Reddit AMA w/Product Managers - 2pm PT 10/25/2024

[carverofchoice]

REDDIT AMA SUMMARY

I will copy the Question then the employee answer. If you want to link to the original source for any reason, please go to the following Reddit Thread and search for the question you’re interested in linking to:
https://www.reddit.com/r/wyzecam/comments/1g9r1uu/ama_wproduct_managers_2pm_pt_10252024/

Note, Questions are sorted in order of what Reddit said were the “Best” questions (most upvoted vs downvoted ratio in a certain time ratio):

Why did you paywall local/edge Person detection on cameras like the V4?

There aren’t cloud costs for it and in theory, Local/edge AI detection shouldn’t have ongoing costs, and lots of your competitors’ cameras offer local/Edge AI detections included for free now at similar price points. Why don’t you do the same to stay more competitive and because it seems like it would align with your chosen core values of making great tech affordable to EVERYONE and being friends with users?

Totally fair feedback. As you probably know, Wyze is run on a pretty tight hardware margin. To offset being competitive with our hardware to the other big players on the field , we need you, our subscribers, to help us. We tirelessly try to make the hard-earned dollars you spend on our subscriptions worth it, and believe me, we agonize over it constantly. But at the end of the day, there are just certain things we can't offer for free on cameras at super low price points and person detection is one of them. You can still get free person detection on certain cameras that cost just a little bit more (Wyze Cam v3 Pro, for example), but that higher cost of the hardware is built-in to offset the cost to operate those features as well as the amount of revenue lost on the subscription side. Hopefully that makes sense? Also worth noting that our subscription prices per camera are lower than anyone else's at this point. So we still do try very hard to maintain both crazy affordable hardware and software while also being able to invest in innovation so that we can continue to bring you the latest and greatest for years to come.

How do you plan to resolve the Face Detection notification issue where if a camera detects a person before the face (which happens a lot because a person can be detected farther away and a face needs more pixels up close, so face is often detected later if a person comes from a distance), it only sends the person notification but not the Face alert?

Can you update your notifications process so that once a face is detected (after person detected earlier in the same event) it can just update the existing person notification instead of ignore the face detection notification?

This is outside of the scope of our team here today, but I was able to get an answer from our AI/Services Team.

Yeah this is so frustrating and I totally feel your pain on this. I promise we are working on it as fast as we can and I’m hopeful we can get it done soon. Without getting too technical, there’s a basic notification pipeline within our current AI detections that essentially needs to be re-worked to get this done in which the “Person Detection” notification will be swapped in the background with an “Updated” notification of the exact person your camera detected.

Kind of a fine balance between sending you the fastest notification we can, yet updating that in the background to new information after our AI has detected the right face.

Your new AI video search is cool, though in certain use-cases, 14-days sometimes seems limited for the AI search.

Would you consider having the AI make an index of objects it recognizes in event videos and then allow it to link to an SD card that stores video events farther back than 14 days?

You could still store 14 days of events on your cloud, but just store the AI search index data (not as much storage taken up for this) for a little longer and link search results to the SD card for that date and time instead for people who want to look at things farther back.

This is outside the scope of the team we have here today but I was able to get an answer from out AI/Services Team.

This is actually something we have been actively looking into for a long time. Don’t want to give too much away, but you may be pleasantly surprised very soon!

Cam Plus fixes the 5-minute MOTION detection cooldown limits, but it still leaves a limit of 12-seconds recording and 5-minute cooldown for sound detections and Sound AI alerts, which includes limits for important things like the Smoke and CO alarm. If a sound even happens and then sometime in the next 5 minutes a smoke alarm goes off, then even if they have cam plus, users don’t get a notification for such a critical alert because of the sound alert cooldown (this actually happened to a user in the forums recently who asked why he didn’t get alerted of a smoke alarm and why it had a cooldown when he pays for Cam Plus).

Is there a reason cam plus doesn’t also remove the cooldown limits from sound alerts?

I was able to grab this answer from our Services Team

That is a fantastic question! We believe this is a bug and is certainly NOT a feature. We will look into this ASAP.

It was reported in this public thread (and brought up in several others) that Wyze’s system recently changed so that if someone steals a Wyze camera and sets it up on a new account, all the Cloud events on the original owner’s account are also erased so the theft isn’t even able to be seen anymore or turned over to authorities to identify the thief because the evidence is destroyed. This didn’t used to be possible as shown by sources in this post as well as your early release notes.

Can you tell us why this changed to not protect cloud events of a stolen camera, if this is being fixed, and if so, what kind of fix are you implementing, and any kind of ETA? Or will this vulnerability remain in place for the foreseeable future?

Thank you for this question. It is outside the scope of our participants today, but I do know we are working on a solution. I will try to get more information and follow up here.

