I think what @carverofchoice wrote is fair: I’ve definitely been critical of Wyze about this for a while in multiple topics.[1] Wyze’s public messaging about what Cam v4 does and does not offer without a subscription has been muddled, at best, and they’ve done some clean-up to make it potentially less confusing, though there’s still information out there from Wyze that doesn’t really provide a clear answer.
I want to add a couple of points:
- My big complaint (especially when this feature is available without additional charge at a comparable base product price from competitors) is the lack of included (i.e., “free”) person detection, which Wyze really gave mixed messages about for a long time before cleaning up some (but not all) of their public-facing materials describing the product’s features and capabilities.
- Whether the person detection is included without a subscription or not, at least one Help Center article says that the Edge AI feature is “supporting Smart Focus.” If that’s an accurate statement (and often Help Center articles have inaccuracies), then it’s absolutely fair to say that Edge AI is not a pay-only feature for Cam v4. (I’m trying to give them a little credit here.)
I’m not apologizing for Wyze at all, because this still rubs me the wrong way. That same Help Center article still says this:
Edge AI Person Detection is included with Wyze Cam v4 and Wyze Cam v3 Pro, powered by the cameras’ on-board chip, rather than relying on the cloud.
Uh…sure…except that “rather than” should probably more accurately say “while still (in Cam v4’s case)”.
I share your frustration.
This one has pretty extensive discussion, including pointing out where Wyze “corrected” messaging as that topic evolved, and it also links to other places where I’ve been critical of this particular feature absence. ↩︎