Wyze cofounder Dave Crosby (u/WyzeCoFounderDave) answered questions about Wyze in Reddit. Thursday 06/17/2021
Special thanks to @WyzeDave for taking the time to answer questions from people (even if you ignored all the highly upvoted questions about the Home Assistant Integration already having most of the work done for you already, so there should be no reason not to just copy the opensource code and make it official and fully functional 
).
HERE ARE THE RESPONSES WYZE COFOUNDER DAVE CROSBY GAVE US IN THIS LAST AMA:
RTSP FOR THE V3, WCO, & VDB
[Quote=@WyzeDave]
Original Response:
RTSP for v3 is getting closer! Development is now complete and it is in internal testing with Wyze employees. My guess is that it will be released within the next 3-4 months, if testing goes well.
RTSP for v3 will be released the same way it was for v2. It will be a separate firmware that won’t get updated as frequently.
The overall percentage of Wyze users that use RTSP is actually extremely low, but we know how important this is for that small percentage of core users! We are 100% committed to getting it done, it might just take a little extra time compared to some other features.
Outdoor Cam most likely will not get RTSP because it’s battery-powered. Next on the list would probably be the doorbell, but we haven’t really looked at that yet.
[/Quote]
[Quote=@WyzeDS (Employee) as a sub-comment in the same thread]
Original Response:
[Release of RTSP for the V3] could be sooner, but we don’t want to overpromise..
[/Quote]
In response to someone saying it shouldn’t be a forked firmware as they believed the V3 had more RAM:
[Quote=@WyzeDS (Employee) as a sub-comment in the same thread]
Original Response:
V3 does not have more “available” RAM than v2. V3 has a lot more features and accessories. The other consideration is the “ongoing” cost of maintaining it.
[/Quote]
Re: UPDATING EXISTING PRODUCTS & APP VS ADDING NEW PRODUCTS
[Quote=@WyzeDave]
Original Response:
We have dedicated teams that are constantly updating the app. We release an app update pretty much every single month, which is really fast! We are not perfect, but we put tons of time, research, and resources into our app and into our products to deliver on the features users are asking for. We will happily listen to your feedback on what can be improved in the app, and if it aligns with the feedback we are hearing from other users then we will make it a high priority to correct.
As far as product launches go…our goal is to always deliver too good to be true value with every single product launch, and then make that product even better over time. Some Wyze products are better than others.
[/Quote]
[Quote=@WyzeDave]
Original Response:
I also want to say that being camera only + extremely low margin is not a sustainable business. We have to diversify our product portfolio. With the chip shortages going on right now if we only had cameras, we would probably not survive as a company. We will continue to diversify into multiple product categories so that we can support all Wyze users long term. 
[/Quote]
QUANTITY OVER QUALITY CONCERNS:
[Quote=@WyzeDave]
Original Response:
I think this is a fair concern, but we have no intention of “just pushing out products.” We want to create amazing products at too good to be true pricing. There is no quick cash grab here. We are focused on building a company for the long term.
In the smart home space we compete against the biggest companies in the history of the world that have more resources than us. Big companies move really slow. Our core advantage how closely we can listen to user requests and act quickly. We’ve accelerated our launches in the last year because last year we made big investments into more product managers, more supply chain partners, more engineers, more testers, etc. in hopes to build a more complete product ecosystem quickly.
Diversifying our products is also really good for the long-term success of our business, especially in times like now where chip shortages are restricting sales of smart products.
[/Quote]
Why not focus on current products instead of new products:
[Quote=@WyzeDave]
Original Response:
A few reasons. First, we want to diversify our product portfolio. With the chip shortages going on right now if we only had smart home products, we might not survive as a company. We will continue to diversify into multiple product categories so that we can support all Wyze users long term. Second, we have a mission to make great technology accessible to everyone! Some products are really great, and with our team’s supply chain expertise, we have unique opportunities to bring them to Wyze users at prices nobody else can.
[/Quote]
CHANGE THE APP DESIGN:
[Quote=@WyzeDave]
Original Response:
Thanks for this feedback. This is a really tough challenge. We know we have lots of work to do here with the growing Wyze Ecosystem. Our design team is working on a proposal for us right now. If anyone has any ideas for them, we would love to hear them!! Put them in this thread and we will send them over.
[/Quote]
WEB INTERFACE:
[Quote=@WyzeDave]
Original Response:
Thank you!! Yes, [a web interface is] under development. We don’t have a timeframe for this one yet. I hate saying that because I know people want to know when it’s coming, but I’m afraid to promise something and then not have our team deliver on time. There are a million things our teams want to work on at any given time and sometimes priorities get rearranged. But it’s coming! It will likely be a Cam Plus feature when it’s released.
