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How to create smart home automation actions and scenes in your McAllen home

June 03, 2025
Homeowner navigating a home security app on his cell phone

Home security is more than door sensors and alarms. These days, your modern system revolves around smart home automation and pre-set scenes. Through the use of your central touchscreen or smartphone app, you can incorporate custom actions that elevate your security and convenience. See how to design your own in only a few simple steps. 

What can you do with smart home automation?

Advanced smart homes allow you to do so much, like checking video feeds or changing HVAC settings straight from your phone. But that’s really just the beginning. Smart home automation lets different parts of your home to function together. 

The following are a few examples of what you can do:

  • Disarm your alarm when someone opens the door with a PIN
  • Unlock your door when a CO or smoke detector activates
  • Have doors lock automatically a specific amount of time after they are unlocked
  • Set interior cameras to record if a motion detector trips or door opens
  • Arm and disarm your system at designated times of day

Your possibilities are practically limitless. You might even configure a varied bedtime scene that activates your system, secures doors, and dims lighting simultaneously. The best home security systems in McAllen make it effortless with easy-to-navigate cell phone apps.

Configuring home automation actions in your McAllen home

If you’re apprehensive about technology and think you can’t master customizing your home’s automation, think twice. Cell phone apps like the one Vivint offers enable you to add convenience to your life in only a minute or two. Vivint’s app also comes pre-configured with various optional automation actions you may easily switch on.  

Here’s a general rundown of how to customize a new action, also known as a rule:

  1. Launch the Vivint app on your cell phone.
  2. Touch the menu icon in the top left corner and select “Smart Actions.”
  3. Tap the “+” sign to create a new action.
  4. Define the action by choosing what you wish to happen. For example, you might want to arm your system, begin a camera recording, or turn on a light. You’ll find various choices.
  5. Next, indicate what will cause the action. To illustrate, you might want a light to illuminate when a motion detector activates or a video camera to record when a door lock opens. You can also initiate an action based on the time of day.
  6. Then, you just have to review what you’ve done, ensure you save it, and toggle it on to activate it.

If it appears complicated, it really isn’t. Due to the app's intuitive design, you can virtually just press what you want and toggle rules on or off. If you would like a surveillance device to record when a door opens, you will choose which camera to use from a list. You will also pick the door if there are more than one options. The rule can be set to run 24/7 or only for specified times.

Get advanced smart home automation by choosing a Vivint security system

Take some of life’s everyday responsibilities off your plate and have your new Vivint smart home take care of them for you! Through smart home automation, you’ll discover a higher level of convenience while getting better security for your loved ones. Design your smart home in McAllen today by placing a call to (956) 303-1646 and connecting with a Vivint specialist.