Alarm Messenger^TM FAQs

Alarm Messenger (formerly Signal Chat) uses the next generation of security monitoring to notify you of an intrusion alarm at your protected location. If an alarm is triggered, you and your designated emergency contacts will receive a text message with a link to an Alarm Messenger group chat. Verifying an emergency or canceling a false alarm is as fast and easy as answering a text message. And ADT customers’ alarms are prioritized for faster emergency response.

Here’s how it works:

1. Upon enrollment, you AND your designated emergency contacts will receive a welcome message from ADT.


2. Then, if there’s an event, ADT receives an alarm from your system and automatically sends you and your designated emergency contacts a message through a secure text link. The link takes you to an Alarm Messenger group chat to review the alarm.


3. Once you’ve clicked on the link and started the Alarm Messenger, you can either quickly verify the alarm or cancel it if it’s a false alarm. You or your contacts can add 60 more seconds if you need additional time.


4. If your session expires, we’ll call the premises and the designated emergency contacts to verify the alarm.


5. If we still don’t get a response, we’ll dispatch first responders.

Unanswered calls take away precious seconds during a potential emergency. Alarm Messenger helps address the issue by giving you a fast, easy way to let ADT know if it’s a real emergency. This results in fewer false alarms – which can come with expensive fees from local first responders – and faster priority response during an actual emergency.

The new process lets you quickly review information about your alarm, chat with others on your contact list, and connect directly to the monitoring center to verify or cancel the alarm with the tap of a button – often within a matter of seconds. Alarm Messenger connects you and your contacts, monitoring centers and emergency personnel with better information – faster. Plus, it helps make the most of resources during an emergency. Plus, it helps make the most of resources during an emergency. In an emergency where every second counts, ADT Alarm Messenger prioritizes your alarm for a faster response by first responders.

Current Process:

1. An alarm is triggered at your premise.
2. The security system send event-based information to ADT
3. An ADT agent attempts to call you and/or your emergency contacts to verify the alarm.

Alarm Messenger Process:

1. An alarm is triggered at your premises.
2. The security system sends event-based information to ADT.
3. The Alarm Messenger service sends a secure link to a group chat with information about the event to you and your designated emergency contacts.
4. You and your contacts assess the situation to verify the alarm is real and request emergency response, or cancel the false alarm. You can add an extra 60 seconds if needed.
5. If the alarm is verified, an ADT agent sends the alarm information to the 911 center for dispatch.
6. If your session expires, we’ll call the premises and the designated emergency contacts to verify the alarm.
7. Your alarm is prioritized for faster response among other emergency calls in the area.

It lets you quickly alert an ADT agent to call and have the local police dispatched to the protected location.

Exactly what you’d expect: it lets you inform ADT that an alarm is false, so we know not to take any action. However, it doesn’t cancel the alarm at your panel. Which means you’ll have to cancel it either directly on the panel in your home, or via the ADT app if you have remote system control as part of your service.

It gives you additional time – another 60 seconds – to determine if the alarm is false and should be canceled, or whether it’s legit and you want to request police assistance.

Anyone on your pre-dispatch emergency contact list who has a valid mobile number, unless they’ve opted out of Alarm Messenger by typing STOP in response to an ADT monitoring text message.

• If their contact number isn’t a mobile number
• If their mobile number isn’t valid
• If they typed STOP to a monitoring message
• If they called and asked us to remove them from Alarm Messenger

If we don’t get a response via Alarm Messenger within the allotted time, the signal will move to an agent and we’ll follow our normal procedure of calling you to try and verify the alarm. We will not call any pre-dispatch contacts that have already been notified via Alarm Messenger.

If you don’t get to Alarm Messenger within the allotted time – you have 60 seconds to select either Cancel, Request Police or Request Additional Time to verify the alarm – the signal will move to an agent and we’ll follow our normal procedure of calling you to try and verify the alarm. We will not call any pre-dispatch contacts that have already been notified via Alarm Messenger.

You have 60 seconds to select either Cancel, Request Police or Request Additional Time to verify the alarm. If anyone on the list requests more time, you’ll all get an additional 60 seconds to respond to the alarm.

The countdown begins when our monitoring system receives your alarm.

Once an Alarm Messenger contact selects one of the responses to the alarm (Cancel Alarm or Request Police), all option buttons will be grayed out and none of the chat participants can make additional selections.

Call ADT at (800) ADT-ASAP immediately.

Yes. Call ADT at (800) ADT-ASAP.

If you took an action within the Alarm Messenger, such as Cancel or Request Police, we won’t need to call you.

The Alarm Messenger link is active for 1 hour. However, you and your designated emergency contacts only have 60 seconds to respond to the Alarm Messenger, with an additional 60 seconds if anyone on the list requests more time. Alarm Messenger contacts can still click on the link to review the incident for 1 hour after the alarm was received.

If another alarm comes through for the same account, the hold time is immediately terminated and the response buttons within Alarm Messenger are disabled. The ADT monitoring center will follow the normal procedure of calling you and your pre-dispatch contacts to try and verify the alarms.

If you wish to have one of your emergency contacts opted-out of receiving Alarm Messenger alerts, follow these steps:

1. Access your account at MyADT.com.
2. Click on Account, then click the Emergency Contacts tab.
3. Locate the contact you wish to opt out. Click the three dots icon for that contact, then select Edit Contact.
4. Under Alarm Messenger, select “No.”
5. Click Done to save the change.

If you cancel an alarm on your keypad while the Alarm Messenger session is active, the cancellation will display in the Activity Feed and you will no longer be able to select an option via Alarm Messenger.