Wink Lookout review Wink’s s.ecurity sensors aren’t good enough for your smart home. Never have I had so much trouble getting a smart home product to work. Wonder woman bullets and bracelets. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Wink Lookout Smart Security Starter Kit with Wink Hub 2, Motion Sensor, Siren & Chime, Door/Window Sensors at Amazon.com. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. Wink Lookout isn’t a single product but a collection of products bundled together. They include a standard Wink Hub 2, two door/window sensors, a motion sensor, and a siren. All these devices are designed to work together in conjunction with the standard Wink app. Once set up, you’ll find a new icon within the app, called Lookout.
Wink Look Out is a free, in-app service that helps you stay connected to your home no matter where you are. Get notified with real-time alerts about activity around your home and quickly decide how to respond.
Wink Look Out is a new service in Wink where you can keep track of activity around your home in a single place. Receive instant alerts when activity is detected, know the exact sensor that tripped right away, and view recent/previous activity.
The Look Out icon will appear in your Wink Products screen when you have at least one Look Out-compatible product connected to Wink. By default, the Look Out icon will be ordered last in your Products screen, however you can always rearrange your product icons in your Wink app if you like. If you don’t have any Look Out-compatible devices, then you will not see Wink Look Out in your Wink app until you have added a Look Out-compatible product.
You can add any Wink-compatible alarm, camera, doorbell, door / window sensor, garage door, lock, and motion sensor to Wink Look Out.
How do I add more security products to Wink Look Out?
If you have connected a Look Out-compatible device to the Wink app, then you can easily add it to Look Out by tapping on the Settings menu in the top right corner of the Look Out main page, and then tapping on “Manage Devices”. From the “Manage Devices” page, you can select which products you want to add to and remove from Look Out.
Look Out works with any Wink-compatible alarm, camera, doorbell, door / window sensor, garage door, lock, and motion sensor.
What kind of device activity will trigger Look Out notifications?
Once Look Out is turned on, you will receive “Wink Look Out” branded notifications when Look Out detects activity from the following events:
Does Look Out integrate with camera video recording?
Yes! If you link your Arlo account to Wink and add your Arlo camera to Look Out, you will get alerts when your Arlo camera detects motion and you will be able to view these video clips in Look Out.
When activity is detected by Look Out, you can take the following set of actions:
How long will I be able to access previous activity in Wink Look Out?
In Wink Look Out, you can retrieve previous activity up to 60 days. The Wink Look Out activity feed displays all activity that occurred while Look Out was turned on, as well as when activity was dismissed or when Look Out was turned on or off.
Can I use Wink Look Out if I already have security products on my Wink account?
Yes, Look Out works with any Wink-compatible alarm, camera, doorbell, door/window sensor, garage door, lock and motion sensor.
If you have connected a Look Out-compatible device to the Wink app, then you can easily add it to Look Out by tapping on the Settings menu in the top right corner of the Look Out main screen, and then tapping on “Manage Devices”. From the “Manage Devices” screen, you can select which products you want to add to and remove from Look Out.
Can I create a Widget or Robot to turn Look Out on and off?
No, if you would like to turn off alerting from Look Out, you can tap the bell button on the Look Out dashboard and switch it to “Alerts Off”.
Do I need to allow push notifications from Wink in order to use Look Out?
Yes, you will need to enable push notifications from Wink in your phone’s settings in order to use Wink Look Out. Once Look Out is turned on, you will receive notifications when Look Out devices detect activity. Notifications coming from Look Out will be branded “Wink Look Out”.
Look Out is currently designed to be used by a single user, however your Look Out-compatible devices can still be shared with other users through each device’s settings.
As one of the more popular smarthome hubs, it makes sense that Wink recently got involved with home security by introducing its $199 Wink Lookout bundle aimed at first-time buyers. The bundle includes a siren, some sensors and a Wink hub.
Even those of us — like me — who already have a Wink hub can add some of the individual security components of Lookout, which are available separately.
This two-pronged strategy is a smart play by Wink but the question is: How well does Wink Lookout work? That’s a trickier question to answer because it depends on how you expect a self-monitoring home security system to behave. More on that later.
A modular system that includes a smart home hub
So what do you get for $199 in the Wink Lookout package? There’s a standard Wink Hub 2, a pair of Z-Wave door/window sensors, one Z-Wave motion sensor and one Z-Wave siren/chime module. All of these can be attached walls, doors and windows with included screws, or can be mounted with double-sided tape, also included. Additional motion sensors or siren/chime units are $39 each while another door/window sensor costs $29, so you can build out your system as needed, very similar to the Eye Cloud Camera system.