Since you won’t make your own Smoke and CO detectors, why not do what security monitoring companies like ADT do, and just allow your system to integrate with Google/Nest and use Google’s Smoke/CO detectors as part of your Home monitoring system? Then you don’t have to do the R&D, or worry about the liability or anything, but your system will now be able to offer your users Smoke and CO alerts through the Wyze Platform so users don’t have to go with another company to get that covered if their insurance requires it.

Is this (using existing smoke/CO detectors through a 3rd party like Nest/Google) something you are willing to consider so people can get the monitoring coverage they need for insurance requirements?

Thank you for the question, this is outside the scope of our guests today, but I will see if I can get an answer to this and post an update here.

Does the Duo Cam Doorbell have any Local/Edge AI to make detections faster like the Wyze Cam V4 does, if we have Cam Plus?

A user in the forums mentioned this could help them detect and notify about a porch pirate on their way up to the porch instead of after they’ve already left (as happens for lots of battery cams in the industry), or is the detection and notification already fast enough through the cloud that local/Edge AI wasn’t needed?

yes, duo cam doorbell has edge ai. Thanks

Great question! Yes, The Duo Cam Doorbell has edge ai, which can detect and notify faster. Thanks!

A while ago you mentioned you were working on a new AI prototype that would distinguish between moving AI objects and ignore stationary ones to fix parked car alerts and reduce false detections.

How is the moving AI detection prototype coming along? Do you still plan to implement that?

Yep, we are still working on that! Turns out that problem took longer to solve than we initially anticipated but we are about 90% of the way there. For more context, the Moving Object Detection has already been implemented and released on a handful of our products, including the Floodlight Pro, Floodlight v2, and Cam v4. This means that only the MOVING AI objects (person and vehicle) will be detected and notified for those products. We are still working hard on being able to implement this feature to other cameras and that is on the near horizon. Stay tuned!

Will the new chime ever be allowed to work with sensors and other non-camera devices?

It would be great if we could have it sound alerts for things like the Leak Detectors, or chime when someone opens a door, etc (since we don’t currently have anything that can do that throughout the house).

What about having the chime support Automations/Rules which would accomplish a similar result?

The WiFi Chime currently works with all cameras and doorbells.

Theoretically, it would be able to work with all Wyze WiFi devices in the future, but that feature is not available at this time. Thanks

Several people have recently been reporting that they are getting duplicate motion alerts (both iOS and Android and multiple camera models, so likely an app issue). The same notification will have a pop-up twice and 2 sounds, but only 1 copy of the alert in the notification shade.

Will this duplicate motion notification issue be resolved in a future app update? Does this also happen to some people with this new Duo Cam Doorbell? Any ETA on resolution?

Hi Choicehunter, thank you so much for this question. However, we are not seeing this duplicate motion notification issue happening on Duo Cam Doorbell. We will keep monitoring, and please let us know if you know this issues still existing.

Alex: Love the new doorbell duo. Are there any plans to allow the new chime to make spoken announcements instead of just a ding dong/tune? For example, if the doorbell AI detects a person, allow for an option to have the chime announce “Person detected on doorbell”. Furthermore, it would be awesome if this was customizable via automations so all cameras could use the chime to make announcements. From a security standpoint, I would love it if I could get a spoken notification through the chime if a person was detected on the floodlight pro in my back yard when the Wyze home monitoring is set to armed mode.

There are currently 17 different sounds available for the chime. Yes, it could potentially become possible to play customized sounds however, we do not have a current plan to implement that for now. Thanks for your question!

Will the Duo Cam Doorbell be able to work with the Lock Bolt in the future like the other Video Doorbells, since it has Bluetooth capabilities? If not, why not?

Will you be making a new version of the lockbolt that can work with WiFi so we can get this capability?

You will be happy to know that Wyze Duo doorbell does work with Wyze lock and you do have the option to add your lock anytime through Settings > Lock.

For Wyze Lock Bolt, it could be possible in the future but we do not have a plan to implement this at this time. Thanks for your question!

Will the chime only be in Black, or will you be adding other colors like White since most people will be plugging this indoors around white walls where white would blend in better?

Yes, I agree with you. The WiFi chime only comes in black for now, but we may release another color such as white in the future, if we see enough interest from people like yourself. Thanks for your question!

WyzeHongfei, what’s next for you? Any hints about your next product or things you’re interested in looking into?

Haha! While I can't share the specific details, I can disclose that yes, I’m working on something REALLY COOL that I am hoping to launch in 2025.

WyzeAlex, what’s next for you? Any hints about your next product or things you’re interested in looking into?

Maybe another doorbell? Please let me know what your dream doorbell would be like and I will do what I can to make it happen! What are some of the most important features that you would like?

Will you be adding more sounds to the chime?

What kind of sounds do you have in mind?

