Piper Mobile App Reviews

I cannot believe I spent this much money..for this little quality. System drops too often and mobile app is cumbersome. Long resets of up to 5 minutes. I have the best wifi on the market, and Piper is still unreliable. Had to reenter all my Pipers several times now numerous times!!

This was a great app/ tool, but somehow the developers took a great user friendly interface and destroyed it. Im very disappointed with the new interface and changes. I want the old look back, otherwise I have no interest in this product. If it isnt fixed, I will terminate my account and look for a better option. Also, whats with the incessant request to enable the mic? I dont want to enable it on one of my devices. Why do I have to get an annoying pop-up EVERY SINGLE TIME I go to view the camera output?

This newer version app works even better with Piper, an interesting new home monitoring security system that now has night vision. Even better with several units. No more call center and monthly fee. It lives off your wireless internet connection, gives you a live video feed to your smartphone and can remotely switch lights on and off and temperature, light, noise and motion sensors too. Pet friendly. Very much as advertised. App is well laid out and if you follow instructions, works like it should. Perfect for apartment dwellers who need a way to keep an eye on their home.

Even on maximum video quality the recordings look terrible. Motion is extremely blurry, its hard to believe this is 30fps. Piper is lame, Im returning it.

Pre-update my system ran almost flawlessly. Post-update... had to factory reset multiple units before they would cooperate, Piper regularly loses contact with the network, the app regularly tells me it cant contact Piper, and Im regularly told there are no settings established for Away Mode when there really are. Please dont "fix" what isnt "broken" Piper... youre terrible at it :-/ 6/3/16 - updated again... same old, same old. Ready to get rid of the system altogether as its becoming more trouble than it is worth.

Hate the new design. Not as user friendly. Used to be easy to turn on my lamp. Now I have to hunt for the button. This is not better, just different. No new features.

This is a very nice security system. Its easy to use and works relatively fast. I would like to see the Apple Watch supported in the future. This is the only feature that is really holding it back.

I have mixed feelings about the piper. On the one hand its an amazing device. The camera works great. The ability to detect motion in the room works great. It integrates with Z wave devices, which lets you put sensors on your door and even take video when the door opens. Thats all quite amazing. The app is so so. I could complain about funkiness on the interface, but it works fine. The real killer problem is login and network reliability. The system always takes a little while to login. And this is a pain when youre sitting at the door waiting to get into the house, or wanting to get on your way as you arm the system. Why oh why cant it save login state, and use the cloud database in a model view control scheme. Perhaps like my Rachio does. Sometimes this login delay is significant. Here, login fails, you have to restart the app, then go through another login attempt, and wait, and wait. Often, it has to re-login while youre using it, adding more frustrating delays to you getting the system armed or disarmed. Thats a real pain when youre sitting outside the door, waiting to come into the house. The other pain is that sometimes the unit itself loses network conductivity. The network still sees the unit there, but the unit doesnt respond. Perhaps it crashed. Perhaps its in an infinite loop. Perhaps the server somewhere in the cloud is dead. Who knows. Other times the unit goes offline from the app perspective but is still posting events. Just more networking bugs. In fact, Im writing this review tonight, because the systems network crashed while it was armed. It was not fun unplugging it and pulling the batteries while the siren was blasting. I hope piper can fix all the login and networking problems. I recommend they go back to the books on this one. And then later post the code they use for login security on a developer forum as a study in what not to do. It will make great geek comedy.

This app is MUCH slower than the previous 1.x releases and often never connects to Piper at all, making us prisoners in our own home, unable to disarm the system. The interface is horrible. I miss the simplicity of the large wheel with the easy-to-see icons. The new ones are confusing and tiny. A text option would be nice. A clean app doesnt have to remove all text... Color-coded *labeled* buttons work fine. The Z-wave options should not be buried underneath unmarked menus. If I want to turn a lamp on or off, i have to figure out which button to press (since theyre not marked in any way) then find my way to the device. What was a simple option in v1.x is now a multi-step difficult process in 2.x. What used to be a fantastic system with unparalled support and a great app seems to have been clouded by the misconception that clean and simple means less labeling and more cryptography. As the end user, I ask that you revisit the app redesign again, increase the size of the arming options, place an emphasis on connection quality and speed, and make the interface easier to navigate in a true emergency situation. Piper has earned our praise time and time again in conversations and recommendations. Please help us restore our functionality and stability.

