting your Smart Alarm Indoor Camera to the same network as your Base Station and the ‘Connecting’ screen times out or fails, we recommend attempting to connect one more time.  

If that fails, exit the app and press the pinhole reset button on the top of the Smart Alarm Indoor Camera (the pinhole reset button can be found behind the larger setup button on top of the Smart Alarm Indoor Camera). Then return to the app, and on the Cameras page, find the camera you began to set up and finish the setup.  

Poor Connectivity Or Live Stream Quality

We recommend performing a connection check for your Smart Alarm Indoor Camera in the SimpliSafe® App. You can find this using the following steps:

1. Open the SimpliSafe® app on your phone or tablet

2. Select the Cameras tab from the bottom navigation bar

3. Choose the gear icon for Camera Settings in the upper right corner of the app

4. Tap on your Smart Alarm Indoor Camera

5. Scroll down and choose ‘Connection Check’

6. Then, run the Connection Check by tapping on the ‘Start Connection Check’ button

You’ll want to ensure that your results meet our Wi-Fi requirements for cameras. 

You can try moving the camera closer to your router to see if this helps your connectivity to see if that improves the connection speeds or alternatively, you can reduce the Picture Quality for your camera to use less bandwidth. To lower the Picture Quality, go to:

1. Open the SimpliSafe® app on your phone or tablet

2. Select the Camera tab from the bottom navigation bar

3. Choose the gear icon for Camera Settings in the upper right corner of the app

4. Tap on your Smart Alarm Indoor Camera

5. Scroll down and select Video Quality

6. Choose a new resolution

7. Test your camera feed afterward to see if the performance has improved