Once you set up professional monitoring service provided by Abode, take some time and learn how the service works and interacts with the Abode Monitoring Center.
About alarms and alarm notifications
Your Connected Life system can send various types of alarms and alert signals to the professional monitoring center. Depending on the type of alarm, the center will dispatch police, fire, or medical personnel to your home. However, before the system sends these signals to the monitoring center, you'll be notified and prompted to verify or dismiss the alarm.
You'll want to respond to these notifications as quickly as possible so authorities are only dispatched when necessary. In some cases, false alarm fines are incurred if emergency personnel are dispatched because of human error or system misuse.
Important: Whether your Connected Life system is professionally monitored by the Abode monitoring center or you’re monitoring it yourself, Connected Life isn’t responsible for any false alarm fines.
Verifying alarms in the app
The Connected Life app provides verification controls that notify you when there’s an alarm event and prompt you to confirm if the alarm is real or false.
Tapping Verify alarm tells the system you think the alarm is real. This sends a confirmation signal to the Abode monitoring center and a notification to anyone else on your account. The monitoring center will dispatch the authorities and begin calling emergency contacts.
Tapping Disable alarm tells the system you believe the alarm is false. It sends a cancel signal to the Abode monitoring center and any other users on your account. The monitoring center won’t take any further action on this event.
Alarm monitoring PIN
Make sure you know and make a note of your professional monitoring PIN. If the Abode monitoring center calls you, they'll ask you for your name and PIN. If you don't answer when the monitoring center calls or give them an incorrect PIN, they'll proceed with a dispatch.
How dispatch works
When the Connected Life system detects an alarm event, you have one minute to disarm, disable, or verify the alarm. If you don't respond, the Abode monitoring center will pick up the alarm as a live event and launch the appropriate action plan.
FYI: The Connected Life system includes a visual alarm verification processing capability. This enables agents in the Abode monitoring center to view images or video clips captured for an alarm event.
Burglary dispatch
If the system detects an alarm event for unauthorized entry to the home, it will send a signal to the Abode monitoring center.
If the Abode agent can't identify suspicious activity from the visual events, they'll start calling people on your emergency contact list in the order provided. If no one answers the first number listed, they'll dispatch authorities. They'll keep calling numbers on the list until someone answers.
If someone on the contact list answers the phone and can’t provide the correct PIN, the Abode monitoring center will dispatch authorities.
If the system is disabled / disarmed:
Before an agent dispatches the authorities: The event will be aborted. The Abode agent will clear the alarm and not take any further action.
After authorities are dispatched: The Abode monitoring center will call and tell them an authorized user canceled the alarm. At that point, it’s up to the authorities to decide if they’ll go to the home or charge the homeowner with a false alarm fine.
Important: Abode, AT&T, or Google companies are not responsible for any false alarm fines.
Preventing false alarms
User error is the most common cause of false alarms. To help prevent them:
Be sure the delay timer allows enough time to enter the home and disarm the system before generating an alarm. You can set this in the Connected Life app system settings.
Provide users with access to a key fob, keypad, or the mobile app to disarm the system.
Enable entry delay beeps and make sure they can be heard. These pre-warning beeps can help people remember to disarm the system. You can set these up in the Connected Life app system settings.
Panic dispatch
If your Connected Life system detects a panic or medical alarm, the Abode monitoring center will either dispatch the authorities or emergency services depending on the type of panic signal they receive. After dispatch, they'll start calling people listed on the emergency contact list.
Important: Abode, AT&T, or Google companies are not responsible for any false alarm fines.