Biggest waste of $300 ever. The app NEVER reconnects to piper nor does piper ever reconnect to the Internet following a power failure. Piper must be totally set up as a NEW UNIT after every power failure v Ive spent countless hours wasted going through the RESET options over & over & over again. Then sometimes it will go back online and sometimes not! Mostly NOT! It has been 17 days, every day trying to reconnect. 17 days- NO WORKING PIPER!!!!! Unplugging modem, plugging in modem, unplugging Piper, taking out batteries, putting in batteries, plugging up piper, resetting iPhone wifi to Piper, and continually get the same error notice : CANT LOAD SETUP INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE INTERNET. CHECK INTERNET CONNECTION. Eeeeeekkkkkkkkk **##!!!!!!!BEWARE OF PIPER. SOUNDS GOOD BUT IS A PIECE OF CRAP! The App is horrible. It wasnt too bad 2 updates ago, but the new app is pathetic as is the Piper! Signed: very dissatisfied customer who will be hitting social media warning people not to buy PIPER!

I dont mean to be harsh with two stars, but the app is literally the only way to operate a Piper. If there was a keyfob or something I would have given 3 stars. You guys need to put more effort behind the app. For one, the UI is not exactly intuitive. Second, there are regularly issues connecting. The fix is to close force close the app and relaunch. It could also use a few more features. It would be great if you would accommodate at least one custom profile in addition to the three built in and I would love to be able to schedule a disarm (we arm in the evenings).

I wish I could go back to the old version. The new version isnt user-friendly and is super slow, whats up with that!

We got a Piper so that I could have a security system that wecould access remotely and use to monitor our house. That being said, when the companion app wont connect and we have no idea whether the Piper is even active or not, its not very useful as a security device. I contacted customer support, and even though THEY could see that the Piper is active, they had no idea why none of my devices would connect. Theyll escalate the case, but for the time being, my house may or may not be protected while were not home. Great.

Improvements: faster access to cameras, activation of profiles if gps signal leaves a predefined area, activation of profiles by time stamp, landscape mode.

Love it! No wiring, no key pads & codes, no monthly expenses! Love the fact that I can customize different security features & be notified by push notification, text, email or phone call OR all of the above. I can check on the house via video on my iPhone anytime I want and even have it record if motion or loud sound detected; turn on & off lights & appliances, turn the heat up or down and so much more! The app controls it all and can even give me interior readouts of temperature, humidity, ambient light etc...LOVE IT!

Just got my Piper yesterday and I am absolutely thrilled by it. It does everything flawlessly and the set up was a snap. The siren will scare the pants off you - and it can notify you of changes to your home by email, text or a phone call. The video works great too - if you want it too - the Piper will record to the cloud when it detects either motion or noise. Works perfectly - I would highly recommend it!

What an amazing product! Does everything they say it will do. Their support team is fantastic. Able to watch my house while on the road or on holidays. Instant notification if someone breaks your rules. Well done folks. Will be looking for anything new from BlackSumac.

Thanks to the help desk, Im back using my Piper. Very impressed with how quickly everyone at Black Sumac gets back to its customers. Thanks again.

This is the best security app at a fraction of the price. Piper security is well thought out. Im so impressed with this system Im telling everyone I know.

I very much regret buying a Piper. It claims to have HD video but the picture quality is poor. Pets do set it off when pet mode is on, but people moving past dont set it off. Logging in outside my home wifi network is very hit and miss (a "fix" from two days ago supposedly addressed this: it didnt) and in general the Piper is a very unreliable piece of hardware. The companys customer relations are terrible - look at their forums, lots of problems with no solutions. If you try to return it they tell you that "you agreed" to their sales policy when purchasing that limits refunds to 30 days after order and they leave it at that. This app, with working hardware, would be pretty decent, but when I see "cant connect to Piper" for the tenth time in a row it makes me want to throw my iPad across the room.