Competition is heating up

[peepeep]

@jrodricks

The community has been all but begging Wyze to focus on improving the app and the user experience instead of expending their hardware lineup.

From Senior Director of Technology & Services, @Frederik, about six months ago:

@Frederik

I don’t see how they’ll be able to continue rapidly expanding features without forcing people to adapt to a changing interface (or forego updates, which has its own drawbacks.)

We won’t and we are thinking about that. The approach to UX was one thing when we had one product: 1 camera. When you launch the camera, we know what you want to do: use the camera. But when you have not one but many cameras, sensors, bulbs and plugs then it becomes very difficult to know why you are coming in the app. There is also people like me: with many cameras in their house. (about 15 including in & out of the house). The amount of video produced per day is beyond what can be reviewed by watching the videos.
We also have something different coming. While the devices that we have brought to market so far are dedicated to the home, there are two devices that are personal in nature. The mobile phone and the upcoming scale.
This means that we have to change how we are approaching the app and what it means to use the app. The challenge is that for the customers that have one camera, or a couple of bulbs, we should not have a very complicated UX, the simplicity that we had when we launched the app should still be there BUT the UX should allow to take on the complexity of customers with a very large set of the devices (in quantity and diversity).
So what are we doing? First, we realize that the original team was stretched beyond limit. So we more than triple the number of designers that are working on creating your Wyze experience. We also are rethinking the app from the bottom up. We started 6 months ago but hit an impasse. So we double down and are hard at work in creating the next version of it and we are starting to get some pretty interesting lessons.
One is that to unlock and contextualize the devices, we will need to augment the quantity of organizing concepts.
For example, we are looking at the notion of Home because for some automation we need to know if the user is home or close to home and what are the devices that are at that location.
Another lesson is that being device centric makes some of the UX difficult because you might jump from one device to the next when trying to do something. For example, a doorbell, a contact sensor and a lock might be working in tandem when someone is at the door.
So we are looking at all those challenges and trying to create the best UX possible.

[myswtest]

@peepeep

From Senior Director of

Does Wyze gather requirements from “regular ol’ users”? If no, that’s the issue.

A software company can not produce a quality UI/software/hardware to be consumed by the general public. unless they engage the general public for requirements.

[rbruceporter]

They certainly do, they solicit feedback from all. And they seem to listen fairly well too!

[cf7]

I tried to get more info on SimCam. there is no forum. so it is a Negative for the brand.
but I found a reviewer…the product was a year ago.

SimCam review

[rbruceporter]

Apparently it was an Indigogo project. I found cams for sale ranging from $60 to $200+ depending on where. And a lot of the offers looked sketchy. Specs sound great but does not appear to have much of a company behind it.

[peepeep]

I think so. Here’s an illustrative exchange from a big topic in the recent past:

@WyzeGwendolyn

We are continuing to take note of all of the security features you are requesting in the comments and in our Wishlist. Here is the list of features we have prioritized and started researching right now:

• Adding the ability to change account email addresses
• Other methods for multi-factor authentication besides SMS (including an authenticator app)
• Multi-factor authentication to Wyze websites
• Adding a website that will make learning about Wyze security easier and provide a dedicated channel for reporting any potential issues

We welcome further suggestions through the Wishlist

@lukaszjski

Great list so far wyze. I just find it odd that you are asking the community for feedback on how to secure your company products and services. Who are the experts in this case? The community or wyze or the third party security professionals you hired?

@rbruceporter

Some of the very best advice can come from the most unlikely source. Also asking does not require you to take the advice. But it certainly can’t hurt. After all, literally everything they are doing was also asked for by the community.

[norway]

2k would only be slightly better/wider than 1080p. (2048 vs 1920, they’re both 1080). Other factors would improve quality more than adding 6.25% more lines.

[wtimothyholman]

I really don’t see the appeal of the Eufy cams. Battery-powered cams are a non-starter in my book. “Battery powered” means “motion event recording only”, which inevitably leads to situations where you miss important information because the motion sensing didn’t cut in soon enough. IMO, Wyze got it right with the flat power cable that can be run a window sill, and continuous recording with an SD card installed.

I have a lot of PoE wired cameras in my security setup (Dahua and Amcrest). The ONLY wireless cameras that I use are Wyze cams, specifically because of the low cost, the wired AC power cable, and the human figure detection.

If you’re looking to upgrade from an Arlo, or a similar battery powered camera system, then the Eufy is probably worth a look, but I don’t think Wyze is competing in quite the same space.

Of course, none of this means I wouldn’t like to see more improvements to the Wyze camera interface, specifically the addition of a web-based interface viewable on a laptop.

[jrodricks]

The new Eufy Indoor cam is wired (micro usb). It offers optional local storage via microSD, but for slightly more money than a Wyze it offers HoneKit support and higher resolution.

[angus.black]

Neither camera is expensive but $40 vs $20 isn’t slightly more, it’s 100% more.

[rbruceporter]

2 cents is 100% more than 1 cent both are extremely low value. That logic is not really applicable. 20 bucks vs 40 bucks is very close in the market where most cameras are near or over 100 dollars.

I think Wyze delivers excellent value for its price. But if Eufy can deliver a camera with the published specs for 40 then they are also delivering excellent value for the amount.

I would not take anything away from either. HomeKit only matters to those in the Apple ecosystem. To the rest of the user base it is of no value.

We will have to see exactly what Eufy delivers for the retail price and decide then.

[angus.black]

@rbruceporter

2 cents is 100% more than 1 cent both are extremely low value.

That’s why I started with “Neither camera is expensive”.

It will be interesting to see if 1 Eufy is worth 2 Wyze cameras. Competition is always good for the end user.

[rbruceporter]

Competition is good, also not everyone needs or wants the same features, so choice is cool too. What I have wanted for a while is NFS recording. You can do it with Wyze but it takes some doing. It would be nice if it was baked in. Eufy has made noises that they may include that in an upcoming firmware update.

To me, that feature alone would be worth the 40 price. No more SD cards and no worries if the camera is stolen. Your footage is safe! I like HomeKit but not having it is not a deal breaker for me.

[peepeep]

I can only afford 1 camera. I will buy the cheaper one at a 50% discount to the more expensive one and use the $20 to buy X loaves of bread, X gallons of milk, and a People magazine.

My children are like baby birds, mouths agape.   They never depict kids in People like that.

[cf7]

Eufy is sending data to China server.

Another off my list.

[rbruceporter]

Do you know of any camera including Wyze that is not? Amazons servers are world wide including China. Amazons cloud services are used by many many IoT devices. The nature of load balancing in a networking environment almost guarantees some of your data will spend time in China, and Europe, and South America, and Africa, and the Middle East etc.

[Frankns]

Have to agree. HomeKit could be a deal-maker/breaker for me

[angus.black]

You’ve just burst a bubble.

I was sending Wyze cam video to Google Drive and my own FTP server using tinyCam. It was getting to be too much for my Android TV box though.
I may try it again with fewer cameras and only G Drive.

[Bebow]

For me it all comes down to a person detection that works. The Wyze motion is useless for setting up notifications. At night cars headlights hit my house and trip the motion no matter where the sensitivity is set or the area used.
I will give that camera a serious look.
Thanks!

[jgross]

I really want HomeKit. If another company designed a system which works and has HomeKit I would have to jump ship.