Unlock Your Cove Security Camera's Full Potential
When you add cameras to your Cove security system, you expect them to be fully-featured tools for monitoring your home. If you've set up your camera but find that you can't record video, talk through the speaker, or connect it to your smart assistant, you might feel that the device has limited features.
The reality is that your Cove camera is a powerful piece of hardware, but its most advanced capabilities are unlocked through the Cove monitoring plan you choose. This guide will help you understand how these features work and how to ensure you have access to everything your camera can do.
Understanding Cove's Service Tiers and Features
Cove's business model centres on professional monitoring and integrated services. The cameras are designed to work as part of this ecosystem. This means that many features, especially those that involve storing data off-site (like cloud video clips), are linked to a service plan.
- Without a Monitoring Plan: Your camera will likely function only as a basic live-view device. You can open the app and see what's happening in real-time, but that's about it.
- With a Cove Plus/Smart Plan: Subscribing to a monitoring plan is the key to unlocking the camera's true power. This typically activates a suite of premium features that are otherwise disabled.
Maximising Your Cove Camera's Capabilities
If you want to move beyond simple live viewing, here are the features you should explore, all of which are generally tied to a monitoring subscription.
1. Choose the Right Monitoring Plan
This is the most critical step. If you want camera features, you need a plan that supports them.
- Review the Cove Plus or Cove Smart monitoring plans on their website.
- Look specifically for features like 30-Day Cloud Video Storage, Smart Notifications, and Smart Home Integration.
- These plans are what enable your camera to record clips when motion is detected and save them for you to review later.
2. Explore the Cove Security App
Once you have the right plan, the Cove app becomes your command centre.
- Recorded Clips: You will now see a section in your app where you can view, download, and share video clips that have been automatically recorded.
- Two-Way Audio: When you are live-viewing your camera, you will see a microphone icon. Pressing this allows you to speak through the camera's built-in speaker to interact with visitors or family members.
- Camera Settings: Dive into the individual camera settings to adjust motion sensitivity, set recording schedules, and configure notifications.
3. Set Up Smart Home Integrations
Connect Cove to your other smart devices for a more seamless experience.
- A key benefit of the Cove Plus plan is integration with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.
- In your Alexa or Google Home app, search for and enable the "Cove Smart" skill.
- Once you link your accounts, you can use voice commands like, "Alexa, show me the front door camera" on a compatible smart display.
4. Customise Your Notification Settings
Don't just get alerts, get the right alerts.
- Within the Cove app, you can typically manage what kind of notifications you receive from your cameras.
- This allows you to be alerted about motion events when your system is armed, so you're not getting constant notifications while you're at home.
If you feel your Cove camera is limited, the solution is almost always to ensure you are on a monitoring plan that supports the features you want to use. This approach integrates the camera tightly with the professional monitoring service, which is the core of the Cove system.