Finally saying goodbye to Wyze

Sensors
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I’ve been using Wyze for some time now, actually since the V2 was launched. I imported a bunch of Wyze products, including two Wyze Cams and a Sense kit, and have been actively participating in some early betas etc. ever since. It’s been great fun and I’ve grown to love the Wyze brand an the team. Recently I switched from the beta to the production releases aiming to really “use” my Wyze gear as part of my smart home setup, instead of toying with the products and pre-releases.

However, this has not been so successful and I’ve decided it’s time to move on. As my smart home setup matures I’ve found that my needs also change. Gone are the days of wanting to spend hours fiddling and troubleshooting, instead now I find more value in reliability, simplicity and security. Wyze was a great toy initially but it has not quite kept up with my changing needs, so today I’m saying goodbye for good. However, before saying the final goodbye, I’d like to drop a few lasts thoughts and share the reasons behind my decision.

Why I choose Wyze gear from my smart home:

  • I love the people and the Wyze philosophy - The Wyze team is awesome! They are open, responsive and just great! I love the idea of a $19 camera and the awesome community involvement.

  • Good value - I don’t think I need to elaborate in this one…

  • IFTTT, 2FA and person detection - These features are the ones that kept me from switching to any other manufacturer. The fact that these features are free, and work perfectly is something that no other camera manufacturer has matched to date.

Why I’m dropping Wyze gear from my smart home:

  • Google Home integration is still not working - This integration promised much and was met with a lot of fanfare. Having been part of the original beta I was pretty sure that the final issues were going to be resolved once released. However, almost a year later I am still unable to stream my Wyze Cams on my Nest Hub. The same “buffering issue” preventing the stream from showing (identified during beta) is still present. Combine this with the constant need to unlink and relink Wyze with Google Assistant, the inability to view the stream in the Google Home app, and the enormous delay… Well, I have to be honest and say this integration is not a minimum viable product.

  • Random connectivity issues - Loading the video stream in the Wyze app is still a clunky and somewhat unreliable process. The time needed to initiate the stream varies widely and is completely unpredictable, proving to be frustrating to use in real-world conditions. Especially the switch between SD and HD when moving from group to single view causing additional latency. If something is happening (a burglary in my case) these precious few seconds really count and make a difference.

  • Issues with SD card playback - The playback from SD card is barely useable, especially when trying to search for a specific event. The video is slow to load and usually completely fails to load the correct time. It makes browsing/skimming for a specific event nearly impossible without actually removing the micro SD card.

  • Quality and performance discrepancies - I have two Wyze Cams, one is an early V2 (initial production run) and the other is a V2 I bought about a year later. The early V2 is reliable and never reboots, however, the later V2 reboots at random at least 4-8 times a day. It is also prone to random connectivity issues and regularly has difficulties loading the live stream even when connected.

  • Sense keeps losing connection - My Wyze Sense kit has been beset with random connectivity issues. Sensors drop offline randomly or contact sensors stop responding. They are completely unreliable (except for the motion sensor). Usually, they start working again after 24hrs but they regularly require a full reset to get going again.

I think the problem is that I am getting “serious” with my smart home setup, meaning the novelty factor has worn off. My smart home has gone from a fun project to an integral part of my daily routines. My needs have matured and… well… Wyze has not. Wyze is fun, wacky, and sometimes a bit wonky. It’s cool and interesting but I think its time to become a bit more serious. It’s time to get the finer details sorted and build a product that is reliable and refined. I’ve come to associate Wyze with constant little niggles (okay, some bigger ones… Google Home). Granted, some may be unbothered by this, but I’ve grown slightly tired of it. Ideally a smart home should “just work” and simplify life, however, Wyze never “just works” and the constant niggles seem to have the opposite effect to simplifying life.

I wish the Wyze team all the best, and although we now part ways, I still support you all the way!

Kind regards,
Daniel (South Africa)

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Hi Daniel,

Best of luck on your journey! I very much understand your position and thought your post was clearly written and very lucid! Well done.

