Rename "Area" to "Alarm Zone" or something else, both in order to follow industry standard terminology/jargon for Security Alarm + so it will not be confused with "Areas" in Home Assistant core

[Hedda]

Like to suggest that you consider renaming the term "Area" in Alarmo to instead use the term "Alarm Zone" in Alarmo, or alternativly perhaps rename it in Alarmo to "IAS Zone" with IAS meaning being short for "Intruder Alarm System" (which is a industry standard terminology/jargon for a burglar alarm / security system for threft prevenstion), or alternativly some other more generic suggestion like maybe "Protection Zone", "Operation Zone", or "Safety Zone".

Regardless of which new name you would pick, please seriously consider renaming "Areas" in Alarmo to something else, at least call it anything but "Areas" in the UI/frontend for Alarmo (if you do not rename in the Alarmo code).

In my mind the definition of a such "Alarm Zone" meaning in the Alarmo should after renaming hopefully be less likely to be confused with Home Assistant's Areas or Zones (which does not necessary meet the same definition as Areas does in Alarmo and regardless have to automatic match to Home Assistant's Areas or Zones today). Regardless, I do not think it is user-friendly to call it "Areas" in Alarmo when it not always a 1-to-1 match with areas in Home Assistant core.

• https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/organizing/
  • https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/organizing/areas/
  • https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/organizing/floors/
  • https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/organizing/labels/

Whereas a "Zone" in Home Assistant core is currently not tied to entiy organization or grouping of your assets and devices:

• https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zone/

Personally I primarily also recommend do so in order to follow industry standard terminology/jargon for Alarm systems (i.e. most commonly see in the glossary of residential and commercial Security alarms / Burglar alarm systems). Where the term "zones" are used to identify which area a device triggered the alarm event to occur. As such, an alarm device/sensor or group of devices/sensors is assigned to monitor an alarm zone.

Different related alarm systems do by the way also use the term "zone" to describe similar type of areas, such as example, "Delay Zone" (meaning zone where once violated there is a predetermined lapse of time before the alarm is triggered.), "Camera Zone" (meaning the zone that a security camera sees and covers), "Fire Zone" (meaning a zone that has some kind of fire prevention sensors/devices or functionality), "Entry Zone" and "Exit Zone" (an alarm zone that protects the areas most frequently used to enter your property). As well as "Zone Descriptor" (meaning a name or phrase that identifies the type of alarm device connected to a security system as well as the location assigned to that device. For example, a motion detector in the living room might have a zone description of “Living Room Motion.”)

Some example references where other refers to it as an "alarm zone" (where as Alarm currently is calling it an "area" instead):

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_alarm
• https://waynealarm.com/industry-glossary/
• https://origin.abus.com/eng/Guide/Security-glossary/Alarm-systems
• https://www.firetechs.net/library/glossaryofterms.asp
• https://www.easa.europa.eu/en/fire-protection-designated-fire-zones
• https://www.easa.europa.eu/en/fire-protection-designated-fire-zones

FYI, terminology with naming them "IAS zone" is also used in IAS (Intruder Alarm System) part of Zigbee Cluster Library specification:

• https://zigbeealliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/07-5123-08-Zigbee-Cluster-Library.pdf

Quote "The IAS Zone cluster defines an interface to the functionality of an IAS security zone device."

For many more references: just do a search on google using these keywords:

• https://www.google.com/search?q=burglar+alarm (search for the keywords "burglar alarm zone")
• https://www.google.com/search?q=security+alarm+zone (search for the keywords "security alarm zone")

Checklist

• I checked for similar existing requests (both open and closed) before posting.
• My request is generic, other users may benefit from it too.

Proposal

Rename "Area" to "Alarm Zone" or something else that is specically relevant to alarms in Alarmo, at least in the UI/frontend for Alarmo,

Additional info

Again please note that the terms Area/Areas and Zone/Zones mean something different in the terminology of Home Assistant core:

Quote below from https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/organizing/areas/

"Areas

An area in Home Assistant is a logical grouping of devices and entities that are meant to match areas (or rooms) in the physical world of your home.

For example, the “Living room” area groups devices and entities in your living room. Areas allow you to target an entire group of devices with an action. For example, turning off all the lights in the living room. Areas can be assigned to floors. Areas can also be used to automatically generate cards, such as the Area card."

