New Wyze Products

Is anyone else tired of seeing Wyze come out with more and more products when they are doing such a terrible job keeping any of their original products like cameras and sensors available to purchase.

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Well they did say why they can’t keep those items in stock. There’s a worldwide chip shortage and it affects Wyze for a number of products. This is going to be the new normal until at least the end of this year the way things look. This shortage is even affecting the largest companies like Apple (who usually pre-buys all of the capacity of producers for products they need). Wyze is a low-margin business, They don’t have as much pull as Apple.

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Except this has been going on for at least 2 years and had nothing to do with a chip shortage.

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I personally like that Wyze is constantly offering more new products. I don’t think they have abandoned their previous products at all. I see more updates from Wyze constantly than almost any other IOT company I have products through, including some of their big competitors. I wish the other companies would be making as many updates constantly.

I know we all get a little frustrated that our pet wants aren’t done on our own timeframe…I desperately want Wyze to provide Home Assistant compatibility more than basically any other change, but they have said it is not a priority and not on their timeline yet. It’s frustrating, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they aren’t doing anything. I am constantly testing out all their new features and helping out in the beta forums and with new testing stuff, like the new rules engine, and the AI and working with employees on lots of stuff that way, so I know first hand they are constantly working on improvements of things that are already out there. One need only look at all the official firmware updates, let alone the beta firmware updates and tests, not to mention who knows how many Alpha updates and test we can’t even say…both in-house and extended group testing.

Wyze even just mentioned in a new email that they have over 150 engineers working to improve the products they have.

WebRTC is now deployed on all v2 and Pan cameras. It will be coming soon to v3, Outdoor Cam, and Video Doorbell.

This is a huge win for our engineering team! We have more than 150 engineers working to improve our products every day. There’s still a lot of improvements in the works! If you have feedback or ideas, we’re always listening

In their AMA last fall, they explained how adding a bunch of new products isn’t affecting their support of previous products. Here is a transcript of the relevant sections of that from the founders:

Basically, when they grow they simply hire more employees to handle stuff, they aren’t taking away time from things already there. They expand. There might be shifting around or whatever, but they aren’t just abandoning anything. None of that has been my experience at all, especially compared to their competitors that I have devices with and haven’t resolved severely critical issues they’ve known about for years and still ignored, and almost never do any firmware updates or tests of any kind. That’s one of the reasons I keep coming back to Wyze as my primary because I am impressed with how often they address things and work with the community and listen and give new firmware, etc.

They’re not perfect by any means, and I am really frustrated they won’t do some of my biggest pet wishes…but I acknowledge they’re going to do what they feel is best based on several factors (greatest impact, difficulty, cost to implement, amount of effort required, will it increase their market significantly, etc). I’m totally in the frustrated zone for my main desires…but I would feel I was being disingenuous if I tried to say they have ignored their earlier products when I very much witness the constant changes and updates and effort first hand all the time.

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No dark mode and no Windows app should not be “pet wants” but standard options.

I have similar strong feelings for wanting both of those features too and really look forward to their implementation.

For what it is worth, they announced Wyze access on computers should finally be coming sometime this year:

I am excited for that update that they’re finally working on right now.

I too use darkmode in everything that offers it, though it is my experience that dark mode is the exception rather than the rule. I have more apps that don’t support dark mode than that do support dark mode, but there are still a lot that do support it and it is gaining a lot of traction. I thought I might’ve read or heard Wyze mention that they would eventually set up darkmode support, but I can’t remember when or where, so maybe it was just hopeful thinking…but as the demand for it increases I am sure they will do it soon. To be fair though, while there may be SOME IOT companies that offer darkmode and desktop/browser access, I would say that the majority don’t (I have devices from several of Wyze’s competitors, and almost none of them support either of those), so I certainly wouldn’t say it is standard in the industry on average, at least not with most of the ones I have. I agree that they both SHOULD be a standard though.

Still, one is SEEN as simply being cosmetic (darkmode…though I would argue it has a lot of other benefits…hence why I use it in every app that offers it), and the other is used by a much smaller market share of consumers (desktop use). Last I checked, the overwhelming majority of IOT users did everything through their phone, and it was only a very, very small fraction of people (usually older people who both have computers and are used to computers) who want computer access to IOT. I happen to be one of those in that demographic, and while we have strong desires for it, I can’t really argue the overwhelming marketshare being for mobile access and even those who prefer desktop access usually have smart phones as well, so that covers nearly everyone.

It’s the same reason they argue Home Assistant isn’t a priority…the marketshare is small, and they’d be working on something that only SOME of their customers would benefit from, while they are saying they want to first do things that nearly EVERY customer can benefit from first…then they’ll consider these niche projects that a smaller group of us care about.

Still, I agree with the premise…darkmode and desktop access are things I want really badly as well…but I do understand Wyze’s rationales to first do things pretty nearly EVERYONE wants or will be affected by…then add the things that other groups like us want REALLY, REALLY badly, including these 2 things. And thankfully they are finally getting around to working on some of those things for us.

