The Canary began life as an Indiegogo project. I backed it and it remains the most expensive technology crowdfunded campaign that’s actually delivered and delivered a great piece of hardware.
Before I get on to writing about the Canary itself I wanted to quickly mention how great I’ve found the Canary customer experience to be. I moved homes. I lost a key part of the device in the move and, without any faff or drama, the Canary team sorted me out.
I’d become so used to the security the Canary brings that it was rather weird moving to a flat without a functioning device.
The Canary is a good looking home security device. It’s about the size of a small vase or a large can of energy drink and looks pretty sleek. I’ve the white model.
The Canary can sense temperature, air quality, vibrations but the main features are its ability to hear sound and see in the dark. It’s a camera that watches your home. Now, that might freak some people out but you can tell your Canary to switch off the camera while you’re at home. It knows, automatically, when you are home.
The key part of the Canary is your smartphone. That’s how you control the device. That’s how it knows, to begin with, when you’re at home.
I say “to begin with” because the core functionality of the Canary is to alert you, via a smartphone push prompt, when it detects unusual activity in your home. So let’s say you’ve just installed the device and your partner comes home while you’re out. You’ll get a prompt. You’ll be able to watch, via your smartphone, through the eye of the canary and see which unidentified person has just walked into your home. If it’s your partner you can tell the Canary so, teaching it, but better still would be to set up your partner, and their phone, as a user. Your home wifi makes all this possible. If you don’t have home wifi then, sorry, the Canary is too techy for you.
When our Canary was new we got a fair few messages. Who’s that? It would wonder. We’d tell it to chill. Sunlight flickering across the windows, casting strange shadows on the wall, would alarm it too. We’d tell it to calm down too, marking the activity as either sunlight or shadows as appropriate. Over time, as it learned and as the Canary’s software improved behind the scenes, its far more accurate.
As a home security device the Canary is exceptional. I’m confident that if something weird happens within its sensor range while no one is at home then my partner and I will both be alerted.
You have the option of sounding an alarm if you don’t like what the Canary sees or you can call the police. Or both. The lockmakers Yale have, just today, announced a new range of home security devices (one similar to the Canary) and they’re claiming that 67% of Brits in their survey wanted a clever alarm that can be remotely controlled via a mobile app from anywhere in the world. I guess, with the Canary, I’m ahead of the curve as I’ve had one for ages now.
There are some other uses that the Canary excels at. You can tell if your partner is at home by just checking the device. That’s handy.
We used our Canary to help sell our flat. I’d give the tour of the small flat meanwhile, not to make the place appear crowded and small, my partner enjoyed a cup of tea around the corner at the local café and watched via the Canary. She was able to help me improve and tweak what I said as I presented the flat and she was able to hear would-be bidders discussing what they liked or didn’t like when I wasn’t in the room.
It’s not impossible that we’ll be getting a pet for the new flat, now we’ve a bit more space, in the future. I predict the Canary will be important there. First we’ll have to train it not to worry about the dog but I’m confident we can. Then we’ll be able to keep an eye on the dog once it’s old enough to be left alone as we go to work. If we ever need to pay for flat cleaning or dog walking then the Canary will be a good way to keep half an eye on the goings on in the flat then too.
I’m really happy with the Canary. It works as advertised and it works well. I feel safer with the device. Recommended.
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