Feature Blog

February 10, 2017

Monitor Anything, Voice Activation, Geolocation, or "You Design It." Now Available with the All New EmailAPI Feature [Show All]

We’re excited to announce a brand new integration feature called EmailAPI.  The EmailAPI feature allows for users and other systems to send Connect ONE emails for monitoring/notifications and/or to activate functions within Connect ONE.  



For instance, someone using the voice activation feature on their mobile phone can say send email to Connect ONE, provide their pin, and then say the task to activate.  This will follow all of the same permissions that exist for the user, therefore they will only be able to activate the tasks which are allowed for their user account.  

Another example allows for integration of 3rd party systems such as IFTTT (If This Then That).  Using IFTTT, a Connect ONE user can integrate geolocation notices and/or activations.  Such as announcing when arriving on location or leaving a location, this may also include activating a task rule upon location detection.  IFTTT also integrates services such as Life360 which can detect first person arriving and last person leaving.

Multiple safeguards exist to protect the customer account.  First, the EmailAPI feature must be enabled for an user’s email address, it is not on by default.  Second, the user will be given a unique id and they will choose a 6-digit pin which also must be provided in the email.  Third, the email must be delivered using strong TLS transport encryption.  Fourth, the email must be delivered from the user’s email address, i.e. it can’t be delivered from someone else’s account.  Lastly, all the same permissions exist for the emailed action as exist if the user was manually activating the task rule from within the Connect ONE application.

This new feature really allows for Monitoring Anything*.  If the device to monitor can deliver an email then Connect ONE can monitor it for exception activity.  Perhaps the customer has a device for monitoring air pressure, if the device sends Connect ONE an exception email of the current air pressure, that will become an event.  This event will be viewable with the real-time activity, search-able in a report, and allow for all of the other event interactions, such as, email/text notification, video verification, onscreen alerts, lockdown activation, hvac adjustments, and task rule activation.

* To monitor the device, it must be able to deliver an email using TLS transport encryption.