Like you my Smarthome investment has grown both in scope and equipment. I took a slightly different path and landed in HomeKit land backed up by Alexa. I am still evaluating cameras but have already replaced motion sensors and contact sensors etc. I will probably keep my Wyze cameras just not in positions where I need to count on coverage.

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Thanks @rbruceporter!

I’ve been looking at the TP-Link Kasa KC105 and/or KC125 to replace my Wyze Cams. These cameras will launch soon and they offer micro SD card support which was lacking in previous models. They are in the same price range as Wyze but are definitely more well rounded and reliable products. Only problem is no 2FA and no person detection.

Like you, I’ll probably also keep one Wyze Cam around just in case I have a blind spot.

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I have pre-ordered the new Eufy 2K cameras. They are slightly more expensive than Wyze but they offer the ability to work locally and have person and animal detection. They won’t ship until next month however. So I won’t really know if the hold up to their hype until then.

The reliable and capable camera market has had the costs driven down and we are starting to see a lot more cameras in the sub 100 price range. Ecobee just launched one, and Amazon and Google supposedly have cameras coming in that price range.

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This is what I want to do every day since april 27. I only have 10 cams and I try to keep hope in the next updates. For my smarthome stuff, I don’t trust Wyze. With SmartThings, when a problem occurs, it is fixed quickly. I’m also an Homekit user and all my switches are from Lutron Caseta. All the issues I have with my smarthome stuff are with my Wyze cams. The majority come from the update at the end of April…with the return of person detection. I don’t know if it is relating… however, this function works well but this update brought me several problems.

Good luck!

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I am new to Wyze but one thing for sure, what I observed is that wyze will fix the issues eventually. But in the process they create new bugs from addons.

They just need a bit more discipline in testing betas.

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They do indeed tend to fix issues. And I believe they mean well. Lately they have introduced new issues with every release. Including re-introducing previous issues. That makes me wonder about their regression testing and release testing.

That said I am confident they will eventually fix these issues but I am fairly certain they have a deeply split development team. Part here, part in China. I have never yet seen such an arrangement work smoothly.

Not just China, but India and Russian, and former eastern bloc countries. I have seen companies try, and fail, at all sorts of combination teams. Kudos to Wyze if they can pull it off.

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I agree with your thoughtful review. I began using Wyze products 11/2017, shortly after they started offering cameras. With a total of 43! Wyze devices now, I have concluded the reliability and quality of the App, both production and Beta, is too frustrating and requires far too much of my time for resolution.

The breaking point for me was the Band, which would never pair with my phone, and the App changes to support the Band caused far too many issues for the Wyze products to be useful to me. I wish I could revert to a version of the App from 2019, prior to the Band and Scale, when most App functions were stable. For now, I will not update the App nor purchase more Wyze products. I need to see stability and reliability in the devices and App, but my confidence is substantially eroded.

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It’s a tough conversation to have. I don’t wish to criticise the folks at Wyze because I think they’re doing an admirable job. I think the problem is that the team is too thinly stretched and are focusing on getting new products out. The unfortunate side effect of that is that they are somewhat neglecting the other products and the user experience is suffering as a result.

I know it’s vital to get new products out to keep the money coming in but they should ideally hit pause for a bit and get the user experience (reliability, stability and usability) ironed out. The long term effects of neglecting this aspect may be detrimental.

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I am a WYZE fan and have had zero issues with their products.

To the OP, if I wanted a robust dependable security system, it would be CCTV connected to a DVR. Relying on a $25.00 camera for security is asking a lot.

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May be it is an opportunity for Wyze to get in and become a serious designer in the security camera business.

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I was waiting for this comment. This is at best a convenient excuse based on some seriously wrong assumptions and topped with a sprinkling of denial. Ultimately these products are being used for security to some extent.

Unless a product is “reliable and dependable” it serves no real purpose, it becomes nothing more than a toy. The problem is that some big brands are starting to offer cameras at roughly the same price point as Wyze and these cameras are indeed “reliable and dependable”. That’s why I posted my thoughts to encourage Wyze to work on refining their product to suffice mainstream consumers with different expectations of their products.

