A few weeks ago I came across a product page for an alarm system that had surfaced in an update to the Hive app. The system, or service, is to be branded “HomeShield”. I asked Hive about this on Twitter but the private message that I received in response, made it immediately clear that this was not an intentional addition.

Well, now that I have had the time to do a bit more sleuthing, I am pleased to say that I have come across some further details that I am able to share with you.

The Hive HomeShield service will be a subscription service costing £9.99 per month. This cost includes an ongoing warranty for all Hive products on the account, 30 day video history for Hive View Indoor and Outdoor cameras, SMS Notifications (in addition to push notifications), a 10% Discount and Free Delivery on all Hive purchases and crucially, HomeShield functionality within the app itself. This confirms that a subscription WILL be required to use the service at all.

The HomeShield service will work with the Hive Door and Window Sensors, Hive Motion Sensors, Hive View Indoor and Outdoor Cameras, Hive Bulbs and the Hive Siren and Hive Keypad. The (outdoor) siren was pictured in the app, and you can see this above, but this now also confirms that the system WILL use a keypad. This, for me, is a prerequisite for any security system unless this role can be fulfilled by something else such as the keypad on a smart lock.

The hardware itself is not certified by the Underwriting Laboratory and, in fact, does not hold any certification whatsoever. This means that it is likely that HomeShield will be viewed by your home insurers as a “DIY” system as opposed to a professional system of the type offered by providers such as ADT or Verisure.

Finally, the information I have found indicates that you will be able to nominate friends and family members who will, in addition to the account holder, receive notifications of activity detected in your home. This is a pretty standard alarm feature but it’s good to know this will be available all the same. What isn’t perhaps quite so common, is that when you receive a notification, it appears that you will also have the option to call your local police force directly from the app.

The system is currently being tested internally by employees of Centrica (Hive’s parent company) and there is no indication that a public beta will take place prior to its release. Given the amount of information that I have been able to uncover, and the presence of HomeShield in the app (whether deliberate or not), I would suggest that we are likely to see the system officially revealed in the near future.

So, that’s what I’ve got for you for now. The inclusion of the 30 day rolling camera history within the £10 / month plan, is a comparable model to that offered by Ring both in terms of price and the features offered. I would consider this to be a competitive offering that compares favourable with the systems offered by Ring, Simplisafe and the upcoming Boundary Alarm System.

I have had mixed experiences with the Hive products that I have owned or tested. I have been happy with their Thermostat and have found their leak sensor reliable, although as it is locked behind a subscription service, I could not recommend it. The Hive plugs and bulbs are functional, but overpriced and their TRV’s were, and are, a disaster. The Hive View Camera is beautifully designed but its lack of integration with Google Home or Alexa is frustrating and inexcusable at this point.

Hive has expanded its product range considerably over the last few years and whilst, for the most part, the hardware is well designed and well made, the functionality and the third party integrations lag behind and continue, in my opinion, to hold the whole ecosystem back.

Sources

On this occasion, almost all of the information that I uncovered came from Hive’s own publicly available documentation. You will find their updated Privacy Policy which includes references to HomeShield here and their updated Terms & Conditions, from where the bulk of this information was obtained which are available for download below.