One of the biggest problem with any alarm system is that people forget to arm it when they leave home. All the benefits of energy management and home security are lost if no one turns the system on. How about if it could send you a note reminding you that you forgot to turn it on?

We are please to announce the launch of Geo-Services technology, powered by Alarm.com as a standard feature of our Smart, Safe Home system. This free service enhancement allows you to make “geo-fences” – radius’s  – around your home, through the use of an iPhone or Android device. The technology sends reminders to users’ iPhone or Android devices to arm their security systems when arriving in or leaving  the preset area or tells you that someone has left the area. You can even set up different sites – maybe work or your child’s school.

With industry technology evolving so quickly, there are many great services available to home security customers. Customers sometimes leave their homes unprotected even though they have a security system in place because they don’t arm it, putting them in harm’s way. This new feature and the convenient one touch app is another layer of protection for users. It is one more way to take advantage of technology simply and afford ably too make your life a little easier.

After creating the “geo-fence,” users customize automatic geographic and time-based arming reminders that are sent to their handheld device when the preset radius is entered or exited. Users can enable this feature through the latest Alarm.com iOS app (v2.1), and the latest Alarm.com Android app (v1.4).

Alarm.com’s initial set of Geo-Services will include a location-based version of the company’s popular Arming Reminders feature, allowing users to receive an alert if they leave their home “geo-fence” without remembering to arm the security system. More features are on the way. Alarm.com’s Geo-Services will be a user set option and also support applications where multiple mobile phones are used to trigger a rule. For example, when both Mom’s and Dad’s mobile phones are outside of the Home geo-fence on a weekday morning, a Geo-Services rule can be triggered to arm the security system, lower the thermostat and turn off all the lights. Users will also be able to define custom geofences around other significant locations like a second home, child’s school, or workplace, enabling more sophisticated rules in the future that look at multiple phone locations relative to multiple geofences to decide whether to change system settings or trigger notifications.

“We are very excited about the applications we can enable by layering location-based services into our security and automation platform,” said Rebecca Davenport, Senior Product Manager at Alarm.com. “By expanding our rules-based automation and notifications to look at location, in addition to other inputs like schedule and device status, we can offer our end user customers greater system flexibility, efficiency and overall value.”

Once this technology is enabled on the customer’s account, a default geo-fence is set up around the system address; you have the option to create additional geofences as well. Arming Reminders, tailored to the customers’ individual needs, are then created for each geo-fence. Customers can specify dates, times, and the recipients of the reminder. To preserve the battery life of the phone, Alarm.com minimizes the use of GPS and relies on cell towers where possible to provide accurate location information.

Here’s how it works:

You can use the Geo-Services page to set up geo-triggered rules based on your phone’s location. To add a geo-device, please follow the steps outlined below:

1. Download the latest version of the Android or iPhone mobile app onto your mobile device.
2. Log in to your mobile app on any supported phone and enable Geo-Services from the Settings menu.

Once enabling Geo-Services on your phone, you can set up and manage your Geo-Fences, Geo-Devices, and Geo-Features by logging onto your alarm.com web page. Go to the Mobile tab and select Geo-Services

Geo-Fences – By default, a geo-fence is set up around your installation address. From this screen you can edit, add and delete geo-fences.

Edit ~ To edit a geo-fence, click on the fence name or the for the fence you want to edit. Here, you can update the fence location, name and radius. To edit a fence location, click and drag the to a new location on the map or type the address into the text box and click . To edit the fence name, type the new name into the text box under “Fence Name.” You can edit the radius of the fence by clicking and dragging the boundary markers       () to increase/decrease the radius or by manually entering a value in the “Radius” text box. Make sure to click “Save” before navigating to a new page.

• Add ~ To add a new fence, click on “Add a Fence” and define the location, name and radius as outlined above before clicking “Save.”
• Delete ~ To delete a fence, click on the fence name and select . Note that deleting a geo-fence will delete any rules or notifications that depend on the fence.

Geo-Devices – Once enabling Geo-Services on a device, it will show up in the Geo-Device list where you can then edit or delete the device.

• Edit ~ To edit a geo-device, click on the device name. Here, you can edit a device’s name by typing into the text box and clicking “Save.”
• Delete ~ To delete a geo-device, click on the device name and select . Note that deleting a geo-device will disable Geo-Services on that device and remove it from any rules or notifications that depend on its location.

Geo-Features – the following geo-compatible features are available.

• Arming Reminders ~ set up an arming reminder to check the arming state of your system when you cross a fence boundary. Go to the Security/Arming Reminders Tab. The Arming Reminders screen allows you to be notified if your system is not armed by a certain time each day.