I no longer understand what Wyze cameras actually do, to the point I cannot recommend this product anymore because I honestly have no idea what functionality a new user would get.
You have assorted services:
Cam Plus Lite which is opt in and was announced “We’re Giving Wyze Person Detection to All Users at Whatever Price You Want” despite it also including the far more instrumental function of recording event video.
Cam Plus which makes sense
Cam Plus Pro which you announced at the same time as a confusing migration and with a confusing name (and this is despite it not being available).
Home Monitoring which honest to god until I looked up the exact name I thought was the service Cam Plus Pro replaces
Sprinkler Plus which I have a different set of thoughts on, but we’ll set that aside for now. (The thoughts are not positive.)
Assorted help pages have assorted comparison grids which randomly include 2-3 of the above.
Nowhere has a column for “no services”, and nowhere I can see includes any mention of what you get without Cam Plus Lite. Notably the product pages themselves give you no idea what a wyze camera will do out of the box. The closest is the FAQ page which mentions “Free 14-day cloud storage right out of the box” though no mention of what that means (anyone with cams already would likely assume 12 second clips, but I am guessing it’s snapshots?). Basic functionality your customer would want to know is buried in small type on the FAQ page, and even there the information is incomplete.
Cam Plus Lite initially sounded like a grandfathered service (in my app it is also called PD Legacy), so I have no idea if it’s something new customers could sign up for and use. It further sounds like you’re going to limit the devices it supports so that the doorbell won’t have any way to have free short video clips.
I could be wrong on any of that, it’s all confusing.
On top of that you are apparently doing some sort of tech stack migration (or, for some other reason, have stopped allowing playback from older app versions). This has been bungled (I have the new app and can’t view videos too), so in addition to being confused I also don’t have working cameras. Nice!
These are basic and fundamental problems with Wyze’s communication that are entirely avoidable. Put aside the buggy, rushed rollout – Wyze could have put effort into the outbound communication of these changes.
I can’t disagree. The names for the service tiers are just terrible.
I humbly submitted my own ideas to help clarify them at
If I were to recommend to a friend I’d have to tell them (a) ignore the CamPlus upselling, (b) make sure to sign up for Lite, and (c) understand the 12 second recording and 5 minute “cooldown” limitations. It’s still a good deal.
I’m not too wrapped around the axle about the naming, and my tier hasn’t changed so I am not as emotionally invested. But, I do think their rollout of the Lite as a replacement for the bottom tier before the introduction of their new thumbnail bottom tier was a botched strategy. It leaves all the legacy customers who bought product in the lurch. There is absolutely no way possible to reach every one of them to get them to upgrade to the lite without dropping and alienating them. The change needed to be seamless, automatic, and worry free. Wyze botched that and made it as confusing and painful as possible in the process.
Now add to that that they dropped an app update today integrating the tier change that is an absolute steming pile of rancid programming that it is grenadine everyone’s experience. Complete and total failure. I actually think they pulled the update because it wasn’t in the app store anymore when I checked last. Thankfully I don’t have auto update on.
Some of the pain was intentional and unavoidable - taking away recording unless people acted. That was the value proposition for them doing this (to pay for the person detection cloud CPU). It’s the wheedling and guilting and upselling and targeted marketspeak letters to each different constituency that make it worse and MUCH more confusing. I don’t know what they could have done to simplify it. They tried, in their fashion.
Can’t speak to the new app since I do my best to avoid using it.
I still wish they had written local “AI” code of their own - for the V3 at least! Would provide MUCH better performance and save some of the costs and confusion…
Wait, isn’t Cam Plus Pro meant to replace Home Monitoring since it makes outdated hardware like motion sensors and physical keypads obsolete?
And yes, aside from not properly communicating what the different services do exactly, the way they arbitrarily decided which features belong to which tier/service seems to almost have been by the flip of a coin.
I do love my devices and I’m getting everything I need from Cam Plus. But all this confusion makes me nervous that this is a company that is just waiting to get bought out, and my entire setup will become obsolete.
I agree with you. A few years ago, the Wyze Camera was really good. Since then, with new product after new product introductions, the “camera” seems to have taken a back seat. I have recommended thw Wyze Cam to family and friends, but no more. My cameras are off-line a lot these days. I have invested in a high end router, signal extenders, etc. But, I get a lot of “code 90’s” these days. The app updates are a crap shoot. The camera firmware updates are a crap shoot, as well. Maybe it’s time for Wyze to split off a camera-only division and get back to the basics, I have spent most of this evening looking at reviews of other cameras.
Seems like a very unwise business model to constantly and rapidly release new products before fixing the ongoing problems that have been plaguing their core products.
What’s the value in adding more and more products to an already existing inventory of things that need fixing?
The best things about Wyze are their hilarious marketing videos. They should just forget about selling equipment and focus on becoming a marketing and advertising company. That’s the thing they do best.
The products they sell are just cheaply made toys. The extent to which they continue to sell products is a testament to the effectiveness of their marketing despite the shoddiness of their products. But eventually even that will wear thin if they don’t improve their QC and product designs.
Ok. You’ve got me there. So I’ll add a qualifier to my statement that regarding the Wyze products I’ve purchased, Wyze’s promotional videos have been the best thing about them. You are free to interpret that as meaning that the bar is pretty low.
I haven’t watched the videos for the 80% of their products I don’t need or have no interest in. I already have a house full of Phillips Hue bulbs, light strips, sensors, and switches, In fact, I don’t see why they’re trying to sell most of the products they do.
What’s the core concept behind the company? Did it begin by seeking to enter the market as a provider of affordable security cams/equipment? It seems like Wyze’s leadership has ADHD. Instead of focusing on improving on and promoting their core products, they seem to be throwing one new product after another at the wall to see what sticks.
Preaching to the choir around here. Instead of improving cameras - better resolution, recording options, zoom / varifocal, high dynamic range, outdoor pan/tilt, PoE - and instead of bringing affordable drivecams and the like, they’ve gone off in directions from dumb watches to sprinklers to munitions cases.
There is some vague mission statement about affordable home products if you look for it. Not much we can do except vote with wallets.
has already outgrown the new clothes 
you bought for it recently. Huh?