Pet Protect

Pet Protect is the AI-driven lost pet system. Residents register their pets in their portal. If a pet goes missing, the whole community sees an alert, and anyone who spots the pet can submit a sighting with a photo - AI compares it against the registered pet and notifies the owner.

What it does

The flow, when a pet is lost:

1. The owner marks their registered pet as lost in their portal (with last-seen location)
2. Every resident sees a red banner alerting them that a pet is missing - photo, breed, last-seen location, and who to contact
3. Anyone who spots the lost pet taps the alert and submits a sighting with a photo, location, and their phone number
4. The AI compares the sighting photo against the pet’s registered photos and returns a match confidence with its reasoning
5. The owner is notified right away - in-app, plus push and email (following their notification preferences)
6. The owner reviews the sighting in My Home, sees the reporter’s contact info, and coordinates the reunion - by phone or with the built-in message button

The whole thing runs on photo-based AI matching - no manual cross-referencing required from the board.

Pet registration

Pets are registered by their owners in the resident portal under My Home:

Field	Purpose
Name	The pet’s name
Species	Dog, cat, etc.
Breed	Optional but improves matching
Color	Important for matching
Photos	Up to 3 photos - more photos = better matching accuracy
Description	Distinctive markings, personality, etc.
Sex / weight / age	Optional details, often filled in when reporting lost

A pet record is linked to a property and an owner. If multiple residents in the same household want to register pets, they each register their own.

Marking a pet as lost

When a pet goes missing:

1. The owner opens My Home and taps Report Lost
2. Picks the pet and adds the last-seen location (plus optional weight and age)
3. The community is alerted immediately via the in-app banner

The banner runs for five days from the report (residents can also dismiss it for themselves). The pet itself stays marked lost until the owner - or an admin - marks it found, so the owner can re-report if the search goes on.

When the pet comes home, the owner marks it found from My Home or the alert itself, which clears the banner for everyone.

Pet sightings

If a pet is marked lost and someone spots it:

1. They tap the lost pet alert (visible community-wide)
2. Tap I’ve Seen This Pet!
3. Upload a photo of what they saw
4. Add the location, their phone number, and any notes

The AI compares the sighting photo against the registered pet’s photos and details, then reports a match confidence along with what matched and what differed. The reporter sees the result immediately and can message the owner in-app; the owner gets the sighting - with photo, AI analysis, and the reporter’s contact info - in My Home, plus a push notification and email.

Match confidence

The AI assigns a confidence score (0-100) to each sighting, with a written breakdown of matching and differing features. High-confidence sightings are flagged as likely matches; lower scores are still saved for the owner to review, because a blurry photo of the right pet beats no report at all. More (and better) photos in the registered pet’s record mean better matching.

Where to set it up

Configuration → Pet Protect

Pet Protect is on by default for every community. The toggle controls whether residents see and use Pet Protect features - if your community doesn’t want it, switch it off and residents won’t see the registration UI or banners. The same toggle also appears on the Pet Protect card in the AI Agents overview.

What admins do

Mostly nothing. Pet Protect is designed to run between residents - the AI does the matching and the residents handle the reunion. Admin involvement is rare:

• Clearing stale alerts - the Pet Protect card in the AI Agents overview lists active lost-pet alerts, and an admin can mark a pet as found if the owner forgets to
• Lost pet escalation - if a pet has been lost for an extended period and the community wants to help more actively, an admin can post a community-wide announcement
• Activity log - pet registrations, lost reports, and found events all appear in the Activity & Usage feed

Privacy

A few things to know:

• Reporter contact info - a sighting includes the reporter’s phone number so the owner can reach them quickly. Don’t submit a sighting if you’re not comfortable being contacted.
• Lost pet alerts are community-wide by design: the pet’s photo, name, last-seen location, and owner contact name are shown to all residents so neighbors can actually help.
• Day to day, the portal shows residents their own household’s pets - other residents’ pets only surface when they’re reported lost.

Plan implications

Pet Protect is included on every plan, including Free. There’s no premium gate and no per-pet fee.

Common situations

”A neighbor submitted a sighting but the AI score was low”

The sighting is still saved and the owner is still notified - the score is guidance, not a filter. Photo quality (distance, lighting, motion blur) is the usual culprit. The owner can judge for themselves and contact the reporter either way.

”Someone keeps filing fake sightings”

Like any system, Pet Protect can be abused. If a specific resident is filing nuisance reports, you can ban the user via the standard process - see Removing or banning a user.

”We want to help find a lost pet but don’t see a way to push it to the whole community”

The lost-pet banner already shows to all residents. For more outreach, send a regular community announcement with the pet’s details.

”A resident found a stray that isn’t showing as lost”

Sightings are tied to pets that have been reported lost. If a found pet isn’t on the alert banner, it may not be registered (or may be from outside the community) - a community announcement with a photo is the best move.

Where to go next

• Herald Chat - the other AI-powered resident-facing feature
• Plan and billing - what’s included where
• What residents see vs. admins - privacy boundaries