Onelink Home by First Alert vs YardTime
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Onelink Home by First Alert
Manage and monitor your connected home devices, including smart smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. Receive emergency notifications and enjoy premium audio and voice commands with integrated smart assistants.
- Device installation and pairing
- Real-time monitoring
- Smoke and CO emergency notifications
- Integrated Amazon Alexa
- Premium audio speaker
- Hands-free voice commands
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Download the Onelink Home app to install, pair, and monitor all of your Onelink by First Alert connected home devices. Now featuring the Onelink Safe & Sound, the 3-in-1 device that combines a hardwired smart smoke and carbon monoxide alarm with a premium speaker and embedded Amazon Alexa voice assistant. With safety notifications in the event of a smoke or CO emergency, plus premium audio and hands-free voice commands, the Safe & Sound adds safety, entertainment, and convenience to any home. The Onelink Home app also supports Onelink Smoke & Carbon Monoxide alarms, providing smart safety and comfort to your home.
YardTime
Coordinate with neighbors to manage when dogs are in the yard. Avoid conflicts with a shared real-time status, automated timers, and instant notifications for yard availability.
- One-tap yard status updates
- Automated timers for yard usage
- Real-time yard clear notifications
- Home and lock screen widgets
- Live Activity countdown
- Siri and Action Button integration
- Neighborly conflict avoidance
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YardTime keeps neighboring dogs from meeting at the fence. If your dog and the dog next door bark up a storm whenever they're both out back, YardTime gives you a shared, real-time yard status so you can take turns — no more changing a group-chat photo to "dog" and hoping everyone notices. One tap tells your neighbors the yard is taken. A timer frees it up automatically. And the moment it's clear, everyone gets a heads-up. WHY YOU'LL LIKE IT • One-tap status — "Let Rex out," and your neighbors know instantly. • Timers that check in — pick 15, 30, or 60 minutes (or open-ended). When time's up you get a nudge to extend or bring them in, and the yard frees itself if you've moved on. No more forgetting to flip it back. • "Yard is clear" alerts — get notified the second it's your turn, and let your dogs out with one tap right from the alert. • At-a-glance widgets — home screen and lock screen show clear or occupied without opening the app. • Live Activity — a countdown on your Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island while your dog is out. • A shared recent-activity feed — who let dogs out and when the yard cleared, the same on every phone in the group. • Hands-free — say "Hey Siri, let the dog out," or map it to the Action Button, for when you've already got a dog by the collar. • A heads-up before your dog goes out on top of a neighbor's — in the app, from Siri or an NFC tag, on the widget, on your watch. Nobody's dogs meet at the fence by accident. SET UP IN UNDER TWO MINUTES Create a group, share one invite link, and your neighbors are in. No sign-ups, no passwords — it's tied to your iCloud. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your yard status lives in your own iCloud and is shared only with your group. No accounts, no ads, no analytics, no tracking, nothing sold. Ever. Built for a few households on a quiet street — not the whole internet.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: YardTime at 100% against Onelink Home by First Alert's 9%. YardTime also leads on rating (5.0 vs 1.5) and update cadence (every 3 days vs every 3 months). Onelink Home by First Alert's advantage is ratings volume (306 vs 2) and iOS requirement (10.0 vs 17.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
YardTime holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 1.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Onelink Home by First Alert has 306 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 9% of Onelink Home by First Alert's written reviews are positive against 100% of YardTime's.
Onelink Home by First Alert ships an update every 3 months, YardTime every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Onelink Home by First Alert | YardTime |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 1.5 (306 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 9.2% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 306 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 10.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 241 MB | 9 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | First Alert / BRK Brands | PATRICK FRISCHMANN |
Customer experience
Onelink Home by First Alert
YardTime
Bugs and requests
Onelink Home by First Alert
Reported bugs
4 issues- App fails to recognize existing accounts
- Devices disappear from app and HomeKit
- Alarms going off for no reason
- Inability to silence alarms remotely
Requested features
4 requests- Ability to disable Alexa/Google Home integration
- Improved firmware update process
- More customization options for nightlight and alarm settings
- Better app performance and stability
YardTime
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Onelink Home by First Alert
No in-app purchases
YardTime
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Onelink Home by First Alert free?
Is YardTime free?
Which has better reviews, Onelink Home by First Alert or YardTime?
Do Onelink Home by First Alert or YardTime have ads?
Which is updated more often, Onelink Home by First Alert or YardTime?
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