According to the FBI, nearly 60% of all burglaries in the United States involve forcible entries. Needless to say, the need for a good home security system has never been more pressing, and SimpliSafe is one such system, as it comes with a bevy of features to ensure your safety and that of your possessions. So, what is Instant Trigger on SimpliSafe?
Instant Trigger on SimpliSafe is a mode that allows your sensors to trigger an alarm immediately upon detecting suspicious activity. This feature works best for entry sensors since it instantly alerts you and the authorities when someone tries to force their way into your house.
Read on to learn more about Instant Trigger and other key features on Simplisafe you need to know about.
How Does Instant Trigger Work?
As I mentioned, the vast majority of burglaries in the US involve forcible entries. To directly counteract this, some SimpliSafe sensors are designed to instantly trigger an alarm once they’re activated.
You can set the Instant Trigger mode to ON or OFF on your sensor. When turned OFF, the sensor will initiate a countdown upon being tripped, giving you ample time to deactivate the alarm before it goes off.
Switching off Instant Trigger makes sense in certain situations. For example, when you’re home, you don’t want the alarm going off each time someone opens the front door or passes by the motion sensor.
However, it’s important to note that burglaries still happen when you’re at home – 27% more often, in fact. Therefore, having Instant Trigger on while you’re at home is still a good idea.
Nevertheless, it’s good practice to always keep this feature on for entry points that aren’t used often, such as the basement window or the cellar door.
That way, you’ll know when someone tries to access the house using any unconventional entry point, regardless of whether you’re at home or not.
Setting Instant Trigger to ON means there will be no countdown when a sensor is tripped. As such, the siren will go off immediately when an intruder triggers the motion sensor.
It’s worth noting that only Entry, Motion, and Glassbreak sensors come with the Instant Trigger feature, as they have been explicitly designed to safeguard against intruders. This means that you can turn them ON and OFF at your own discretion.
Other types of SimpliSafe detectors are always active, even when the system is off. These include:
- Water sensors
- Temperature sensors
- Smoke sensors
- Carbon monoxide sensors
Therefore, these detectors will alert you and the authorities immediately in case of an accident.
What Happens After Instant Trigger Sounds an Alarm?
The course of action following an alarm will depend on whether or not you’ve subscribed to SimpliSafe’s professional monitoring services.
I highly recommend SimpliSafe’s professional monitoring services subscription, as your security system’s Base Station will signal the monitoring team once the sensor is tripped. It’ll also alert you via the SimpliSafe App.
The team will then call you, asking whether to send dispatch or not. You’ll be required to provide a safeword in case it was a false alarm and police intervention is not necessary.
However, if the monitoring center notices suspicious activity via your cameras or you can’t provide the correct safe word, they’ll request police dispatch immediately.
They’ll also do this if they can’t reach you by phone. This is for your own safety since you might already be under duress and can’t afford to tip off the intruders about any incoming help.
SimpliSafe also allows you to have a duress code that you can use if an intruder is forcing you to disarm the system. The duress code will disarm the security system while letting SimpliSafe know that you’re in need of help.
In other instances, the team might dispatch a guard to check out your home to ensure nothing is amiss.
If you haven’t signed up for professional monitoring, you’ll still receive an alert on your phone about the potential intrusion. However, you’ll have to request dispatch independently.
Instant Trigger vs. Entry Delay and Exit Delay
Instant Trigger activates if a sensor is tripped, making it a good, quick way to raise an alarm. However, it isn’t practical for all your sensors.
For example, you don’t want the entry sensor on your front door setting off the alarm when you’re trying to access your own home. Therefore, it makes more sense to use Entry Delay and Exit Delay for your front door.
Entry Delay is the time you have to disarm the system before it sets off the alarm. While SimpliSafe’s Entry Delay is set at 30 seconds, it can be changed to immediately after the sensor is tripped or even up to 250 seconds.
Exit Delay is the time it takes for the system to arm itself after you leave the house. This delay is set at 60 seconds, but you can change it to as short as 45 seconds or up to 120 seconds.
The good news is that SimpliSafe allows you to customize these modes for when you’re home and when you’re away. For example, you can set certain sensors to Instant Trigger when you’re away and to be off or delayed entry when you’re at home.
Moreover, the professional monitoring subscription also allows you full control of your security system even when you’re away. That means you can arm or disarm your sensors at will via the SimpliSafe App on your device, which is why I recommend signing up for that service.
Conclusion
Instant Trigger on SimpliSafe is an ingenious feature on SimpliSafe’s sensors that works to counteract burglary immediately. This feature sounds an alarm instantly after detecting suspicious activity.
Once the alarm goes off, your SimpliSafe security system’s Base Station will alert you and the monitoring team of the possible intrusion. The monitoring team will then call you to determine whether dispatch will be necessary.
You’ll also be glad to know that the system will still work even if the intruder attempts to smash the keypad in a bid to disarm the alarm.