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I will be returning my handheld vacuum tomorrow and just canceled the ear buds order. I was buying all their products blindly not realizing that I should do the research first since there is not benefit of pre-order (most of the times).

New products are fine but they haven’t had the sensors and motion detectors for years.

I feel that. I tried ordering a bunch more last fall right after they were discontinued. It drove me crazy having to wait so long. I was really excited to finally get the new V2 sensors.

Honestly, I would just recommend buying stuff now. It’s not like the prices for those sensors are going to go down in price. I know lots of people don’t want the subscription or monitoring (I myself have never even taken mine out of test mode), but I’m sure you can just get the monthly subscription then right after getting everything delivered, use Wyze’s “30-day” return policy thing to get the $5 refunded. You shouldn’t ever have to activate the subscription. When I got my starter kit I used all the hardware for weeks before activating the subscription, and I can tell you it all works great without the subscription. You can use rules and notifications just like the previous sensors.

I heard people were even able to connect all the new sensors to the old V1 bridge using home assistant…so they weren’t actually running through Wyze in that case, but they were able to use the new sensors without using the new hub.

To me, the only reason to wait is to hope that it will be just a tiny bit cheaper to order everything separately without the keypad included, but I am suspecting it won’t be much cheaper to order everything individually. I guess we’ll see. Still, I can relate to the frustration of not having access to buy new sensors for so long, it really frustrated me too!

Except for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, which are not used by All Wyze Home Monitoring users…

I have 29 wyze devices and would still recommend them to anyone who asked, but I remain confused and frustrated by the direction they have taken.
With these newest preorder offerings over the past year, it feels a bit like they send someone out to an auction to buy a shipping container full of some random product and the time spent in the ‘factory’ is just them slapping their label on it.
I’ll admit, I bought 2 handheld vacs and would have bought the new cordless stick vac. Their prices are in the perfect range, but I’m now hesitant to give them anymore money if they aren’t gonna spend any of it on their IoT device ecosystem. I know people will squawk that I should have read the fine print, or done more research, but I’m baffled that my robot vacuum wasn’t integrated with Google assistant, while the $100 eufy from Walmart fires right up with Google assistant. And if so many other camera companies can figure out how to keep up with Googles changes, why has it been well over a year since I’ve been able to bring mine up on my cast devices or nest hub.
It’s frustrating, and there will not be a 30th wyze device at my house until someone at Wyze gets this ship steering in the right direction, or at least a consistent one.

I do not understand why they are not focused on which products are the most applicable to the average consumer? There are two things almost every smart home user has trouble finding. 1. A Smart Timer for their electric water heater and a Smart Timer for their pool pump. This could be the same device? really a 220V 60amp timer. These would apply to almost everyone and would be simple to manufacture. Let me know when you come out with these items.

Something like this?
DEWENWILS Outdoor Smart Wi-Fi Outlet Box, Heavy Duty 40A 120-277 VAC 2HP Wireless Controller Timer Switch for Pool Water Heater SPA, Compatible with Smart Phone, Alexa, Google Assistant, UL Listed

Now Wyze has the info, so they just go to the same manufacturer that makes these for that company and get a version of that OEM for there product line.

Didn’t find anything in the 60 Amp range, 40 Amps seems to be everywhere

In their latest AMA they said they are putting their focus into things the majority of their consumers could/would use and that’s why they have turned down a lot of projects recently.

While I also have a pool and support what is being asked for here (I would get one), I do have to be honest that research shows that only 13%-18% of households own hot tub, spa or pool (let alone a heated pool), which means the majority do not, and so that would make it a very small niche market. Add to that already small percentage the few people like us who would buy an extra smart home device for it, and those numbers drop off even smaller.

Then when we consider that Wyze does not do a lot of product innovation themselves, they mostly take things that already exist and simply offer them with lower profit margins and better firmware…they offer items that are easily found in abundance, but undercut them all in price.

All together, this means that Wyze is very unlikely to offer this kind of product. It does not fit their pattern. But hey, those few of us who do actually have a pool or other heated spa, hot tub, etc…we could get lucky, and if they do, I’ll get one too…but I must admit it is more of a very small niche market with few other options and while the demand may be relatively high amongst those in that niche market, it is very small compared to the wider market and so I am fairly confident they won’t even consider this anytime soon, like for a couple of years at least.

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NOpe, this item you sent was only 120v, not 240v. Plus what I was talking about is a hardwired timer, not an outdoor outlet. More along the lines of this item (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PP2KNNH/?coliid=I30M7MQ11C54P9&colid=AYAZWNCBK6G7&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it)

What you linked is what I posted, and it is indeed able to do 240.
The wiring diagram only show 1 set of contacts being used, add the other 120 leg to other contacts and that is USA 240.

I’m sorry, you are correct. Is Wyze planning on making one these?

I actually hope they would quit adding “New Products” and concentrate on the camera line :grin:

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I agree. My cams no longer alert me when UPS shows up.

Dark mode would be nice.

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Thanks, but I heard this before. :grinning: