Arlo cameras can now trigger spoken alerts for people, packages on Google Assistant devices

Ben Schoon | Oct 5 2021 - 9:20 am PT

One of the most capable Google Nest competitors is Arlo, which offers a lot of similar hardware and some of the best Google Home/Assistant integration out there. Now, Arlo is upgrading its Assistant integration with support for spoken alerts on speakers and smart displays.

Arlo has just rolled out this expanded Google Assistant integration, which we’ve not seen before on other cameras or smart home devices. The new feature sees Assistant speakers and smart displays making spoken announcements when an Arlo camera detects the following four different types of motion.

Person Detection
Package Detection
Animal Detection
Vehicle Detection

This functionality works with most Arlo devices, including the Pro 3, Pro 4, and Essential cameras. These will all work as long as they’re synced with Google Assistant and on an active Arlo subscription plan. The Arlo Doorbell works too, but it can’t announce motion detection, only sending spoken alerts to speakers and smart displays for when someone presses the doorbell button. These don’t mirror the video previews that appear with Google’s Nest doorbells.

Arlo also explains on a support page that notification preferences will sync between the Arlo app and Google Assistant.

Sync your Arlo camera with Google Home to get Arlo’s smart motion detection alerts on your Google Assistant speaker or display. Notification settings in the Arlo app apply to motion detection announcements you receive on your Google Assistant device. For example, if you mute your camera’s notifications in the Arlo app, you won’t receive notifications in your Arlo app or on the Google device.