How do Video Analytics notifications work?
Notice: For Canadian Dealers, text based notifications to Bell subscribers will be degraded on December 31, 2025, due to changes in how Bell handles messaging. For phones with Bell, it is recommended to set up Push Notifications. For more information about configuring push devices and notifications, see Configure mobile push notification devices. For more information about the Bell SMS/MMS notification sunset, see Bell text messaging notification sunset.
Video Analytics notifications configured as Text Only or Attach a Thumbnail are sent upon detection of a person, vehicle, or animal rather than after the clip is uploaded.
Important: Some carriers have restrictions that limit Alarm.com's delivery of text-based notifications. For more information, see What can I do if someone is not receiving SMS text notifications?.
Push
Note: It is recommended to use push notifications over other notification types (i.e., text and email). For more information about the benefits of push notifications, see What are the differences between push, text, and email notifications?.
The notification is sent upon detection of a person, vehicle, or animal. The clip is uploaded after the notification is sent.
- If you open the notification before the clip is uploaded, you are taken to the Live video page so you can quickly and easily see what is happening.
- If you open the notification after the clip is uploaded, you are taken to the saved clip directly.
Note: For app versions below 4.21.3 for iOS or 4.21.2 for Android, the notification will always take you to the Live Video page even if the clip has been uploaded.
SMS or email
Text only or attach a thumbnail
Note: T-Mobile and Verizon users cannot receive multimedia attachments (i.e., video clips and thumbnail images) and instead receive SMS messages with links to the same content. It is recommended to use push notifications. For more information, see Push Notification Benefits.
The notification is sent upon detection of a person, vehicle, or animal. The clip is uploaded after the notification is sent.
- When you open the notification, you are taken to the Live Video page so you can quickly and easily see what is happening.
Attach a video clip
The notification is sent after the clip from the video device is uploaded to the account.
- When you open the notification, you are taken to the saved clip directly.
Note: Some carriers may have restrictions that prevent Alarm.com from delivering SMS notifications or limit the ability to attach video clips to messages. The use of video features may also incur data charges by your cellular provider. For more information about SMS limitation see Customer is not receiving notifications.