So I saw the announcement Wyze made earlier to “give AI detection to all”. But what it really is was to drop the possibility of free 12 second clip in the future.
I was not surprised when the news came out. I’ve always been wondering about the feasibility of the free 12 second event clips. It seems like this would ultimately lead to net loss in the long run. Servers take money, I understand. But losing the cloud recording ability would cause more issues.
But don’t forget the key points why users choose Wyze over other products: Wyze have basic remote recording service without a subscription. Other providers would straight up charge us for a bogus amount of device price, or monthly fee. And some even don’t have the micro sd card built-in.
I have mixed feelings when the post mentioned 70% of the users doesn’t watch the clips. Please tell me this is a mistake instead of an excuse. The reason why people don’t watch their clips is because their house was not broken into during that time. Even people don’t watch it, it doesn’t mean the camera shouldn’t record it.
So why do we need cloud recording features? Simple. SD card is not 100% safe. Thieves can take the camera with them. We can’t always hide the cameras, but we can hide the recorded clips online. If thieves know the fact a houseowner doesn’t record videos to the cloud, they would simply take all the cameras away as they leave.
Now we understand that what user want isn’t necessarily storing clips on the cloud. Instead, they want the clip to be stored somewhere other than the camera. How do we fix the problem? You already have a solution. There’s a base station for the outdoor cameras. How about make a base station able to store recordings for any cameras? Thieves can take cameras with them, but we can hide a base station somewhere in the house so they won’t take it. On the other hand, storage become local, who-la, no more pressure for online storage.
Of course I’m not a product manager, these are only ideas. Apologies if there are any feasibility issues, but in theory, local at home recording can also be achieved by RTSP firmware, so at least… we can do it DIY.