[/Quote]
CUSTOMER SERVICE PROBLEMS:
[Quote=@WyzeDave]
Original Response:
Yeah, we know our customer support has not been great so far. It’s been a hard one to swallow because we are all ex-amazon and know how important this is to building customer trust.
The type of business we are running sets itself up for quite a few challenges on the customer support side of things. We move VERY quickly, and need to do a better job of getting the right agents in place and getting them the information they need to be successful.
Of course, with covid, we have seen lots of challenges, especially with being able to hire enough customer support agents, which is why our response rates dropped so much. We have been increasing agents as fast as we can, and actually, in the last few months our average response time is back down under 12 hours. That is a much better place, but we’d like to make that better.
No excuses. We are committed to making customer service a core competency for us to truly be friends with users. We will continue to invest into our CS team!
[/Quote]
Does support purposely try to disuade users from contacting them?:
[Quote=@WyzeDave]
Original Response:
Obviously no…but customer service is something we are working to improve. Good customer service agents have been really hard to find this year during covid. We have been way short on agents as people slowly return to the workforce. Being a CS agent is a tough job that does not compensate as well as it deserves. If you spoke to an agent that gave you bad info, my guess is that they were most likely new and trying to learn about their assigned products. Send us a specific ticket number if you want me to look into something specific.
[/Quote]
NEED APP UPDATES, DARK MODE, WEB SUPPORT, STOP ADS:
[Quote=@WyzeDave]
Original Response:
Why thank you for this feedback haha. We always have lots of room to improve, app included! Dark mode has been discussed but we don’t have a timeline yet.
Web support is under development, it will be part of Cam Plus.
Serious question that we debate internally quite a bit about ads: Would you rather have no ads or pay more for products? We currently don’t do paid marketing at Wyze because we price things as low as we possibly can and don’t have marketing budgets. Our only way to communicate the products we make is through email, social, and in-app messaging. I’m open to hearing your feedback on how we can better deliver ads in a friendly way to users without changing our business model. OR maybe we change our business model.
I know there are better, less annoying ways to deliver in-app messages that we have been working on. For example. We are now experimenting with content cards in the app under the account tab where users can click on them voluntarily.
[/Quote]
Re: MORE STRUCTURE TO ROADMAP COMMUNICATIONS:
KEEPING THINGS IN STOCK, HOMEKIT, DARK MODE:
[Quote=@WyzeDave]
Original Response:
As you probably know there is a global chip shortage right now. It’s the biggest challenge facing Wyze right now.
Products use different chipsets. Other than some common modules like wifi modules, chipsets are typically different among different products. We would definitely not be out of stock if there was anything we could do to avoid it. Unfortunately, if you see a product out of stock right now, it’s likely because we can’t find enough chips to make that product.
In regards to HomeKit, we are exploring an integration with Matter and hope that will be a good solution for HomeKit users. It’s still really early to see what Matter will look like, but we hope that focusing resources on that will benefit the most Wyze users.
Dark Mode is still TBD.
Reddit User: How is Dark Mode still TBD? …simply make the background of the app black. Maybe make it a stretch goal for your UI team?
@WyzeDave response: I will tell our design team to get on it haha. I want dark mode too! But as you can see from this thread there are some product issues with our app that we need to fix first.
[/Quote]
MATTER STANDARD DETAILS:
[Quote=@WyzeDave]
Original Response:
We don’t have specifics on which existing products can be upgraded. Based on the hardware spec, our current understanding is that we will probably need new products to meet hardware spec requirements.
[/Quote]
PRODUCTS:
[Quote=@WyzeDave]
Original Response:
Room sensors and smoke alarm are coming! Air purifier is being debated internally right now.
[/Quote]
[Quote=@WyzeDave]
Original Response:
Room sensors before the end of the year. Doorbell cam grouping is planned but no timeframe yet. Real sorry, I hate saying no timeframe.
[/Quote]
Any new upcoming products or services you’re willing to hint at?:
[Quote=@WyzeDave]
Original Response:
A camera that can pan!
And Wyze solar panel for outdoor cam, but I think I hinted at these somewhere else.
[/Quote]
TEMPERATURE/HUMIDTY SENSOR STATUS & DETAILS:
[Quote=@WyzeDave]
Original Response:
Keep an eye on your inbox next week 
[/Quote]
SOLAR OPTION FOR WCO:
[Quote=@WyzeDave]
Original Response:
Yes!! In fact, we shot the installation video for it today to get ready for the launch.
[/Quote]
OUTDOOR POWER ADAPTER STILL COMING:
[Quote=@WyzeDave]
Original Response:
Yes, it was supposed to have launched already, but we weren’t happy with the testing results. We are working on a new design now. I don’t have a timeline for it yet, sorry!
[/Quote]
V2 SENSORS WITHOUT HMS SUBSCRIPTION:
[Quote=@WyzeDave]
Original Response:
We hear you on this! [Buying the sensors without the HMS subscription] will be coming eventually. Hopefully we can do it pretty soon.
