Auto video show of the doorbell on a Pixel Tablet

I have a Wyze Video Doorbell Pro connected to a Google home account.

However what I would like is the following>

When the doorbell button is pressed, I would like it to show the video on my Pixel Tablet, so I can see who is there before I go to the door.

Is there a way to do this?

There are probably a few ways to do this.

First, the problem: Wyze said they have talked with Google about this, and it appears that Google hasn’t released the doorbell button press to their public API for all 3rd parties yet, so there are limited companies with the doorbell button press option at this time. This is why a workaround is needed.

The easiest method is using an intermediary device that Google does support. A lot of people will go buy a cheap Wyze smart plug to act as an intermediary device. Then when someone presses the doorbell, they have a Wyze rule/automation tell the Wyze plug to “Turn on” for a few seconds. Then they tell Google to watch for any time that plug turns on, and then execute an action. In this case, you can send Google a custom command to tell it to “Hey Google show [doorbell name]” or tell it to do that on the pixel tablet name.

Honestly though, if you have another Wyze camera that you leave on 24/7, you can just use that as the intermediary device. You just set up the Wyze Automation so that when the doorbell button is pressed, you have the action be to send the “on” command to that other camera. The camera is already on, so nothing happens, it stays on, and there is no problem and you won’t notice anything, but if you set up an automation to have Google watch for when that camera is turned “on” or receives a command to turn on, then you can still use that as the trigger to send an action to tell google to stream your doorbell to the Google Tablet. Now, you didn’t have to spend money on a new plug or anything, and everything will work exactly like you wanted: Someone presses the Doorbell button, and Google tells the tablet to stream the doorbell video. Perfect. You won’t notice any of the other stuff behind the scenes. Great workaround until Google releases access to the doorbell button to all 3rd party companies through it’s Google Home API.

I should note that it’s been a a while since I did this, but I did absolutely set this up to work with Google in the past and can confirm that it is possible. I can’t remember if I got it work using a single google device or if I might have had to use 2 Google devices in the same room (have one make the announcement and the other hear it and trigger based on the announcement), but I think I found a way to get it to do it silently with a single device, I just can’t remember the full details.

I hope that helps to give you some ideas.

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The problem with this method is that it seems to work only once unless the camera is restarted or Google Home otherwise gets some indication that the camera is off. If that doesn’t happen, then Google Home seems to “know” that the camera is already on the second (and third and fourth…) time the Wyze Automation sends the “turn on” signal. A few posts starting here in another topic discuss this.

Although it involves the purchase (or possible repurpose) of another device, I think the Plug or Plug Outdoor (two independent sockets!) is a better option for this kind of automation and for keeping things relatively simple.

Having said that, I’m not sure how to get a Google Home Routine to stream a video on a mobile device as requested. I don’t have a Pixel tablet, but on my Pixel phone I’m not seeing that as an option for a streaming target when I set up a test Household Routine (because it has to be this type in order to use a device turning on or off as a Starter). Even when I just talk to Google Assistant on the phone and ask it to show me the camera, Assistant apologizes and requests “the exact name of the screen”. If I tell it to show me that camera “on this screen” or “on my phone”, then it just gives me search results for cameras. :roll_eyes:

If there is, then I’d be interested in learning! I think your best bet is probably just to make sure the tablet gets the doorbell notifications so that you can tap the notification when it arrives and view the video feed that way. If you want to automate that process, then it might be possible with a third-party notification interceptor like MacroDroid (or an alternative) running on the tablet. I imagine you could have it watch for doorbell button press notifications from the Wyze app and then automatically load the stream for you that way (maybe drop a Wyze widget on your home screen to make it easier to launch that camera directly), but I haven’t actually tried this…yet. Now I guess I have another thing to add to my to-do list for this week. :thinking:

Welcome to the Forum, @rwadhwa50! :wave:

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Oh dang. I could’ve sworn back when I tested it that it didn’t have an apparent limit. Thanks for the heads up. I guess I’ll stop suggesting the camera on method now.

Another option, my preferred option, would be to use a notification watching app like Tasker or macro droid and have them push an action to Google home to stream the camera on the tablet when the doorbell notification shows up.

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I thought that at one point, too, but in my experience it’s been kind of a one-and-done thing as far as getting Google Home to register it as a trigger and take action as a result, and I think @grapefruityoda was confirming that in the other topic. Initially I was hopeful that this wasn’t going to be the case, because the other user we were trying to help in that topic reported that it seemed to work for Cam v3 but not at all for Cam OG, so I was thinking maybe it was dependent on Cam model, but apparently it’s more of a Google Home limitation. Also, since Google Home can’t send an “on” or “off” signal to a Wyze Cam, there’s no way to continue the automation there to reset a camera as a trigger; that has to be done back in the Wyze app.

I agree that if the ultimate goal is to get an automatic stream on the Pixel Tablet, then the best bet seems to be a third-party notification interceptor.

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