Important notes for iPhone/iOS users

We bought this primarily because of its cloud functionality, specifically the ability to send push notifications over LTE or Wi-Fi. We already had a more traditional baby monitor but the layout of our new house made it important to be able to use the monitor when outside of RF (radio) range. For example, I wanted to be able to go mow the lawn while the baby was napping, or walk across the street to the neighbor's house after bed time, and have my phone alert me if the baby woke up. At its core, this product works great - but it has a fatal flaw that is specific to the Arlo iOS app. This also affects Arlo's home security camera products. The big problem (and it's a big one) is the notification method on the app: When there is an alert sent to the app (baby crying, robber trying to steal your car, etc.), the alert tone is not configurable and can only use the default message tone (usually a quiet "chime"). There is no way to select a loud/annoying alert tone, override the phone volume, activate the vibration, etc. In practice this means you will not hear the tone if you're sleeping, or even if your phone is in your pocket - unless you set the tone to something else and always keep the volume on. Which means you'll get the same tone when you get a Facebook message, or any other app notification. Many similar iOS apps allow you to choose a custom alert tone (say a loud "siren" sound), configure the vibration settings (so you can "feel" the alert in your pocket), override the phone's volume settings (say you turned the ringer switch off and forgot), and otherwise allow you to make the alert sufficiently loud to get your attention. So this is not an Apple problem, this is 100% a NetGear problem. And it is a huge problem. If a thief is breaking into your car at 3 AM, the Arlo cameras will detect it and send a single, quiet, almost-inaudible "chime" to your phone, which will not wake you up and you will never know until it's too late. This is a major problem for a security system. Users have been requesting this be fixed for almost 5 years and NetGear has not added this relatively simple feature. As a bonus annoyance, it's available on the Android version of the Arlo app, so they obviously know it's important - they just can't be bothered to implement it on iOS. Or perhaps they fired their good iOS developers, or maybe they simply don't care about iPhone users. Whatever the reason, it is a major MAJOR shortcoming for a security product that renders the whole thing almost useless in practice - and despite hundreds of complaints they don't seem interested in fixing it. There are a couple other minor annoyances in the app design but overall this is a solid and well-designed product that is effectively crippled by a simple problem they refuse to fix (but only for Apple users). So if you're an iPhone user, I strongly recommend doing your research before choosing a product. I hope this helps someone avoid the same mistake I made.

###

