AI Video Search - Launched 8/28/2024

Wyze News
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AI Video Search is Here. :rocket:

Wyze Community,

We’re rolling out something new that’s going to change the way you interact with your smart security cameras—AI Video Search.

Imagine asking your camera to find “the moment when the package was delivered” or “that time someone in a red hoodie was near the front door at night,” or even “black bear in yard” and having it done in seconds. No more scrubbing through hours of footage. Just results, fast.

This isn’t just about saving time—it’s about making your security smarter, more intuitive, and ready for the future. Our AI is designed to understand your natural language, so you get exactly what you’re looking for, exactly when you need it.

Our AI Video Search is powered by cutting-edge vision-language embedding technology. This advanced approach allows our AI to deeply understand both the visual content from your security camera footage and the natural language you use to describe what you’re looking for. It’s like giving your camera a brain that speaks your language and sees the world the way you do. This isn’t just smart—it’s the future of video search, and it’s here now.

We’re launching this feature across all our platforms—forums, Facebook, Reddit, and more. We’re excited to see how this changes the way you use your cameras.

Give it a try. Let us know what you think. This is just the beginning.

Onward,

The Wyze Team

FAQ:

What is AI Video Search?

It’s a new AI-powered search feature available to Cam Unlimited users that helps you find any recorded moment from your Wyze Cams, faster. Search any phrase or word, such as: “Amazon Delivery Truck” or “Trash Cans” to find your recorded videos that match that description.

How well does this actually work?

It’s not a gimmick, but it’s also not perfect. You will get some wonky results at times, but we have found it to be extremely useful in everyday life, something rarely true about AI tools these days. Plus, giving feedback on those wonky results helps AI Video Search get better over time.

How do I get access to AI Video Search?

Cam Unlimited subscribers can request early access to start using AI Video Search right now by tapping here. We have a limited number of spots available for this feature at launch, so don’t wait too long! (Wyze app 3.0.5 minimum is required)

Where does AI Video Search live in the app?

If granted access, you’ll see what looks like a magical magnifying glass at the top of your screen in the Events Tab of the Wyze app. Tap that to start searching!

Is AI Video Search available on the web too?

Yep! If granted access, you’ll be able to use it both in the Wyze app and on my.wyze.com

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And upward. :+1:

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I understand that the announcement video for this is meant to showcase the potential power of this feature, and I also understand that the implication here is that a Wyze customer using this could search all of his or her recordings with it, but the way the video shows this could give the impression that someone can now use AI to search everyone’s videos and find what they want. It’s almost creepy the way it’s presented.

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I will give that feedback to the team, and yes you are only able to search your own videos.

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I appreciate that. I understand the message and how the search is intended for personal use to find specific footage in one’s own videos, and it makes sense that Wyze would want to showcase the power of this feature. I’m just sharing my initial impression from seeing the launch video on YouTube, because so many different camera views are presented (especially that mosaic-like roll toward the end) that I think someone could get the wrong impression just because of the way some people have fears about anything labeled “AI” in general. I’m not saying that it’s my impression, just that I imagine someone might get that idea without some message that specifically says “search your videos”.

It’s also entirely possible that I’m overthinking this. I’m willing to concede that, too.

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At first, this made me think it meant the AI could search Wyze videos or comments in the forums and on Wyze Facebook groups, etc. I’m pretty sure it just means launching the early access (announcement/link to sign up) to everyone, not just groups on 1 platform. But I’m a little sleep deprived, so I blame my temporary confusion on that.

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It’s not just you. I actually had a “Huh?!” moment when I read that, too.

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Hello. Can you confirm that if we never opt into this that our cloud videos will not be accessed by, or used to train, the AI?

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Yes if you do not opt in we will not be using your videos to train the AI.

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excellent, thanks for confirming.

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Review article about this feature’s current state:

I tried Wyze Cam’s new AI-Fueled Video Search feature — here’s what happened I tried Wyze Cam's new AI-Fueled Video Search feature — here's what happened | Tom's Guide

I’m excited to see how this progresses. WyzeMatt has publicly stated that they aim to make it possible for us to have custom notifications eventually too and that will be really exciting!

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Thanks for sharing that!

I can definitely see power in custom notifications. What would really blow me away is custom triggers for Automations. I’ve thought for years that it would be cool to have AI trained to alert or initiate some kind of automation whenever the little USPS delivery truck drives by the house. Linking this kind of thing to automations would seem to have some really powerful potential.

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I Agreed!

Though, if you’re an android user, then custom notifications automatically means some of us will be able to do custom triggers too because I can have an app like macrodroid, or Tasker, or Buzzkill watch my notifications, and if the Wyze app gives me a notification for that custom detection, I can have it trigger a web hook or various other things. With that, I can make Alexa or home assistant or various other platforms trigger an automation with any supported action from wyze with either otherwise devices or any other devices that they support. SO, for me, I’m just as excited about custom notifications, because it will be synonymous with custom triggers To be able to have almost anything be a trigger for my automations in Alexa or home assistant, and probably Google home too.

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Oh, I totally get that, and I had that very thought about third-party notification interceptors before I posted. I was just thinking out loud about the possibility of Wyze supporting this directly within Automations so that our iOS brethren aren’t unnecessarily penalized for their decisions to use an inferior mobile operating system. :smiling_imp::grin: 

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Agreed. Though I assume this will require a lot of work to completely restructure their current rules engine structure, so I don’t expect this will happen easily or quickly., but I bet it is something that would generate a lot of excitement and potential for people to be more interested in subscribing, so maybe WyzeMatt will push for it to help with subscription growth.

:rofl: You’re just asking for it.

I know you’re playfully joking, But there are certainly benefits to using things as a "user"vs an “admin” in certain circumstances…I have a brother who actually used to do security for Microsoft. In particular it was his job to try to hack windows, exploit vulnerabilities and then prevent himself (and of course others) from being able to do it in the future.

He is now super paranoid about almost everything. He won’t run any of his computers with an administrator account (except for short temporary changes, then switches back to a restricted user account). He also won’t do group messages with Android, and makes us use his Google voice number to do group messages. Several other things that most people don’t normally worry about or would rather have more freedom and control. I’m sure he has good reasons and lots of experience for some of his paranoia… But I often think about how insistent he is on being a user instead of an admin despite being highly capable of being an admin… Easily in the top 1%. (Though he does still prefer Android himself).

So despite my own jokes to some of my iOS buddies, like @cyberdog_17 where I tease them about choosing to be treated as users instead of admins, I very often think about how my brother is often insistent about being treated as a user with much of his tech despite his incredible capacity and skills to be able to run his life as an admin.

(Note: he doesn’t currently work for MS… He eventually left because he had a horrible and incompetent middle manager and life is too short when there are plenty of other options for such skills.

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AI Video Search is an encouraging development. :smiley:

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I get it. If you have the ability to do powerful things with the technology, then you also have the ability to make more powerful and serious mistakes. The principle of least privilege applies. I’m not gonna drive my machine as root all the time or try to assert superuser access unless I need it. I realize I’ve shared this before, but this once again reminds me of one of my favorite xkcd cartoons, which I used to have taped to the door of my office:

And I know you know I was joking about iOS…sort of. I have my own reasons for being a little anti-Apple, but those can be discussed elsewhere. I think there actually is some value to allowing someone else to manage (to some degree) your security if you believe that entity can be trusted and can do a better job than you would. I’m glad that there are options available in the marketplace and that we get to make our own choices (to some degree), and I genuinely do feel frustrated when I read in the Forum about iOS users having problems with an app feature that doesn’t seem to affect Android users.

Back on topic… :point_down:

As a current non-subscriber, that was actually one of my thoughts when I was writing earlier, as well.

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The AI Video search for MFP would probably make my iPad and iPhone explode. :boom:

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Here is the Verge story on Wyze AI Search too.

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