Let me put it this way - I have a routine in my Wyze app called “reboot all cameras”… I’ve never had to make the same routine for my Kasa cameras.

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Absolutely! They actually have some excellent hardware. It’s a great opportunity for them to grow their user base from hobbyists to mainstream consumers - two markets with very different expectations.

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I just replaced my expensive CCTV system with a DVR because it was even more unreliable. At least with Wyze my investment is 1/2 and if something breaks I throw it away it’s just a few bucks. The weak link in the chain is the sense bridge. They figure that out and they’ve got something.

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As long as you are comfortable with sideloading, ApkPure has an extensive archive of previous versions for Android devices.

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Please PM me with the price(s) you would be willing to take for selling your Wyze stuff second hand. I might be willing to take them off your hands if the price for your used stuff is a fair one.

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I agree. Wyze has been great at a lot of things, but there are some deal breakers. I have 7 cams and the sense kit and have similar niggling issues.

  • Google Home a complete Fail.
  • SD card playback same as you
  • Camera quality, I’ve had 2 fail. (one just clicking and won’t boot, the other with half the sensor fail)
  • Sense, my switches are fine 99% of the time, but motion sensor is completely useless, alerts every 5 minutes regardless what is happening.
  • Notification bug, all my notifications have a time stamp on them 1 hour in the future for 6 months of the year we aren’t in Summer time (Wyze couldn’t fix it last year so I just live with it half the year).

Being in Australia I paid a lot more for these Cams importing them. For the most part, they have met my expectations given the price. However Wyze hasn’t really ironed out issues over time like I’d hoped. At this point I don’t think I’d buy any more Wyze products, they just aren’t reliable enough.

I hope Wyze can improve the quality of the total experience before the competitors come to eat their lunch.

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Now, I realise this suggestion has some very wide repercussions and would require serious considerations. However, I would actually prefer that Wyze split the app into Wyze Home (for cameras, lights, etc.) and Wyze Health (for the band, scale, etc.).

It would make more sense and may help to reduce the complexity of the UI and also hopefully cut down on all the issues being introduced in the app. Also, it means that the app can be smaller and less resource intensive for those not interested in superfluous products such as the Wyze band and scale.

Oh, and if we could PLEASE just hide the darn “shop” and “discover” tabs…

@UserCustomerGwen will hopefully take some of the feedback in this thread on board :smile:

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I have never updated my firmware due to fear that there would be future problems. Local person Identification was a main reason for my camera purchases and can say that my version 4.9.5.36 still works well. I use TinyCam Pro software due to the superior multi camera views and the ability to view it on my Android TV’s. Understanding Wyze camera limitations makes them still my favorite inexpensive camera. As a reference I also have Foscam, Blink, Nest and Yi cameras. Yi cameras are the most comparable to Wyze although slightly more expensive. If they could improve the connection speed of viewing the cameras, person detection accuracy, playback scrubbing and multiple view layouts (larger numbers like TinyCam) they would solve all my concerns. Here’s hoping these issues keep improving

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This is exactly how I feel. I’m in Australia too so the cost of these cams is actually more than most people are paying. I too was lured in by the google home integration - it has been a total fail since day one.

I’ve now shifted to a Raspberry Pi and don’t really use the Wyze app much anymore except to check on the baby monitor/camera sometimes because its just faster for a single camera.

The sensor bridge is useless. I don’t know how people are reporting such incredible range. I live in a relatively small urban house and my door sensors drop out all the time. From one end of the house to the other I cann’t use a single bridge for all sensors, so the “supports up to 100 devices” seems like a waste of time. I’m exploring other options such as RF now.

Notifications too - I even set rules so I don’t get bothered constantly. Seems like the app just resets itself when it chooses and I start getting beeps all day again.

Glad I’m not the only one who has felt let down in this regard. I haven’t completely bailed because it’s only been about 6 mo since I’ve invested in them but I’m actively looking for alternatives.

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