
If
your hands always seem to be full, then home automation is something you will probably
want to consider. When you have kids, pets, or are generally just a busy person and your hands are always full, having smart locks and lights will give you a handsfree feature you probably need. Many home automation features work remotely with your smartphone or a key fob and will lock/unlock your doors, turn your lights on, open/close your garage door, and even arm/disarm your alarm system once you come into or go out of range. Once you’ve experienced this kind of convenience, you’ll probably wonder how you ever lived without it!Creating a functional apps costs thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Because of this, most ma and pa security shops along with some big companies use Alarm. com's whitelabel app.
It features Zigbee and Z Wave compatibility, which allows it to be connected to a huge list of devices. The Iris Security Pack combined with the Iris
Smart Hub, combined with the powerful Iris app, ensures you’ll receive alerts and can easily monitor activity happening in your house. You can schedule lights to turn on to make it seem like you are home, arm your system and receive alerts from wherever you are. Additional features can only be accessed with a premium service. If you’re thinking about purchasing a home security system to protect your property and valuables, here are 15 tips to help you decide. This wireless security camera system is a three camera package that requires AA batteries and a WiFi connection to operate.

Recently added, Alexa voice control lets you arm your system or check on its status on Amazon Echo devices. Enabling the SimpliSafe Home Control skill in the Alexa app is simple, and commands
like "Alexa, tell SimpliSafe I'm leaving" to arm the system in Away mode, "Alexa, tell SimpliSafe good night" to arm the system in Home mode, and "Alexa, ask SimpliSafe if my home is secure" to get system status worked well in testing. There was little lag between the voice command and the base station announcing status or changes in system modes. The Alexa integration only works with the new SimpliSafe hardware, and the system can't be disarmed via voice for obvious reasons. With the monthly Interactive Plan, you can use SimpliSafe's Online Dashboard or mobile app to control the system, including arming and disarming it. The Dashboard also lets you view your System Event Log, change your PIN, assign up to four guest PINs, and choose an optional Duress PIN, to use when an intruder is coercing you to disable the alarm. Enter it, and the alarm will stop sounding, but SimpliSafe will immediately send the police. You can also tweak settings like siren volume, entry and exit delay time, and manage and rename sensors in the Dashboard. But now, with the new system, most of these controls are accessible on the keypad too, which is nice. I’ve been using a Canary since their kickstart beginning; I started with one All in One unit
mostly because my hard wired home security system’s temperature monitor had been replaced a couple of times and still gave untimely and weird reports. I also wanted to see what was actually going on and found it invaluable when our house sat vacant for a year while my wife was in medical treatment in another city.