This year there is a global chip shortage which is a huge challenge for Wyze. We need every chip we have to contribute with hardware and subscription revenue so we can get the most out of that chip. We also happen to believe that Wyze Home Monitoring is an incredible product. The value proposition is completely unmatched in the market right now, in true Wyze fashion. Hopefully, its an opportunity for more people to try it out.
[/Quote]
SMART CURTAIN/BLINDS MOTORS:
[Quote=@WyzeDave]
Original Response:
Would love to at some point, but don’t expect to get into [smart curtains] anytime soon.
[/Quote]
SMART SWITCHES:
[Quote=@WyzeDave]
Original Response:
Yeah! You should see it before the end of the year.
[/Quote]
DASHCAM?:
[Quote=@WyzeDave]
Original Response:
Thought about [a dashcam] many times yes!, We’re not sure there is enough demand for [a dashcam] vs the other camera products under development.
[/Quote]
WCO V2 UPDATES?:
[Quote=@WyzeDave]
Original Response:
Starlight sensor, better processor, louder speaker, and other general improvements. Hard to say when it will launch with chip shortages going on right now, but we have a lot of the design done.
[/Quote]
PAN CAM UPDATE DELAY FROM CHIP SHORTAGE?:
[Quote=@WyzeDave]
Original Response:
Correct. We are anxious to put a starlight sensor in Wyze Cam Pan at some point, but right now we can’t even get enough chips to keep Wyze Cam v3 in stock so we will have to wait.
[/Quote]
Any chance if a new version of the pan cam, preferably in black with the color night vision capabilities of the V3?:
[Quote=@WyzeDave]
Original Response:
Yep! As soon as chip shortage chills out.
[/Quote]
COMMUNITY TEAM:
WYZE CAM ISSUES WITH CHROMECAST OR GOOGLE DISPLAYS:
[Quote=@WyzeDave]
Original Response:
Have you upgraded your cameras to the latest firmware? We’ve been re-built the streaming with WebRTC, and it has been working much better for users.
[/Quote]
OUTLOOK EMAIL ON WYZE WATCH 47:
[Quote=@WyzeDave]
Original Response:
It should show up as a notification under “other” I believe…
[/Quote]
CANADA:
[Quote=@WyzeDave]
Original Response:
Canada is painful for me. I want to get there so bad. We are soooo close but we just don’t have inventory to support it with the chip shortage right now. As you can see we are out of stock on a number of things already just selling in the US.
[/Quote]
I believe the objective of an AMA is to answer questions that people post. Is that correct?:
[Quote=@WyzeDave]
Original Response:
That is correct. This is my first one though, so I may not be the right person to ask.
[/Quote]
WHY THE INTERMITTENT RESPONSES IN THIS AMA?:
[Quote=@WyzeDave]
Original Response:
haha my bad…I was literally in a potential investor meeting that went way over. I was trying to start the AMA here and still answer their questions on the zoom call. We are in the middle of fundraising right now.
[/Quote]
RANDOM TAKEAWAYS:
[Quote=@WyzeDave]
Original Response:
Alright everyone! Gonna head home. I’ll jump back in for a bit later tonight/tomorrow to see if I can get to more questions. Seriously, thank you all so much for supporting the Wyze team through a tough year of covid and chip shortages. I appreciate all the good questions and feedback.
Here are my top takeaways from today…
You all really want RTSP asap.
We need to make the product roadmap more transparent
We need to do a better job communicating our business and product strategy.
I will take this back to the team. Catch ya next time.
[/Quote]
DO YOU NEED ANY DEVELOPERS?:
[Quote=@WyzeDave]
Original Response:
Yes!! We have 50 open jobs on our careers site, we’d love to have you.
[/Quote]
REMOTE EMPLOYMENT IN UTAH?:
[Quote=@WyzeDave]
Original Response:
We actually are registered in Utah and have a few employees working there haha. We are mostly hiring in Seattle again though now that we are getting closer to returning to the office. So…yes there is a small chance if you have incredible skills! Apply!
[/Quote]
WHAT HAIR PRODUCT DO YOU USE?:
[Quote=@WyzeDave]
Original Response:
lol. Bounced around a little bit. Currently switched to this cause its got a little more dry of a look.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N9O9WD2/ref=redir_mobile_desktop?encoding=UTF8&aaxitk=af03e975925733d1ee59552d1fd0df60&hsa_cr_id=9577945360001&pd_rd_plhdr=t&pd_rd_r=d65ef12a-2d08-4daa-bb26-5a1f59d813ba&pd_rd_w=t2Onm&pd_rd_wg=2LjOa&ref=sbx_be_s_sparkle_mcd_asin_0_img
[/Quote]
That takes a lot of effort to put together. 