I love the design of the motion sensor. I call it the eyeball because that’s what it looks like, and it blinks a pleasing blue when it sees movement in its 110-degree field of view. The sensor attaches magnetically to its rounded base plate so you can easily adjust the angle. And there’s also a flat spot on the sensor back so you can stand it on the floor, a shelf or table if you’d like. In the Wink app, you have five different sensitivity settings for the motion sensor; helpful if you have pets.
The siren/chime module also looks nice but how it sounds is more important. There are three volume levels for both the siren and the chime function and you can choose from 10 different siren alert sounds. I found that automating the chime with a Wink Robot is useful: Play a pleasant sound when someone opens the front door or garage for example. The siren is really meant for a different purpose, but again, more on that in a minute. At the highest volume level though, you don’t want to be standing next to it.
Easy installation
Installation for the base products was generally easy although I used my own Wink Hub 2 to set things up. I did have a few struggles pairing the motion sensor and siren/chime until I remembered that I typically have to get very close to my hub when pairing Z-Wave devices. Once I did that, the pairing was successful. Best casino apps to win real money. For folks without a Wink Hub, the products come pre-paired so you don’t have to go through this step, which is a nice touch.
Note that other supported Wink products can feed into Lookout as well: I was able to add my Nest Camera for motion detection as well as my Z-Wave front door lock to the Lookout system.
This is a huge benefit for those with existing smart home products, although I’d caution you before using a webcam, as any detected movement will set the system off: Again, a challenge if you have pets.
A modern twist on home security
Once I had everything paired and connected, I started to scratch my head a little. Wink says that Lookout provides actionable alerts and control. And it pretty much does exactly that because there’s no traditional arm/disarm feature. Instead, in the Wink app, there’s an Alerts On or Alerts Off button. That doesn’t stop the sensors from monitoring, it simply stops sending you notifications from them.
The idea here is that whenever Lookout detects motion or sees that a door or window is open, it will send a notification to your phone. Tap the notification and your phone will open the Wink app where you can choose to dismiss the alert or take action. If you choose the latter, you get another in-app screen with three options: Turn siren on, Call someone in your contacts list or Call 911. Essentially Lookout works as advertised in this regard.
Is that how you want your home security system to work though? There’s no right answer here and for some folks, particularly those that live alone, Lookout should be a perfect fit. I’m not so sure about how it fits me, however.
Wink Lookout ReviewYour smartphone is the control panel
Since the entire system is smartphone based, I’d need to add my wife, son and daughter as users to my Wink account. That’s not difficult to do, and I probably should have done so a while ago. But I also have to convince my family to then install the Wink app and use it as the “security control panel” for the house.
They’re not likely going to do that: It’s taken me two years just to get them to use the multiple Amazon Echo devices in the house to turn lights on and off. In fact, because they use voice control for the lights, they’re less likely to use the Wink app for the same feature. But if they don’t use the Wink app, how will they know when the Lookout Alerts are on or off?
![]()
A perfect example is me going to bed and turning Alerts On. My son often works late shifts nearby and sometimes he drives back to his mom’s house after work. Occasionally, he drives to my house because it’s closer and he’s tired. I can easily envision the entire house woken up by the Siren when he comes in at 1am. Of course, you don’t have automate the Siren like I did in my testing. You can simply be woken by the Alert notification and decide what to do next.
Unfortunately — and maybe it’s just me, although I doubt it — I turn my phone’s Do Not Disturb (DND) function on before going to sleep. And that means I won’t get the alert if my son, or a random stranger, comes in. I suspect most people in that regard are like me, either manually enabling DND or scheduling it during sleep hours: The time you most want your home monitored for any break-ins.
The system works, but will it work the way you want it to?
Again, Wink Lookout works as advertised and it’s very possible that my use case is uniquely different than most other peoples. However, I think there’s a missing piece here for a more appealing product: Some type of connected keypad with a 10 second delay so you can get in the house and disarm the system, or even an NFC swipe tag and reader to accomplish the same thing.
Regardless of my own home, if you’re looking for an inexpensive smart home security system that provides you with total actionable control, Wink Lookout is worth the look. There’s no monthly service fee and the sensors work well at detecting motion and creating notification alerts. And there’s the added bonus of being able to build out your smarthome system with all of the other Wink-supported products, so in some regards, this is a nice two-for-one kit.
Wink Lookout ReviewRelatedComments are closed.
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |