Old topic but I’m a new user so it’s my first time searching for this. If I had to guess whatever Apple charges for the HomeKit API license would pull Wyze out of their economical price tier, which seems to be their ideal business model. Just a hunch.
Apple doesn’t disclose the exact amount it charges to support HomeKit, but we do have some rough ideas. As I understand it, they’d probably have to pay for the following:
- MFi (Made for iPhone/iPad/iPod) Licensing Program = a licensing and certification program that ensures the compatibility and quality of accessories that work with Apple devices including security specifications and hardware requirements. Reportedly, the MFi Program requires a one-time fee of $4,000 to join, plus an annual fee of $2,000 to maintain membership. Apparently, MFi-certified accessories also need to use an Apple-provided authentication chip, which costs about $1.5 per unit.
That was all back when HomeKit first launched too. It has almost definitely gone up since then…you know, “Inflation” and all that.
And there might be other fees too, that is just for the MFi licensing and certification.
I’m not sure if that is or isn’t worth it for them. I’d expect them to get more sales by supporting it, but that can start to add up paying $4K plus $2K/yr forever for every single product model, plus the authentication chip if that’s still required.
Wyze has 14 camera models released right now, and in the AMA they said they are still working on some more new unique ones for next year, so more are coming too. But 14 current models = $56K plus $28K/yr for as long as those cameras exist (at the Home Kit launch rates…the new rates are probably higher now). Plus whatever other fees.
I don’t have access to their finances or analytics to know if it’s worth it or not, but I could see it go either way depending on various factors. They might have to increase their prices a bit to make up for it, but they also might get more business and more subscriptions and positive exposure come from supporting it that might offset all the costs. It’s hard to know for sure.
Regardless, I suspect the cost to do it is only a small part of it. Reportedly, Wyze already tried to get some of their early cams supported and got denied because as I recall, I think their hardware wasn’t robust enough to do a high enough second stream. Something like that. I know some of the more recent models are capable of passing the MFi certification though. I think originally they decided to wait for Matter first, but Matter has been rife with disappointing delays. They don’t have a consensus about cameras yet. However, if they do finalize that, then IF Wyze does support Matter on their new cameras, they should basically automatically get HomeKit support too. I think that’s been the plan, but Matter hasn’t been moving as well as everyone hoped so far.
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Great info, thorough and insightful!
Honestly I’ve stopped caring about having one app to control everything.
Wyze has my cameras, door bell, deadbolt, and probably a garage door opener at some point.
AppleTV and HomePod.
My thermostat is from Trane when they replaced our entire system, it’s in the network and my wife has the app.
After that- don’t care lol
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FWIW, I just got a Kasa outdoor plug for Xmas lights since it was cheaper than the wyze on Black Friday sale and in stock with free shipping. I noticed they offer a HomeKit version for $4 more. Pretty sure they sell more than enough to cover the Apple fees. Not sure about any of their other products. Anyway, for Xmas lights, just to turn on for a few hours, it was not worth paying anything extra. It’s one more app but still need app to onboard the unit regardless. I have used homebridge and I probably will again at new house but I used it more for cams since I could see both wyze and blink together in the home app. Just at this point, I can’t see any need for surveillance at this location. I may setup the db cam just because no one rings doorbells so it’s nice to get the motion alert when something is delivered.
I would give anything to have all my wyze cams on Apple HomeKit!
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It takes a bit tech ability, but if you got a spare pc or old laptop or two, checkout docker Wyze bridge and homebridge with the Wyze and camera ui plugins or scrypted for cams once you get the rtsp streams from the Wyze bridge, scrypted provides hksv.
But Matter… 
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I know this post is old, but we are way past V1/2 cams and well into V3 and beyond. What is status of Apple Homekit integration? Is it feasible and in the works? Doing this would be well worth the effort for Wyze, putting them head and shoulders above the rest of the consumer cam market. No one else is doing this consistently.
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They are “focusing” on Matter.
Which as I understand a Matter-capable device will integrate with Amazon’s Alexa, Google Home, Samsung’s SmartThings, and Apple’s HomeKit. Would that be applicable through a firmware update to all current models, say Cam V3 and up?
We do not know until they set the standards for cameras.
Translation: We’re using Matter as an excuse to not develop integration desired by our user base because we don’t want to spend the resources on it when someday in the future someone might possibly develop a protocol that will only work with new devices that we can sell to our users to replace the old devices that worked perfectly fine and we could have integrated but didn’t because capitalism.
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Sub $100 HomeKit cameras… What is Apple Home? What is Apple HomeKit? - Smart Home Community
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Pure evil … Guess what I have.
I have been using Scrypted to add my Wyze cameras to HomeKit. There is a Wyze (not official) plugin. https://docs.scrypted.app
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I have the skills to run these 3rd party “integrations” and they work marginally, at best. And then only for some cameras.
Fwiw, docker wyze bridge and scrypted have been as solidly reliable as the wyze app/system for my v2 and orig db cams. I even had a few of my beta db cams setup so could use with the bridge web ui and/ or view all cams in HomeKit. But after wyze screwed up my account with the legacy pd to camlite fiasco and then did nothing to rectify or even offer to make amends, I stopped buying wyze. Since wyze buys hardware from various suppliers and then contracts firmware/software, there is no consistency and it’s a burden for the developers to poke around each new cam to try to support it. So it is understandable when some new cams aren’t supported. For wyzes part, they did allow a tech to participate for advising of the change to the new api key and ID authentication and continue to allow developer access. But they do not seem interested in partnering with the dev’s to better support the hardware. Until they do or natively provide RTSP, I’m avoiding wyze. I’m down to just the db cam now at new location. If it craps out, I’ll move on from wyze.
good luck
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What are your camera configuration settings in scrypted?