From Ring to Wyze

[mola]

I had Wyze cameras a long while back but when I wanted a doorbell, the Wyze one was ugly. With the new black one, it was much more attractive for my house so decided since it had SD recording, I can get out of my ring subscription and record everything. I had 5 ring cams including doorbell. I thought these new cams would work like my old OG and pan cam but man what a mess this is. My new setup is 2 ring battery pros, OG, Pan v2, Doorbell v2. Some of my pain points are:

• each cam has different UI, also different cool downs and recording lengths. Battery pro has 1 min cooldown but 12 seconds recording where the doorbell has 5 min cooldown but continuous recording. And sure I can have continuous on the battery pro but for only few hours when not connected so its 12 seconds or nothing.

• the constant cam plus pop ups in the app are super annoying, I get it, you want recurring revenue but popping that up at every turn is so annoying. Why make SD recording, then purposely make it crappy and at every turn put cam plus in peoples face. Im sure this has been covered to death on here.

• the Ring UI for events and the way it takes stills is infinitely better than Wyze UI.

• Doorbell chime integration, I dont have existing so had to do the hack with a Wyze plug to manage a doorbell playlist (one song that is sound of doorbell) on my google homes. Its not ideal and wish they made a chime for this thing but at least now it rings all over my house.

There is some good things, mainly continuous recording and the quality of the new cams. The Wyze doorbell v2 is far better than the Ring Wired I had, at night it is full color with my porch light on so certainly an upgrade. I decided to replace the OG and pan with the new v4 to get upgraded quality but those wont be here for couple days. What different limitations will these have? Only time will tell.

My wishlist would be just allow people cool downs as ‘none’ without the plan and also customize the battery pro recording length to say ‘while motion’ or at least 1 minute. Paying a $20 CAD subscription per month for those two settings is ridiculous. I dont care for cloud recording.

[Crease]

@mola

so had to do the hack with a Wyze plug

I’m doing that, as well, but I use it to do a voice announcement (a Google Home “broadcast”) and also automatically stream the doorbell video for one minute on a Google Home Hub, a Chromecast, and a Google TV. It’d be cool if the hacks weren’t necessary, but they seem to work well enough for now.

@mola

Its not ideal and wish they made a chime for this thing

You mentioned that you have a Cam OG, and that can be used as a chime for the Video Doorbell v2. I enabled that for a Cam OG and 2 Cam Pan v3s, and it works reasonably well, with just a few seconds of lag (in my experience). When I’ve disabled it on my Cam Pan v3s (i.e., deselected them from “Cameras as Chime”), at least one of my Cam Pan v3s continues to ring with a doorbell press, though. I’m not sure what’s going on there.

Even if the Cam OG isn’t in a location where you would choose to place a chime now, since you said you’re replacing it with a Cam v4 you could certainly repurpose your Cam OG somewhere you actually want to be able to hear a doorbell chime.

[mola]

Yeah my OG cam is not in the best spot to use as chime, most of my cams are outdoor or garage but thanks for the suggetion. Yeah I was thinking about the broadcast but I like the sound effect I found which is a playlist of 1 which makes a nice doorbell sound across 4 google home devices. Its about 8 seconds behind a doorbell press so not sure if the playlist adds latency vs broadcast. Wish google had a ‘make doorbell sound’ lol.

These battery ‘pros’ seem pretty amateur tbh. Quality isn’t that great and features without subscription somewhat suck. I am thinking of returning them.

[Crease]

@mola

Yeah my OG cam is not in the best spot to use as chime

I didn’t know (obviously), which is why I mentioned that you can repurpose it as a chime only (i.e., move it someplace where you want an accessory doorbell chime even if you don’t need a camera there) since you said you’re replacing it with a Cam v4.

I’m not aware of any way to control the volume on Cam OG when it’s used as a chime, but the Cam Pan v3 has a slider for volume control when it’s enabled as a chime for the Video Doorbell v2. (I know you didn’t mention having a Cam Pan v3; I’m just tossing that out there in case you have a location in the future where you might want a camera and a chime.)

@mola

I like the sound effect I found which is a playlist of 1 which makes a nice doorbell sound across 4 google home devices.

That’s a cool idea, too. I dig it.

@mola

Its about 8 seconds behind a doorbell press so not sure if the playlist adds latency vs broadcast.

I don’t know what the difference might be, because I’ve never tried that, but the lag with a broadcast can be pretty significant:

Google Home (e.g., Nest Mini) integration with Wyze Video Doorbell

Sure! When I tested a few minutes ago, there was a delay of roughly 1½ seconds between the button press and the actual ding-dong of the house’s built-in mechanical chime. I’m okay with that, and I expect that’s a function of how the Doorbell and Chime Controller work together to moderate power from the transformer so that the Doorbell has enough current to maintain power while the Chime Controller discharges to actuate the chime. The announcement on my Google Home devices (a display and seve…

@mola

Wish google had a ‘make doorbell sound’ lol.

