ADT Control ®

We love the convenience of the smart phone app and have used it for some time on our home security system. Recently, we upgraded an older ADT system in another location where the occupant only uses the phone app to arm and disarm the system. She is usually not inside when she arms and disarms. Today, she armed it while still inside, then opened the front door to leave. Note she did NOT arm it via the panel. The system delayed the minute set before arming and IMMEDIATELY sent an alarm alert due to a door opening and closing while armed away. It seems when arming with the app, opening and closing a door AFTERWARDS is not allowed. The system will only allow arming, then leaving if it is done by the panel, not the app. A subtle difference but makes sense when you think about the normal sequence of events will be different for the 2 arming methods. I do not recall being told or reading about this difference and learned it the hard way. Fortunately, the alert came to my phone in the first minute and I was able to disarm and clear the alarm before police were dispatched.

So I just got a system upgrade. The tech installer did a good job with installation, but when I open the app I only see the logo. I uninstalled the app and reinstalled it to see if it would sort itself out but it’s still not working properly to no avail. So I logged in online and it’s the same issue online as well unfortunately. I really want to love this but right now I’m a little disappointed and mildly frustrated. I know technology can be fickle but a new install/upgrade shouldn’t be presenting such problems that I’m having. The whole purpose of me upgrading my system at the church was to be able to operate or system remotely if need be. So at this moment I have to give it one star until this issue is rectified. Like I mentioned, my sole purpose for upgrading or system was to be able to operate it remotely but I currently don’t have that functionality still even with the cost of upgrading my system. *UPDATE* After many days of going back and forth with the technician and customer service, I was finally able to get in touch with someone to take care of the issue. It was simply a matter of them updating our services in the ADT system to give us access to the app and its remote functions. I’m glad it’s behind me now but this is definitely something that should’ve been resolved within minutes of discovery while the technician was installing the BA. However everything is good now I’ll bump it up to 4 stars only because it took a week for my issue to get resolved in literally 2mins. I’m no longer upset but this was a technician error that could’ve been resolved easily. Other than that I’m happy with my upgrade, now I’m waiting for my cameras.

You have to realize I have my own camera system set up and I’m already using a Ring doorbell. I got a deal through my home insurance to get the equipment etc. at a cut rate. There was already an old ADT system in the building that didn’t work. The installer was a really friendly guy. I didn’t really have that much to install, I didn’t need the cameras and I didn’t need the doorbell. So I needed a bunch of motion detectors, flood detectors, door detectors, and window detectors. Given that, for the week that I’ve been using it, it does exactly what it supposed to do. I can arm it for when I’m away I can arm it for I’m at when I’m home. The fact that I can’t hit a panic button when I have my cell phone is probably a good idea, considering I can accidentally jiggle my phone and hit the button. Having used home automation for a long time, you can’t expect seamless integration between different platforms anyway. You have to give them credit, they could’ve completely fallen off the map but there seems to be some effort put into making this a functional system. It’s clear that they are not riding the newest wave of app security systems, but that’s not what I needed and it does exactly what I wanted it to do.