Ooma Home Security User Interface

[Lt. Cold Case]

I'm new to the Ooma Home Security System, and I'm a bit unclear on a few things. I've got several questions about how to use the system. If the information I am seeking exists, perhaps someone can steer me to it (because I haven't stumbled across it on my own). If the information doesn't yet exist, hopefully someone who works for Ooma might pass this onto the App Developers for consideration. I just retired from a 27 year career in law enforcement, 24 years of which were in the investigations division. I may know a thing or two about alarm systems - what works, what doesn't, what helps make cases and what doesn't.

1. As far as I can tell, the only way to control the Home Security System (Alarm) is via mobile phone app. Is this the case? Can the system be controlled by means of any of the Telo buttons? From a handset?

2. If I am correct in #1 above, then I must install the app for anyone needing to access my home. This sounds like a good solution on the surface, but it is problematic for the following reasons:

2A: All apps appear to have the same administrative privileges. Whether my phone, my wife's, or that of anyone else, such as a house sitter or babysitter, they all use my Ooma username and password - this is the same one that controls all aspects of my Ooma account. Anyone could enable services I don't want, or disable services I do want. They could change my service address. They can change the notifications selected for each sensor. They can modify the schedule(s). I'd get a notification on the service address change, but not on some of the other changes they could make.

2B: How can I disable someone's access, once they've been given access? For example, we go on vacation. I give a dog sitter the app so she can take care of the dog when we are gone. Now we are back. Do I demand she hand me her phone and I delete the app? I cannot shut her access off any other way? What if she backed up her phone to the cloud, and restores it as soon as she gets home? She would get her app and access back. This is not something I would want.

3: There is no audit trail for who changed system modes, because as far as I can tell, Ooma does not differentiate between users. All I would know, by looking at a log, is that someone changed the mode, but I would have no idea of knowing who did that. For other commercial systems, one can assign different PINs to different users. That enables one to see who did what to the system. For example, I could set up a PIN for the dog sitter, and if that PIN was used to disable the system, I would see that, as well as when. I could also disable that PIN administratively, so effectively cut off that user's access once I deemed that appropriate.

4: Notifications seem to be all or none. When I am home and sleeping (Night Mode), I want to be notified IMMEDIATELY if the front door gets opened. I want that to call my land line. I don't want it calling every cell phone in the home, though, because if someone is in my home, I want to be able to hear THEM, not other phones that are ringing once I've already answered my land line. I would want to ability to specify which phones are called in the notification process, for the different modes. Makes no sense to call my land line when I am in Away Mode, but it makes total sense for Ooma to call the cell phones then.

Am I missing something? Please point me in the right direction to find this, if it exists. If it does not, then I would offer the following suggestions in order to make this a viable and competitive system.

1. Grant administrative privileges to manage the Home Security System via web interface. We already have an Ooma account that would be the logical choice here.

2. The System Administrator should be required to generate a user code (Via the Ooma interface) for each cell phone that the administrator wants to authorize. THAT USER CODE would be the access code (Not the Master Ooma account name and password) that enables a particular cellular device or not. The Administrator should be allowed to name any device for which they denerated an authorized User Code. For example, Dog Sitter's Phone.

3. The System Administrator should be able to revoke authorization via web interface for any devices previously authorized, as well as re-authorize them.

4. If each mobile device on any one account has a unique User Code, the Logs should log which particular device changed the system status, as well as when. For example, System changed to Home Mode by Dog Sitter.

I've only had the system for two days, so I am sure I will have other questions and suggestions as I become more familiar with the system.

Lastly, I should say that I'm quite pleased to see Ooma come out with this service. I just want to be able to use it better.

[thomasm]

Here's an answer to one of your issues. If you install the home security app for her and then log in to your account, she cannot see the password after you give her the phone back. But as you said she now has full administrative access to your HOME SECURITY SYSTEM. However, if you have logged out of the regular Ooma web portal, she cannot add services or make changes to your account because when you bring up the web page you have to log in EVEN THOUGH YOUR PHONE IS ALREADY LOGGED IN TO THE SECURITY APP. Hopefully, she won't maliciously unpair sensors or change notification options in the security app. If you no longer plan to have that same babysitter, simply change your password and she won't have access to anything.

[AnthonyH]

Hello Lt. Cold Case, this is Anthony on the Product team at Ooma. Thank you for your detailed and thoughtful feedback. I understand and appreciate your request for administrative privileges per user. However, this would be a tremendous engineering undertaking, and I'm wondering if we can provide alternative solutions. We did not design the Ooma Home Security app with the intention of granting access to 3rd parties like dog sitters, baby sitters, etc. What do you think of this hypothetical solution?

You're away on vacation and only you and your trusted family members are logged into the Ooma Home Security app. Your dog sitter does not have access to the app. Your dog sitter enters your home and you receive notifications that someone is in your home. You verify using your Ooma-compatible camera that it is your dog sitter and you temporarily change the system mode to Home mode. After 15 minutes (or another configurable amount of time), your Ooma system automatically changes back to Away mode.

[homeforus]

Ooma compatible camera? Am I missing something? Or do you mean just any webcam in the world?

I think ultimately Ooma is going to have to offer a some kind of keypad that allows you to turn off the system. Requiring people use only the app to arm and disarm is going to limit the potential market for this service. Part of the reason that the app even works now is that you're never really "armed," are you? It's all just a backend server deciding when and how to notify the homeowner. That's great and all, but the reason a lot of people opt for professional monitoring is that and homeowner can't always be available 24/7 to make a decision on whether to call the cops.