Some I suggest:

• Cat meow (For when my camera detects a pet on certain cameras. For me, it will be a cat and I want to hear it meow (not a bark) to make it obvious it’s talking about a cat being detected say in a room (maybe stuck in there with the door shut) that I don’t want it to be in for example.
• Some kind of sound that is suitable for a package detection. Right now basically the only relevant option is Santa Claus is coming to town.
• More single beep sounds
• More sounds of any kind
• More non-xmas themes
• Sounds that seem related to any of your AI detections, not just doorbell specific sounds.

I don’t want ding dong sounds when my cat is detected or when a package is detected. I want cat sounds or some kind of package distinguishing sound.

There are currently 17 sounds available with the Chime. We can consider adding more if there is enough interest in that. Thank you so much for your wonderful suggestions for the question!

Does the new universal chime have any local functionality to work faster sometimes (for example, the Wyze Bulbs are proven through the API to have some local functionality), or is the chime completely cloud-dependent for the rules, etc?

Great question, this Wi-Fi chime is cloud-dependent, thank you.

Hongfei: My floodlight pro has worked near perfectly. I would like to be able to control the light on the floodlight using Google home (“Hey Google, turn on the floodlight light”), but Google home only recognizes it as a camera. Would it be possible to allow Google Home to see the light and the camera as two separate things (one as a bulb, the other as a camera) so that they could be controlled independently?

Thank you for your question. Google Home has some limitations with being able to integrate third-party devices. Our team is actively working with Google Home to improve the experience.

Based on the current state, our suggestion is to change the device name of your Floodlight Pro, and try using this prompt "Turn on/off Floodlight on {device name} or turn on/off {device name} Floodlight" to control the light on the Floodlight Pro.

Does the Duo Cam Doorbell officially replace the VDBPro in the Pro Lineup since it does everything the Pro does better plus more, or will you still be ordering new batches of the VDBPro? Should this be considered a Pro device?

Are you still thinking of doing 3 lines of each type of Camera as discussed in a prior AMA? An Entry Level, Mid-range, and Pro line?

First of all, thank you so much for your loyalty. Duo cam doorbell is an advanced doorbell product, however, we are still ordering new batches of the VDBPro.

Hongfei: The floodlight pro is still not a choice when selecting cameras under the “security cameras” menu of Home Monitoring. Is there a reason why the floodlight can’t be set as a security camera? Kind of defeats the purpose of having a security camera montage within home monitoring if the entire back of my house isn’t included. Thanks!

Thanks for bringing this up! Yes, we noticed that as well and are planning to add HMS support for the Floodlight Pro in a future iteration.

Will the new universal chime be able to be used with HMS in the future, such as for triggering a siren in different areas of the house (not just at the hub location), or chiming entry/exit delays, etc so we can hear them elsewhere in our house too?

Great question! Yes, the Wifi chime will be used with HMS, as soon as we have enough inventory. Thanks!

Will you be adding this Duo Cam Doorbel camera to the HMS Security Camera options? Will the V4 and Floodlight Pro ever be added as an option too (we’re still waiting on those too)?

Good question. We would like to add Duo cam doorbell to the HMS, however, no plan for now. We will keep you posted if any update, thanks!

Will the Duo Cam Doorbell ever be updated to trigger a chime on Google when the doorbell is pressed?

What is the holdup on this when some others appear to offer it?

Good question! The Duo Cam Doorbell is compatible with alexa and google home, and there is a Wifi chime included. Thanks.

Alex: Does the doorbell duo have Edge AI or is it using Cloud AI?

Hi RyanNoVA, the Duo cam doorbell has edge ai to detect and notify faster. Thanks

The Unboxing video showed an option for “Camera as Chime.” What camera models will work this way? Will you be adding more cameras to work this way? Do you have any ETA on this? What challenges are delaying this being more available?

Wyze Cam OG, Wyze Cam V3 and Wyze Pan V3 can work as Chime for now. We are working on adding more cameras, which needs the camera's firmware to be updated. Thanks.

Will the Chime ever be able to do Text to Speech or allow custom sounds?

That is a great idea, and we evaluated it seriously. However, no plan for now. Thanks.

I love the floodlight cameras but really would like a warm Kelvin option to match landscaping lighting around my property.

Are there any plans to add 2700K / 3000k floodlights?

Thanks for your question. This is one of the most popular feature requests we’ve received for the floodlight. Some users prefer a color-temperature tunable floodlight to better suit their needs, and we definitely see the value in this feature. Making the floodlight color tunable requires multiple sets of LED bulbs in different colors under each light head, which does add some cost. However, I can tell you that we hear you, and this feature is indeed on our floodlight cam product roadmap. Stay tuned!

Original comment for this post was this but was replaced with the above

OK WyzeJasonJ you asked for it…I just submitted 35 questions for you guys to consider!

As usual, several of them are questions I’m asking on behalf of other users that they have been asking on the Forums and Discord over the last year.

Everyone go ask your questions or vote on the ones that you think should get priority for Wyze to answer. If you don’t use Reddit, feel free to ask questions in here and someone can go post a question about that topic for you.