Quote below from https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zone/

"Zone

Zones allow you to specify certain regions on a map. They enable zone presence-detection. This information can be used in automations. For example, to start the vacuum after you left home or start the heating at home when you leave the office.

Create a zone for each area you want to automate on. For example, work, school, and home. Different technologies can be used to detect presence in these zones. A common method is app-based detection using a mobile phone."

PS: Yes I have OCD but I do not think this is just bikeshedding or nitpicking as I believe that following naming standards are important if they existing. And yes when I first setup Alarmo myself I made the mistake thinking that "Areas" in Alarmo should obvioudly match my areas that I created Home Assistant core, so I began by creating Areas in Alarmo called "Hallway", "Living Room", "Kitchen", "Bedroom", "Guest Room", "Bathroom", "Toilett", "Laundry Room", "Closet", etc.

[nielsfaber]

Alarmo deliberately avoids the terminology 'zone' because in alarm context this term refers to something different (as you pointed out already). A zone is typically a single sensor.

That HA also defines their own areas and zones is less relevant in my opinion.
Alarmo is an integration that is made for HA and tries to integrate seamlessly, but it has own design choices and naming (similarly a user in Alarmo is not a HA user, and a sensor group is not a group entity). The documentation defines the meaning and purpose of an area:

An area is a physical compartment of your house, such as a garage, 1st floor of the house, garden, etc. Alarmo will create an alarm_control_panel entity for each area which can be armed and disarmed independently. An area has its own set of sensors and can have dedicated configuration for arm modes, exit/entry times and automations.

As you stated:

An area in Home Assistant is a logical grouping of devices and entities that are meant to match areas (or rooms) in the physical world of your home.

This definition fits perfectly in the intended usage for areas within Alarmo.
In my own configuration I have areas 'garage' , 'house downstairs' and 'house upstairs'.
I understand that users may choose to deviate from choosing physical rooms as areas (like a fire alarm), but this is up to them and not the intended usage.

In summary, I have to disagree with you that renaming areas to zones will be an improvement.

[Hedda]

An area in Home Assistant is a logical grouping of devices and entities that are meant to match areas (or rooms) in the physical world of your home.

This definition fits perfectly in the intended usage for areas within Alarmo. In my own configuration I have areas 'garage' , 'house downstairs' and 'house upstairs'. I understand that users may choose to deviate from choosing physical rooms as areas (like a fire alarm), but this is up to them and not the intended usage.

In summary, I have to disagree with you that renaming areas to zones will be an improvement.

Home Assistant core also has the concept of "Floors" and the definition of such floor in Home Assistant much more closley describe the idea of what an area represent in Alarmo, but not quite, with a floor in Home Assistant is a logical grouping of an area meant to match your home’s physical floors. such as "first floor", "second floor", and "basement". Though I think "garage" would probably fit better as a floor than as an area because you could have a hobby room, storage room, and a bathroom (i.e. toilett) or washroom inside a large garage.

https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/organizing/floors/

Whereas the definition of an "Area" in Home Assistant is definitely instead meant to represent a room (or even a smaller part of a room) and not meant to encompass what I argue would fit as different alarm zones Because I do not think there are many who want to have a separate alarm zone for their livingroom and kitchen with its own alarm control panel! 😝

https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/organizing/areas/

So to me it would still make more sense to instead use the term "Alarm Zone" (or somethhing else) in Alarmo than to use the the term "Area" as that term is also used in Home Assistant core and again deffinitly means/represent something different in Home Assistant core than what it today in Alarmo.

https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/organizing/

Perhaps slighly off topic but there are also Labels available as undefined logical organizational unit irrespective of physical location. On the other hand, a label in Home Assistant can be associated to multiple entities which could maybe be a benefit in an alarm as well.

https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/organizing/labels/

[nielsfaber]

Unfortunately we don't share the same opinion on this subject.
As such, I am not considering changing the naming at this point.
Only in case multiple other users join the discussion and express their problems with the current naming, this may convince me reconsider this.

Note that (as far as I am aware) HA doesn't provide any means for an integration to change labels/areas/zones/floors etc. assigned to a certain sensor entity. So Alarmo has implemented its own alternative way.