Toni Dimaano Tech 01.03.2023 05:Jan AM EST

Arlo Pulls Plug On Security Camera Features, Announces End-Of-Life Policy

An email sent to owners on Sunday informed them that support for Arlo Gen 3 and Pro cameras would end on April 1.

According to CNet, support for other cameras, such as the Arlo Pro 2 and Q, will also end in January 2024 as per the announcement.

Arlo Products Are Reaching End-Of-Life After Four Years

Arlo manufactures some of the best home security cameras available, and several of its most current models have shown to be much superior to the competition in many important ways.

However, it appears that some devoted customers may not approve of Arlo's strategy towards its legacy security cameras.

Two of the company's security cameras, which aren't even that old, will reach the end of their service lives in the next few months, the company has informed its customers.

The Arlo Gen 3 (VMC3030) and the original Arlo Pro (VMC4030) have been discontinued by the firm, and as of April 1, no further support will be provided for these two cameras.

Arlo is essentially offering customers who have been using one of these products just three months to find a decent replacement, according to Android Police.

Because of that, many Arlo cameras will no longer offer seven days of free cloud storage, although the firm reserves the ability to remove all cloud functionality.

However, even while updated cloud services will not be available moving forward, users of these retiring cameras will still be able to store the videos online if they have an Arlo Secure subscription.

The End-Of-Life Order Pushes Customers To Use Newer Camera Models

For any camera made more than four years ago, this includes email alerts, push notifications, and other "bundled services or features."

That information is being provided by Arlo in the form of a new, retroactive "End-Of-Life Policy," which states the following:

If you have an Arlo Gen 3 or Arlo Pro, there are no guarantees after April 1st, 2023
If you have an Arlo Baby, Arlo Pro 2, Arlo Q, Arlo Q+, Arlo Lights or Audio Doorbell, there are no guarantees after January 1st, 2024
Email notifications and E911 emergency calling are gone after April 1st, 2023
"Legacy Video Storage" with AWS S3 is gone after January 1st, 2024

Users can still "live stream video, receive motion notifications, and store video clips locally" with a compatible Arlo base station, according to Redditors who got an email from Arlo with the new policy.

However, it remains unclear if that indicates that the base station is necessary for any live video streaming at all or only for local storage, The Verge writes.

Customers of Arlo are informed through email that the new "End-of-Life" policy became effective on January 1 of this year.

With this, Arlo states that notification of the EOL dates will be given at least 90 days in advance as per 9to5 Google report.

These two Arlo cameras are nowhere near their End-Of-Life in that sense; the Arlo Gen 3 and the Arlo Pro are only 8 and 6 years old, respectively.

Since home security systems are normally built for long-term use, the business seems to be pressuring customers to upgrade to its more recent models even if their current cameras are still in good shape.