They do…sort of. As part of your Google Home automation, you could do this:

1. Tap Add action.
2. Tap Try adding your own.
3. Type (without quotes): “What does a doorbell sound like?”
4. Tap Done.

The result—and you can just ask one of your Google Home devices this with your own voice—is that Google Assistant says, “This is a doorbell.” Then it plays a doorbell sound. It’s kind of clunky, and if you build it in the Google Home app, the Configuration section (near the bottom, when you’re creating/editing the automation/routine) wants you to choose where to play the sound, but it lets you select only one device. I guess you could create a separate routine for each of your Google Home devices where you want that sound to play…or you could just stick with what you’re already doing.

I can’t speak to any experience with the battery cameras. I appreciate the concept, and they look slick in pictures and videos, but I don’t really have a use case for something like that, so all of my cameras have constant power.

[mola]

Yeah maybe I will try to repurpose the OG as a chime once I do v4s. I could ask Google to fart, my kids would like that although it does the ‘This is a fart’ first lol.

Cheers

[Crease]

@mola

I could ask Google to fart, my kids would like that although it does the ‘This is a fart’ first lol.

Yeah, same thing. I’ve done that, and I don’t even have kids! These also give interesting results:

• “Hey, Google, who farted?”
• “Hey, Google, pull my finger.”

I’m so mature.

One of the goofiest ones I’ve encountered by accident is this: “Hey, Google, stop screaming.” (I think it once heard “streaming” as “screaming” when I wanted the music to stop, but then it gave a weird response.)

@mola

maybe I will try to repurpose the OG as a chime once I do v4s.

That’s what I’d do, especially since you already have it and, as you said earlier, you “wish they made a chime for” the Video Doorbell v2.

[carverofchoice]

@mola

different cool downs and recording lengths

I can see how this is confusing. Cooldowns = like this:

• Non-subscription notification or cloud Cooldowns:
  • Battery Cameras with a PIR sensor as a trigger = selectable cooldown between 1 min to 5 minutes
  • All other wired cameras = 5 minute cooldown on notifications/short cloud events
• SD Card recordings: Most cameras have no Cooldown on event recording to SD card. Can also record continuously.

They made the cooldown exception for battery cams to have a selectable cooldown, but I am not entirely sure why.

Cam Plus removes the enforced cooldown (unless there is an active bug like with the WCO’s right now).

@mola

each cam has different UI

Lots of us have been pushing them to make it all consistent. Strangely, there is a significant amount of opposition from the user base over which UI is better or worse. Some people refuse to use the newer cams solely because they hate the new UI, and some people want their older cameras to be updated to the new UI. I didn’t realize it was that controversial, but there are several heated posts each way. Still, I would bet that they will eventually move everything to the new UI because it offers more features overall.

@Crease

@mola

I could ask Google to fart, my kids would like that although it does the ‘This is a fart’ first lol.

Yeah, same thing. I’ve done that, and I don’t even have kids! These also give interesting results:

• “Hey, Google, who farted?”

@carverofchoice

My daughter kept running all around the house yelling to Alexa (or Google) “Alexa Who farted” then giggled, then would do it again, and again, and again. So I changed that to be a custom routine and caught on a Wyze cam the next time she said it, with it responding:

“If it stinks, then my analysis is that its probably [My daughter], especially if there are any boys around. Boys make her nervous.”

Wouldn’t you know it, that embarrassing moment was all it took for it to be the very LAST time I ever had to listen to her ask “Who farted” to any of the smart assistants. It was 100% immediate extinction on this behavior…and left me with a great funny video captured on my Office Wyze Cam.

Regardless, thanks for sharing your experience of the difference! These things are helpful feedback for Wyze employees who do peruse the forums from time to time to see what people are saying.

I once got picked for a 1-on-1 zoom interview with an employee for some kind of thing back in like 2021 or 2022. I’d never heard of her at all, and didn’t know who she was at all, and the first thing this employee told me was that she was SUPER EXCITED to meet me finally. She had been seeing me and things I wrote all over the forums and she knew a bunch of stuff about me, but she had never even posted in the forums at all. I don’t think she even had an official forum account or anything, but she told me that she (and others) had often looked through the forums to see what users are saying and she and lots of other employees knew who I was, and this was even before some of my most famous posts that got shared with the whole company. So, rest assured that even if employees aren’t responding, I have had some confirm to me that there are many who will randomly browse around to get a feel for what people are thinking/saying so they can use that feedback.

[mola]

Thanks for all the replies. I really hope they open up some settings on these battery pro cams like cooldown and length, would go a long way to actually living up to pro name. I have a bit of time to decide before possibly returning.