I absolutely agree that “watching” video should be the only option for a share user.
I have an 83-year-old brother who lives alone in the Outer Banks of NC (I live in Arizona). I gave my brother shared user status with all of my external Wyze cameras so he could visually drop-in to see me working in and around the yard. It was like “looking out a window” and seeing me, which made him feel more comfortable to have that “connection.”
On many occasions, I found all external cameras mysteriously turned off. On one important occasion, I had a contractor claim he stopped by my home to complete work on a certain day, but I think he didn’t actually perform the work. So, to prove him incorrect, I decided to pull the video footage from the Wyze SD cards only to discover all cameras were turned off that day.
As it turned out, my elderly brother did not like receiving “alerts” on his mobile phone every time activity was triggered on my end. So, on occasion, he would open the Wyze app on his mobile and press “Off” on each camera – thinking he was turning off those disturbing alerts. The easy solution was to remove my brother as a “share user” from my Wyze account, which was not a good thing.
So, this is just one example of why “shared users” (guests) should NOT have the ability to accidentally or intentionally shut down the Wyze security system. Logically, it makes no sense.
Woah so your saying the shared user cannot view recorded data, because that is not the cause in my situation, although I wish it was and it needs to be, but i shared one of my cameras with my family member and they can absolutley view the recordings and even delete them if they chose to! I am a beta user but I wouldnt think that would make a difference when the said family member is not a beta user.
Yours is an excellent example that I believe is very widespread! At least, I sure encounter it often.
Especially since COVID really took off six months ago so very many people I talk to in daily life just want a CHEAP, SIMPLE and GOOF PROOF way to stay connected with non-tech-savvy relatives.
OK, OK, I can understand why Wyze does not offer certain free features for technical reasons, or because they wish to charge for them. Reality is what it is.
Sharing controls seem to be purely app and cloud based, and improving them would only increase Wyze’s market share and income! Plus Wyze has recently done so much app and interface redesign recently that would appear to dwarf this simple request.
So many times I’ve had to steer people away from Wyze for this one single reason alone!
You simply cannot have a system that can easily and accidentally be shut down when shared with other people
…especially without anyone being alerted. And most average humans are never going to setup and maintain a tinyCam Pro server.
I really hope that @UserCustomerGwen will pass this discussion on to the dev team, because…
Completely agree that it would be a better approach for many. On the other hand I’ve never used the sharing features and would have only considered them an incidental bonus on top of what I wanted the cameras for. For keeping in touch with relatives - some of whom don’t even have home Internet - phone based approaches always made much more sense to me. Duo (soon to be replaced yet again by Meetings), FaceTime, etc., or Zoom and WebEx and Teams and Skype apps. Still a pain but doesn’t depend on additional hardware or networking.
But trying to get Millennials to phone Granny by voice is often an exercise in futility. Especially when they think she might be sleeping, which is apparently 24/7.
Heck, you can’t even call many people by voice now because it immediately goes to voice mail - which is always left full because they can no longer be bothered wasting valuable time listening to VMs. Text messages, FB messages and online videos seem to be the primary common communication methods for so many now.
So I try to push the “fishtank approach” - look in when convenient to watch the pups, the roses, the birds, the veggie garden, the humans, the construction projects, etc. Then people have more conversation hooks in common when they actually do meet or talk.
So absolutely yes, as you suggest, we turn to other products!
I think you’re talking about the cloud recordings; people you share the camera with can view those. It is video recorded locally to a micro SD card that cannot be viewed.
The original topic was that this app is flawed when in fact it is NOT flawed but when we are empowered to throw our two cents in we imagine the app in only the way we intend to use it. For example the time lapse I have no need for that but I know for other people its a game changer. I use Wyze app for home security and the shared settings are not compatible to my useage so I will push for a admin rights. So not an altering of the code but a new script. That may take some time because it is so specific. Privacy laws is a big hurdle. this same topic has happened before we are just sheding new light.
I Might even pay some extra coin to become stand alone with periodic updates. I can purchase my own Hint Hint.
Ok so I am stumped why is it the some people have the settings that disable features like this for shared users while mine has nothing disabled for my shared user. I wouldn’t think this would have any effect on the situation but I am a beta tester while my husband just uses the regular app.
I think maybe they were discussing possible ideas for features that could be restricted or allowed for shared users?
AFAIK there is no adjustment now - it’s just share the cam or don’t share the cam.
All shared users have the power to intentionally or accidentally turn the cam off at will, and no shared users have the ability to view any SD card playback.
(unless, of course, you are actually sharing the same account login)
But maybe the beta is different… PLEASE tell me the beta is different… and offers more opptions!
So I just made a beta access, created new account, and had shared camera from main noon beta account. The results ?? Beta app is not able to receive shared camera notification and thus cannot accept access to the camera that was shared.
Claimed video playback working for shared users is bogus be it on regular app both phones, one on reg and the other on beta regardless which is sharing, or both on beta. There is no playback for shared users.
That has always been my experience for “continuous recording” footage stored on the micro SD card in the cam. And a majot beef of mine that this is not configurable.
But, as useful or useless as they may be at times, the 12 second event clips saved in the Wyze cloud could always be viewed by shared users in my experience. Perhaps this is the claimed “video playback” ?
I am only running production iOS and Android versions, one before the most recent, so you may be experiencing something entirely different?
If it’s important enough that the camera not ever be turned off then don’t give access to people who can’t be relied upon to not turn it off.
Accidents do happen, but again, see previous rule. If the camera can’t be off then don’t share it. If it can be off due to an accidental click, then gauge the likelihood vs trustworthiness and make your assessment.
For me, I share the camera with my wife, whom I trust, and I want her to be able to turn it off. I imagine there are plenty of others who also need this functionality, so asking for it to be off for all shares isn’t a universal need.
Perhaps it should be an option in how it’s shared.
Unfortunately there isnt a lot of difference between the two. To answer Cepegas question, we each have our own accounts and because I purchased the cameras and set them up, I share the footage with him so I guess that makes me the “main camera holder” if you will. But I noticed yesterday when using his phone to monitor our 2 year old son that he now has access to the events log but not just that, he can also delete certain footage if he chooses. This is a disturbing flaw in this entire system. I dont remember him having that kind of access when we set this up almost a year ago, now all of the sudden he does?
Just for different reasons. 
Hint Hint.