ADT announces Canopy integrations, ADT Anywhere

BOCA RATON, Fla.—ADT has announced expansions to its Canopy platform, which brings the company's professional monitoring to various smart device partners in an on-demand offering, including new integration partners and ADT Anywhere.

“ADT Anywhere is the new family safety service and companion mobile app. It allows customers to combine the convenience of family location and messaging with services like 24/7 crash detection, roadside assistance, personal emergency response from ADT,” Jay Darfler, SVP emerging markets for ADT, told Security Systems News. The offering was built in partnership with Life360 and announced alongside other integrations at CES 2017.

Additional features of ADT Anywhere include local crime alerts and notifications when family members enter designated areas, such as work, school or home.

“ADT Anywhere is designed to extend our mission to people when they're away from home,” Darfler said. “From a commercial availability standpoint, we remain on target for the summer of 2017.”

Customers can get ADT Anywhere without owning an alarm system. “The service can be purchased standalone as its own bundle, so we expect that we will have ADT Anywhere customers that may not have another service from ADT. But, for those that have both, we intend to have integration and compatibility with our core home automation platform, Pulse,” said Darfler.

The company has been developing ADT Anywhere for a little less than a year, Darfler said.

ADT announced that its Canopy offering will be available with the launch of LG's Smart Security product—an all-in-one security and home automation device with video capabilities. ADT listed LG among its primary integrations when the company announced Canopy at CES 2016.

The company was able to integrate its monitoring option into LG's product early in 2016, according to Darfler, and was able to work on additional functionality prior to its launch. “Before launching, we really wanted to spend 2016 enhancing the home automation and home control functionality and launch with a truly complete home security and home automation all-in-one.”

He continued, “As an example: in addition to all of the security features that come with the LGSS device, the product is shipping with Amazon Alexa integration for certain home automation skills like lighting control.”

Also at CES, ADT announced integrations with Samsung's Gear S2 and Gear S3 smart watches. “That's our first wearables partner for ADT monitoring delivered via the Canopy platform,” Darfler said.

2017 will be a busy year for developing ADT's monitoring on demand presence through Canopy, Darfler said. He pointed to wearable technologies and IoT devices with security use cases as two key areas for integration later this year.

“Our challenge with the Canopy platform is not necessarily the time it takes to onboard new partners, but rather selecting the right partners from all those who are currently expressing interest to integrate with the platform,” Darfler said.

Canopy's development was not impacted by the acquisition by Apollo Global Management and merger with Protection 1 and ASG. “We remained focused and committed to the strategy that was originally put down in 2016 when we announced Canopy,” he said.