Doorbell cam won't group

Set up a group and added my cameras to it, except it won’t let me add my Video Doorbell Pro. Did Wyze disable the doorbell cam from groups, like they did with Wyze View?

Sort of. It’s not that Doorbells were actively disabled from groups as much as they have never had the extra coding implemented to be able to support being in a group in the first place.

It basically amounts to the same outcome either way though. Doorbells do not work in groups at this time.

You can vote on the wishlist here to show them your desire to have this functionality added:

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Thanks, @carverofchoice. I have registered my vote.

I see that the request is listed as “Maybe later” which almost certainly means probably never. I suppose their resources are limited. I see that they’re advertising for a principal software engineer… maybe I should apply. :slight_smile:

I’m told that the Wyze Outdoor Cam V2 (the one with the separate base station) can be groupled, but I’m not so sure… it’s battery operated so I assume the issues would be the same as the doorbell cam, if you try to continuously monitor in a group or via web view you run down the battery, correct?

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It’s not that the battery power is the deal breaker for that, the groups are actually “functional groups”. Outdoor wco s and plugged in cameras function as cameras, whereas the doorbell cameras function as doorbells. Cameras and doorbells function differently, so the grouping of the different functional devices would need to decided and implemented. It’s not as drastic and noticable as grouping cameras and bulbs, but those are two seperate functional devices and don’t group either with the same fundamental issue.

There is also a existing wish list for grouping different functional device types, which would also cover grouping cameras and doorbells.

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LOTS of things have moved from “Maybe later” to “In Progress” and “Wishes Granted” in the time I have been here. Sometimes things listed in “Probably not” have even been implemented. What “Maybe later” really means is that they agree that this request has value but it is not currently on their active roadmap of things they’ve told their devs to make a priority right now, and while it’s not an urgent/critical consideration, it is something they want to keep on the table for review as they clear up more space on their immediate roadmap. Basically a good estimate is that you shouldn’t expect to see something listed in “Maybe Later” getting implemented within the next 6 months or so, but it is something they want to continue to revisit as a possibility as limited resources and priorities allow.

But that’s just generally how it works. I have sometimes seen some things in Maybe later get implemented as in-progress or launched REALLY FAST sometimes, but that is an exception rather than the norm. IMO (not speaking for Wyze here) the norm should be to not expect anything in Maybe Later to become available for at least 6 months since I assume it often gets put on the end of the roadmap when it moves over to in progress. And of course some “Maybe Later” items never get implemented, hence the “Maybe” side of things. But I can attest to seeing a lot go through the wishlist process successfully similar to how I described.

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Understood, @carverofchoice. But it has been a bit over 2 years since grouping of doorbell cams was first requested. I assume it’s been languishing in “Maybe later” for all of that time. So while I understand that some “Maybe laters” and even a few “Probably nots” have ended up being implemented, my guess is the vast majority of them never see the light of day.

I’m wondering if Wyze follows Agile / Scrum in their software development, where requirements are listed as “user stories”, arranged in a “backlog” in order of priority, and implemented in two to four week “sprints”. If so it would be interesting to see where grouping of doorbells appears in the backlog.

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