This one was hard to search the forum for due to the nature of the phrase. So apologies if it was already discussed.
Can someone help me understand why Wyze puts a power on/off icon on things like group icons or the camera favorite icon itself? Do users really turn cameras on/ off on any kind of regular basis that justifies an on/ off button to be where it is? Its so easy to unintentionally turn cameras off from that control. Seems kind of silly.
I have wondered 
that as well.
I don’t turn my cams off. Two out of 8 are on a UPS.
If you poke around in the Forum enough, you’ll see that some users actually do this and then complain when Wyze changes things and makes it more difficult (less straightforward) to turn cameras on and off. I rarely ever have the desire or need to turn any off, unless I want to eject a microSD card and safely power something down to remove it.
I tend to agree with others who have expressed that opinion and have commented in a couple of Wishlist topics related to the buttons:
Not to mention that the on/off button doesn’t really turn the camera on or off, The cameras are still powered on. It just stops recording.
Good point. It still gets hot and uses electricity.
I think it just turns the shutter on and off, nothing else as the connection is instantaneous which leads me to believe that even WiFi radio is on.
I’ve always assumed it is for people with cameras inside or areas they want privacy. When you use the “i’m away” rule it can turn them on, and the “I’m home” turns them off, or others may prefer to do it individually or by group. That prevents it from recording and sending video to the cloud but it is far from 100% protection, the camera is still on, and potentially still hackable (or if already hacked, still viewable or can be turned on easily). With the Panv3, it puts it into privacy mode with the camera facing downward, so a bit better assurance, but who is constantly looking at their cams to see if/when it comes out of that mode?
Personally I don’t use it ever, the only camera I use indoors stays in a drawer until I travel for a couple days or something, at which point I set it up and plug it in. For others, they use smart plugs to physical power off the cameras with the “I’m home” rule (or manually). So unless your plug gets hacked and they know that’s what it controls, you’re a bit safer that way.
This seems like something Rodney Dangerfield would’ve said about his wife. 
Agreed. I put up my 360° Eufy when I am away for an extended period.
I was worried about using that phrase but then thought, “why?”.
Mine’s a Panv3 that was mounted upside down outside (even when under an eave, apparently not a good idea). It got water in it, started doing the reboot dance every few minutes, and they sent another. For the heck of it, I put it in a bag of rice for a few days, and it seems ok now. Not something I’d trust to use full time, but a couple days here and there, hey, why not. My house is insured…
Actually maybe when I use it I should crack out one of my smart outlets and create an automation. “When smoke alarm sounds, power off camera plug”.
Now you know why. 
‍
Thanks for the replies, Haven’t seen a good reason the control should be there.
It seems that accidentally turning a whole set to cameras off for example is much much more of a problem than just tucking the control away where the action can still be done, but require a couple more steps, is a much smarter way.
I just don’t get the benefit of having it where it is …
I share groups of cameras for example with family members who aren’t as technically astute and they accidentally turn things off sometimes.
There are actually one or two models of cams where that button was not displaying on the favorites screen and users were upset about that. So I guess they can’t satisfy everyone all the time. I will say though I don’t use them and I’ve never accidentally turned one off, but understood your scenario of sharing may be a problem. Are you sharing via guest accounts? I haven’t played with that in a while but I thought the on/off control was not available to guest accounts?
I’m not sure what “guest accounts” means in this context, because my understanding of sharing devices within the Wyze ecosystem involves a device owner (whoever used a Wyze account to “add” and configure a Wyze device) sending a “share” invitation to another person with his or her own Wyze account—or an e-mail message with a link to create a new Wyze account if the shared user (recipient) doesn’t already have a Wyze account associated with the invitation e-mail address.
I haven’t tested this myself, but apparently shared access users can do this:
This is one of the reasons I’m an advocate of some kind of long-press requirement (preferably with haptic feedback) for turning devices like this on and off.
It’s interesting how divisive this issue is. So many people demand to have the camera power on the favorites and devices tab, and many others get mad at how easy it is to accidentally turn off the cameras. Wyze has done both ways and people always get mad no matter which way it is.
I think the only realistic solution is to allow a customization toggle to let people choose if they want the power toggles to show up or not. They will never please everyone on this issue unless they allow people to choose.
I’ve seen you suggest that idea elsewhere before, and I like that as a possible solution, too. I think my main bias would be toward having such a feature available as an option but still requiring some measure of definite intent on a user’s part, like doing a press-and-hold, in order to reduce the likelihood of accidental use.
I don’t have any emotional feelings either way.
Hope I am not turning into peep. 
I don’t imagine that’s the case at all, and, anyway, I think you could do a lot worse. Me like 
.
I use this on/off feature on a daily basis for different cameras, depending on what we are doing outside, and hate nothing more than having to dig around to find the on/off button for each camera.
Seems like an “option” for this feature would be the best solution.