Hello. I have an Android phone and use Google Assistant voice commands. It was very easy for me to add my Wyze smart plugs to the Google home device list. Google home recognizes both the individual device names and the group name for the smart plugs.
I don’t understand why I am having difficulty setting up my V3 cameras in a similar way with Google home. In Wyze I have created a group name so I can turn all of them on or off within the Wyze app with one click.
And anyone walk me through setting up my cameras in Google Home so that I can use voice commands? I have tried multiple times and have not had any success so I’m starting from square one.
So I’ve been troubleshooting this for half of the afternoon and I did try something new. I created a new room name in Google home and assigned all three cameras to that same room. The voice command is working to turn all three cameras on by using “Turn (Room Name) On.” But when I say “Turn (Room Name) Off”, I get an error saying that the devices do not have that functionality.
I don’t think what you’re asking is possible strictly within Google Home, because my experience with Wyze cameras in Google Home is that I can view a live stream, but that’s about it. (If I’m wrong about this, then I hope someone will chime in and educate me.)
You can do this by using Automations in the Wyze app, though! You mentioned using Wyze Plugs, so that’s your key. If you have a spare Wyze Plug, then you can do this:
Have your Wyze Plug connected to power and configured in the Wyze app. I’m going to call it “Camera Switch” for the purposes of these instructions, but you can name it whatever you like.
In the Wyze app, create a Device & Service Trigger type Automation (formerly Rule).
a. Set the IF section of the Create Automation screen for “Camera Switch” Turns on.
b. Set the DO section of that screen to [name of your camera Group]Turn on the camera.
c. Save the Automation.
Create another Wyze Automation but set it so that turning “Camera Switch” off also turns your camera Group off.
Talk to your Google Assistant. When you ask it to turn your “Camera Switch” on, then that should turn the Wyze Plug on, and then that should turn on your camera Group. Likewise, asking Google Assistant to turn the “Camera Switch” off should trigger the camera Group to turn off.
I just tested this myself using one outlet of a spare Plug Outdoor, and it turned off and on a Group of Cam v4s when I gave a Google Home Mini the appropriate commands. If the instructions above don’t make sense or you need more detail or pictures, then please let me know.
I suspect that you may have given your Plugs Groups names that correspond with the names you’ve given Rooms in the Google Home app. In my experience, Google Assistant can actually recognize devices by at least three different names:
The name you gave the device in the third-party app where you configured it and linked it to Google Home.
The name you gave the device in the Google Home app itself.
The name of the Room where you assigned the device within Google Home.
This actually surprises me! Thanks for sharing that!
Hey thanks for the follow-up. I’m really happy that my Google Home room voice command (all my Wyze cams are placed in the same Google Home room) is working perfectly to turn cameras on. To turn cameras off, I’m using the Wyze 4x2 widget on Android and it’s working really well too. So, I can use voice to leave my house, which I also use to turn off my Wyze plug that runs my indoor lights, and I only need to unlock my phone to access the widget once I’m back inside the house after my errands.
All that being said, I’m having what I would say are mild problems with the new version of the Wyze Android app. I read the reviews in Google Play and it sounds like a lot of people are having an atrocious experience with the new app. It’s mostly working fine for me except notifications have suddenly stopped working - completely stopped working. They were perfect before the app update this week.
Also I did read your post about using a plug to control the cameras. At the moment I don’t have any extra plugs so it’s not an option for me. But, from memory, I do remember that on the rare occasions where I needed to manually unplug a Wyze camera and then plug it back in, there was an extended delay before the camera would reconnect to the network and be operative.
So, with me going in and out of the house three or four times a day, that just wouldn’t be workable to keep powering down the cameras.
You’re welcome! I’m going to get to something in your most recent post first, because I think there might be some misunderstanding.
I wasn’t suggesting that you use a Wyze Plug for camera power in the sense of plugging your camera’s power supply into a Plug. If that was the case, then no Wyze Automation would be necessary. What I was suggesting was using the Wyze Plug as a trigger for executing the Turn on the camera and Turn off the camera Automation Actions. In that case, the Plug just needs to be plugged into an electrical outlet and doesn’t need anything plugged into it, because we’re not using the Plug to directly supply or deny power to something; we’re using it as kind of a virtual switch to initiate Actions in Automations.
If you re-read the steps again and it’s still not making sense, then please feel free to let me know, because I think understanding this has the potential to make your life easier if you really want to be able to turn your camera group on and off using your voice. Like I said, I can share pictures (screenshots) if that would be helpful.
I get it if you don’t have an extra Wyze Plug, too, but if you’re interested in trying this you could temporarily repurpose a plug or just try out the Automation and even alter it so that when the Plug (and your lights, if you want to leave lights plugged into it even to test) turns off the camera Group turns on (or whatever you like; there are lots of possibilities).
Does that make any more sense?
As far as the Wyze app notifications go, there are several places you can check, because notifications on Android have more than one layer. If you’re receiving notifications as expected for other apps (such as Phone and Messages), then I’d check these:
Make sure you didn’t bump the in the upper-right corner of the Wyze app home screen; if notifications are turned off there, then the bell will have a slash through it: .
In the Wyze app, navigate to Account ➜ Notifications ➜ Push Notifications ➜ Enable and then toggle on whichever devices you want to send notifications under DEVICE NOTIFICATIONS.
You may also want navigate to the in-app settings for individual devices to check notifications settings for the device itself, because you might want, say, motion notifications but not sound notifications enabled.
On your phone’s home screen (or wherever you tap to launch the Wyze app), press-and-hold the Wyze app icon, then select App info from the pop-up. Then on the App info screen tap Notifications. On this following Settings screen, make sure Show notifications is enabled, and then make sure WyzeMessage is also enabled. (There may be more than one “WyzeMessage” entry. At the very least, the one indicating that it’s giving you the most notifications should be enabled, but I don’t think there’s any harm in turning them all on.)
in the upper-right corner of the Wyze app home screen; if notifications are turned off there, then the bell will have a slash through it: 
.