I also think they're going to have to bite the bullet and offer some kind of professional monitoring. Maybe I'm off base here, and Ooma doesn't really want to go after a broader-market. But I think advertising this system as a home security system at this stage is seriously misleading. "Home monitoring" fits it a bit closer, but to be really accurate, "Self monitored home sensors." I think ultimately Ooma is going to have to really rethink their approach if they want to stay in this market long term.

[homeforus]

I was a bit overly negative in my last post about some of the overall shortcomings of the Ooma home security product. I'm pretty excited about the product, and I think they were probably smart to start small to figure out how much interest there would be. I got a survey recently from them about how they should grow the service, which makes it clear they are interested in building it out. Here's a collection of a few of my thoughts:

-- Obviously, continue to build the reliability of the sensors. That the products actually work and are reliable has gotta be a priority
-- Please expand your partnership with Nest. I know it's hard working with a big company like Google, but the Nest Protects are the best smoke/CO detectors on the market. I know they already work with the Ooma premier service, but there's got to be a good way to tie in with them. What if their sirens could be used when there's a break in? Then, Ooma wouldn't need to have its own siren. They also have motion detectors built in. Gotta be a way to partner.
-- IFTTT -- adding a few triggers here would greatly expand Ooma home security's capabilities with other smart devices until Ooma can decide what products/devices it wants to offer itself.
-- Physical keypad -- as mentioned by the original poster in this thread, having a way for a friend to disarm the system would come in handy for a lot of people, even for people who have multiple family members who live with them but may not want to have to use the Ooma phone app. Or maybe those family members DON'T have a smartphone. Maybe it's a teenager. Elderly. I don't know.
-- Professional monitoring with a cell phone/wireless signal backup monitoring. I know, I know. This might be a stretch, but if Ooma is really serious about this product, then they need to figure out a way. For a lot of people, Ooma is a non-starter because of the lack of professional monitoring. Look at Scout Alarms -- that's a pretty decent way of doing it -- they charge $9.99 for self-monitoring system, which is like what Ooma does, but a big difference is that that $9.99 comes with 4G LTE monitoring with battery backup, so if power goes down, you still can self monitor. For another $10 on top of that, you can get pros to monitor. I'd pay another $10 a month for pro monitoring.

[AnthonyH]

Thanks for your feedback homeforus. We've already previously considered everything that you mentioned, and I agree with you on all of your points. Thanks for voicing your points though. They are interesting to hear coming from a customer as we weigh our priorities.

[marcop]

These are all great ideas. I'm new to oooma security (But I'm a very BIG Techy Nerd guy). I now have 13 Senors and will be adding more in the future. I would like to see you all with a WIFI, bluetooth (or DECT type) siren. Something VERY Loud. or a (pre)recordable alarm (so I can tell the theft a recorded alert that if he doesn't leave... he will die of "lead poison"...etc :O) ). that way when my phone/app is out of reach and no one else is looking at the ooom app. I can have a very loud alarm come on inside and or outside my house. Even with a flashy bright LED light, to show that it is coming from my house (to alert other neighbors that it is my house). then when my phone does come back on, you can send a alert that alarm did go off. or is going. dont worry, at the same time my phone gets back online, my cameras will be sending my lots of rec footage... :O) (Amcrest cameras 2k 3Meg Feeds)..

also, can you all make a 'MODE" called diag or test sensors that show me what senors I have tested /not tested. I would like to test all these sensors often WITH OUT editing each rule for each sensor.

[thomasm]

I read with interest all the "you should add this" suggestions. What most of them want is a professional monitored security system-keypad arm/disarm, siren, central station monitoring, etc. all with no monthly additional cost. Dream on...

Ooma is not ADT and I don't think it ever will be, but it IS an economical way to keep track of what's going on at your home when you are away. Plus it doesn't cost a dime extra if you have premier. Why not just enjoy it for what it is? I'm sure Ooma doesn't want to deal with lawsuits if their system fails to announce a breakin. You should read ADT's contract about this. (I used to have an ADT system so I know all about professional monitoring and what it costs). It's no bargain, believe me.

[mjkohut]

Add me on for one more vote for some added control over the Ooma app and/or some sort of system control panel.

I really like what the system is capable of, but I'm having some issues deploying this out to the remaining family. I have two kids that I deem too young to have cell phones (at least to use them responsibly as they have repeatedly proven that they cannot be trusted with such devices), but they do walk to and from school every morning. I've considered setting up an old tablet in the front hallway as a control panel, which I can add a PIN to, but Lt. Cold Case makes some great points about a shared pin and shared admin access to the app. I may still try this as a solution anyway, even if temporary, but fleshing out the app's capabilities would still be very welcome.

Heck, I'd love to see a remote wireless control panel that runs on batteries (so no cords to have dangling anywhere) with a keypad. One that supports a traditional arming/disarming delay like a most alarms. Something that can be used instead of geofencing. (I'm not sure how you would get both to work together in harmony anyway.)

Thomasm -- while Ooma is indeed less expensive than traditional alarm systems, it's not free. You still need to pay for a monthly Ooma premier account if you want multiple sensors -- not to mention fronting the cost of all of the equipment in the first place. Ooma is definitely on the way to having a great and versatile product, but they aren't quite there yet. I think these posters make some great points and suggestions to take this product even further. I'd love to see some advancement here as I am rather excited about the possibilities of what this could become.

[phenz]

I agree - when we are on vacation our insurance requires someone to check in every 48 hours. I don't want to have my neighbours add an app to their phone just to check our place. I need some type of remote fob or panel. I was about to make the leap to Ooma from iSmartAlarm (it looks like this is a sinking ship) but I can't make the switch to Ooma without this capability.

I already have the system.