Home Assistant Integration

Oh man that is a great idea, I love it!

For one most people dont usually like trying to pick up on others work then you have the fact that they cant bleed the people for a monthly subscription. It’s really quite clear when you look at it all put together.

They buy products and rebrand them as Wyze. They hired some freelance coder to make them an app. They got a bunch of fanboys to moderate their website. Now they wait on the users to fix the product.

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That seems a bit extreme…granted it seems to fit the latest batch of product releases.
I’ll say, Wyze didn’t invent putting out a product before it was ready for prime time…seems to be it was a company that starts with A.

Some of this might’ve been the case back in 2017, maybe up to 2018 or 2019 at the very latest, but definitely is not the case anymore. They have a ton of full time employees, many with highly technical PhD’s; experienced programmers, and software and network engineers. I follow a few other similar tech companies as Wyze and I can tell you that Wyze definitely does a lot more firmware updates, innovative features and options coming out constantly than a lot of the others I have. They do rebrand and repurpose several products, but definitely not all of them, several are 100% theirs, even with their own separate FCC licenses (which they wouldn’t need if they were just rebranded) and other stuff, and regardless, even in the rebranding cases, usually their firmware and such is vastly superior to the others who are using the same hardware and they still cost less.

I understand the frustration. I am definitely anxious for H.A. access too, but I have watched the jobs they hire for, the employees they collect (you can see many of them and their credentials and experience on LinkedIn) and I’ve personally interacted 1-on-1 with several of the engineers and they’ve never seemed incompetent to me.

I think it’s mostly a priority thing. HA is a huge priority for most of US, but is a much lower priority for them compared to other things that someone has decided has a much higher likelihood of importance or growth. I personally think they are underestimating the value of H.A. compatibility in the long term, but they will do what they believe has the highest benefit for the time required. I know they said API’s are on their radar to support, but it’s just not as big a priority to them as it is to me sadly. As a multiple time business owner myself, I can understand that though…but it’s still frustrating as I really want this on a personal level.

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That’s a big pendulum swinging over the head of every satisfied Wyze + TinyCam user too. :frowning:

Hmm. Joshua’s hacks require 2FA be turned off but TinyCam does not. Wonder why.

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I hope the announcement about depreciating older apps doesn’t affect the currently functioning APIs but, I think it will break some functionality.

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While all of that is a nice the other side of the coin is

Multiple failed product launches

Repeated broken firmware launches.

Products that don’t have the features promised.

Very limited customer interaction.

Broken returns process with no support.

Reliance and full focus on cloud subscriptions and new products rather than fixing the broken crap they already sold.

My scale gives wildly differing weights with each step onto it. My watch doesn’t sync with google fit or offer any smart functions at all that I’m aware of other than giving differing stats than what my other fitness trackers give me. Multiple door sensors that are no longer able to be used at all. The community is having to fix problem after problem yet you say they have a stacked team of experts.

I don’t even have much skin in the game anymore as I’ve gotten rid of a lot of the wyze stuff I was using. The only reason I’m still pissed is because I actually made a huge mistake and suggested wyze to a friend who bought a bunch of the stuff and still has the issues. Made me look like an idiot for suggesting wyze before doing enough homework myself.

I’m with @ikrowni . I was personally involved with the beta process for a recently launched product. Several flaws, in the implementation of the device were pointed out from the beginning. Wyze had no interest of fixing anything in their design. They were fine with fixing malfunctions, and bugs, but If it was a suggestion, or a flaw in implementation, they mostly ignored feedback. There are a couple of notable exceptions, but 70% of the “change this” type suggestions were ignored.

Exciting news from WyzeFrederik

Basically, he’s confirmed that Wyze has joined the new Opensource “Matter” Alliance (previously known as CHiP), which All the major platforms have committed to support. This basically means that in a year or so Wyze should be accessible by Home Assistant and almost all the other major IOT platforms we could want.

I think that’s why we haven’t heard anything about API’s lately or Home Assistant Specifically. It would be insane to waste time on compliance for individual platforms and such when being Matter compliant will instantly make all their devices accessible by every platform, including Home Assistant. And since it’s all open source, the possibilities seem nearly limitless! I no longer have to consider leaving Wyze to find a Home Assistant compatible device. It seems it won’t be ready until at least sometime in 2022, but at least there is finally hope. Now all we have to do is wait for the Matter standard to mature and we’re good to go.

Exciting news, just sucks to have to wait until next year, but at least we finally have some cool related news.


EDIT: He added some clarification for me.

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I’m not intimately familiar with CHIP/Matter but I do want to note that while the reference implementation is Apache licensed, there is no public specification, the protocol is still proprietary, and it includes an attestation system that ensures certified devices will only work with other certified devices. So unless Home Assistant is able to pay for and receive certification, it might not be interoperable. There are a lot of things still unclear with Matter, so personally I’m not getting my hopes up just yet.

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Interesting. I just assumed it was all opensource based on the website continuing to say it was opensource:

I certainly don’t understand all the details involved as I haven’t read the 1K+ pages related to the project, but it does give me some hope.

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I think they’re just being coy. It says “open source approach” which I think is referencing how the backers are working together (Apple, Amazon, and Google sharing HomeKit, Alexa, and Google Assistant integration specifications with each other) but not how they will work with others (the protocol will be property of the Connectivity Standards Alliance and requires membership to interoperate with). I’m not certain on any of this but I’m tempering my expectations because a truly open source protocol from these companies sounds too good to be true.

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I see what you mean.

I am curious though, The wiki you linked to, said:

And then you said:

So, instead of charging royalties, they’d charge for a “certification” which you wouldn’t be allowed to use unless you paid for it?

That is a little bit of a slimey move. What we really need is a FREE way for any and all devices to be able to interconnect, a truly open-source option. Anytime a royalty or “certification fee” is required it’s really hard to get extremely long term massive adoption and improvement. I’ll be fairly disappointed if this is a requirement.

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Yeah, I’m not certain on any of this but my current understanding is that the protocol includes a remote attestation scheme that means certified devices will check certificates of other devices online and reject ones that are not certified by the alliance. I think currently to even see the specification you need to be a member of the alliance, the GitHub only has a reference implementation that would need to be reverse engineered for anyone else to use. I’m not really sure what the “royalty-free” part of this is, the bottom of the Matter website even has a link to “Join the alliance” which lists the associated fees for membership and certification.

A lot of this is still unclear so we still have to wait and see how things pan out. But I have concerns that Matter will not be good for Home Assistant or the open source smart home community as a whole. I think Matter is poised for success with the backing of Apple, Amazon, and Google, and I expect many products will transition to Matter in 2022 to continue supporting these ecosystems. But I’m by no means an expert, so take what I say will a grain of salt.

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Never heard of the project but why does it sound like a way to co-opt any momentum that Home Assistant was gaining…

This is the second paragraph of the Wiki page linked above.

CHIP is proprietary. As of 2021-01, the specification reads, “This information within this document is the property of the Zigbee Alliance and its use and disclosure are restricted.” Although the CHIP code repository is Apache licensed, there is no available specification, and creating a CHIP compatible device requires use of a remote attestation scheme that prevents adversarial interoperability.

As of May 2021, CHIP has been renamed to Matter

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Thanks, that was a great reference. It’s disappointing they are charging so many fees and nickel and diming everywhere they can with this project. I am now not as supportive as I initially was. I really thought it was opensource and that it would be possible for basically any start up or anyone to make anything compliant such. Charging yearly fees and fees for each product, and all the other bureaucracy…well, we might not have a choice if all the tech giants join in on this, but I was really hoping for a more truly open-source initiative, not another pay to play issue.

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I just read on Reddit that users are saying they were able to connect the V2 sensors to the V1 bridge that is running through Home Asssistant and so they are able to use the V2 sensors locally on Home Assistant now just like the V1’s.

Obviously if paired this way, they can’t also work through Wyze at the same time though. Anyone have any idea how to accomplish this? This news makes me much more likely to start switching a ton of stuff over to home assistant sooner since Wyze just announced Home Assistant is not a priority for them and is not even on their timeline.

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In other words [Mod Edit] you! Yea I’m done with this [Mod Edit] company. Anyone wanna buy these last 2 wyze v3 cameras, a wyze scale, and a wyze watch (possibly 3 if the others in my house so choose)?

Probably do half price plus shipping. If you’re interested post here in this thread I’ll contact you in DM.

I also might have a few more things like motion detectors and sensors that no longer broadcast if my friend wants to sell them as well.

MOD NOTE: Post edited to conform to the Community Guidelines.

Sure, I’ll take the v3s and any door and motion sensors you want to sell. DM me.

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I’m interested. Please DM me any prices. Thanks.