We understand that as a user, privacy is important to you and you may not want to be recorded or heard when you’re inside your home. The Smart Alarm Wireless Indoor Security Camera has a physical and visible privacy shutter that has an audible click when opened or closed so you’re always aware of any of its changes. When motion is disabled on the camera, no audio or video will be captured and the shutter will remain closed unless you access the camera’s live view, or an alarm system event occurs such as an entry delay, power outage, or alarm is triggered. Unlike SimpliCam®, the Smart Alarm Indoor Camera privacy shutter is controlled by the motion detection on/off toggle under each system alarm state. You get to decide when your camera detects motion and records video* so you have ultimate control of your privacy.

To access the privacy shutter settings, follow these steps:

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

2. Select Cameras 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 Camera

5. Scroll down to Camera Behavior and select the arming state you wish you edit

6. Adjust the Motion Detection toggle which controls the privacy shutter

1. On means that your camera will have the privacy shutter open and will detect motion events.

2. Off means that your camera will have the privacy shutter closed and motion events will not be detected.

*Video recordings available with monitoring plans.

The Smart Alarm Wireless Indoor Security Camera is a battery-operated security camera designed for indoor use. It’s part of SimpliSafe’s award-winning home security system and features:

• 1536p HD video capture

• 125-degree diagonal field of view

• Built-in motion detector

• Night vision

• Instant phone alerts

• 80 dB siren

• 2-way audio

• Built-in privacy shutter

• Up to 3 months of battery life on a single charge (based on placement and usage)

You can make adjustments to the camera’s settings and the way it behaves during different arming states by using the SimpliSafe® Mobile App.

Using 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. Tap on your Smart Alarm Indoor Camera from the list of available cameras

Camera Behavior

You can control your camera’s behavior as well as its built-in privacy shutter by changing the motion detection to coincide with your system’s arming state. This means you can now adjust when your camera records as it is directly tied to your system’s arming state. 

For example, if you don’t want your camera to record when the system is set to OFF, but do want it to record when it is in AWAY mode, you can now control these settings.

Motion notifications are determined by your monitoring subscription. You can learn more about which monitoring plans include push or SMS notifications on our Help Center.

Motion Detection

Motion Detection settings control how your camera will respond to motion events, such as someone walking in its view, or a car driving by.

In this menu, you can use the slider to choose the sensitivity of motion detection. We typically recommend setting this to medium. You can also set it to People Only or All Motion to better filter motion events.

Activity Zones allow you to exclude certain areas from motion events. This is good if you want to ensure that motion isn’t detected from a high trafficked area within your home, or want to exclude a window. 

Note, we recommend you never point the Smart Alarm Indoor Camera at a window or entry way. Instead, place it where someone would walk across its field of view like a room or hallway.

Video Quality

Video Quality manages what quality of your streams and recordings will be at. For the Smart Alarm Indoor Camera, you can adjust this to 1536p, 960p, or 640p. The higher the stream, the more bandwidth it will use on your network. So if you’re having trouble streaming at 1536p, you can try lowering the quality to troubleshoot on your end.

Night Vision

The Night Vision setting allows you to see potential intruders or threats in the dark, by using infrared to capture video. This can be toggled to Auto, On, or Off. We recommend using Auto for the most optimal experience, however, if your camera is in a persistently dark room you may want to opt for On for better results.

Status Light

The Status Light for your camera will show you that the camera is online and functioning, at a quick glance. Toggling this off will disable the light on the front of the camera. From within the Status Light menu you can also view the different light patterns your Smart Alarm Indoor Camera can produce , and learn their meanings.

Mic & Audio

The Mic & Audio setting allows you to hear audio from your camera and also allows you to speak through the camera’s mic when viewing live streams.

Siren

The Smart Alarm Indoor Camera comes with a whopping 80dB built-in siren to relay active alarms across your system. ​

You can remove a camera from your system in a few easy steps within the SimpliSafe® Mobile App.

We recommend that you download recordings from your system's timeline before removing the camera from your system, to ensure you preserve any video you may need in the future.

Remove a Camera from 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. Tap on the camera you wish to remove from the list of available cameras

5. Scroll down and choose X Remove Camera

The status light (located on the front of your Smart Alarm Wireless Indoor Security Camera indicates the mode of the camera. It can tell you at a glance if your camera is updating, recording, or if someone is live streaming the feed. Below is a chart of the light colours that you can expect to see when using the Smart Alarm Indoor Camera in your home.

The SimpliCam® Wired Indoor Security Camera is our entry-level indoor security camera designed to monitor what’s happening when you’re not home.

The Smart Alarm Wireless Indoor Security Camera is our most advanced indoor security camera yet - offering next-level protection that can help verify crime and get authorities to you.

*With Pro Premium Monitoring Plan

The Smart Alarm Wireless Indoor Security Camera is the first camera from SimpliSafe® that can trigger an alarm. By default, the alarm trigger is only on when the system is set to away and can trigger depending on the motion type that was selected in settings (People Only or All Motion).

When the camera detects motion and the alarm trigger is on, the camera will use AI to verify the motion type and then trigger the alarm if necessary. By default, the camera will enter the entry countdown before sounding the siren and notifying our monitoring center. You also have an option to bypass the entry countdown by turning on Instant Trigger located under Camera Behavior in settings. In this case, the camera and system will sound the siren immediately and notify our monitoring center.

When your camera is enrolled in Video Verification, the monitoring centre will also be notified of the alarm at your location and an agent will be able to verify whether the alarm is true or false to ensure the right dispatch action is taken.

If your Smart Alarm Wireless Indoor Security Camera is detecting motion too late, there are generally two factors at play: improper placement of the camera, or a weak connection between it and your Wi-Fi network.

Troubleshoot the connection between your camera and Wi-Fi network

To determine whether this could be due to a weak network connection, we recommend using our in-app Connection Check tool to see if any improvements can be made to the camera’s Wi-Fi connection.

While running a Connection Check, the Smart Alarm Indoor Camera will check its upload speed and signal strength to see what its overall connectivity is like. If you receive a fair or poor result in either category, the SimpliSafe® Mobile App will take you through troubleshooting steps you can take to improve the camera’s connection.

Check the placement of your camera

Ensuring proper placement of the Smart Alarm Indoor Camera is important for it to accurately detect motion. The camera is most sensitive to side-to-side motion, so make sure that it is positioned in a way that people are walking across its field of view, not straight on.

And depending on whether your camera is mounted on a wall or is on a shelf, you will want to make sure that its placement abides by these requirements:

Mounted on a wall

• Make sure that it is mounted 6-7 feet off the ground

• It should be angled down slightly at 20°

• Be sure that there are no obstructions blocking the front of the camera

Placed on a shelf

• Make sure that it is placed 4 feet off the ground

• The motion sensor of the camera is located on the front. To minimize any obstructions, the camera should be placed on the edge of the shelf

Still need help?

If you have taken the above steps and your Smart Alarm Indoor Camera is still detecting motion too late, please reach out to our Support team for further assistance.