The break point for Unlimited vs Individual Cam Plus licensing is around 6/7 cameras, where Unlimited would cost the same as single licenses and allow for growth at no additional cost.
Thx Jason - it makes sense, but I wasn’t aware that this upload was happening for Events in the first place. I has presumed that since I never signed up for any of the premium services that I was already going against the SD card, since that’s always capturing on a loop.
So from an experience point of view, what do I lose by having to go to the SD card? Need to be on the local network? Speed? I don’t need to have Events while away from the local network and I’ve already gotten past being able to access the camera from a web page (aka PC or Mac) but I’m trying to get a sense of what the difference is seeing as I’ve never thought that the Events were being stored somewhere other than local SD.
You are not losing anything! Your free cloud Events will continue IF you take advantage of the new “CamPlus Lite” program and demand $0/month with no credit card, refusing the popup upselling / guilting.
You always could optionally record motion events (or continuous recording) to SD card and you can still do that while sending cloud Events. The settings for motion Events and motion SD recordings are separate. You view SD recordings through View Playback while viewing a camera.
The only people who will lose are those who don’t convert to CamPlus Lite. They may find they have no Events recorded when they need them. (SD recordings should continue unabated anyway.)
This response isn’t directed at or to you specifically, my friend, since I recognize you understand this already, but for the benefit of the community in general.
I will add 2 small clarifications for some people who may misunderstand…
So in that sense, I would suggest that nobody misses out on anything. Anyone who suddenly switches right to thumbnails and text notifications will still be linked directly to the event on the SD card (so no big deal since they still get notifications and still get linked to the event), AND if they later decide they have changed their mind and now want cloud events and person detection, they are able to do this at any time. Nobody will lose out on anything. Everything will be available to everyone whenever they wish it, even for free…so there really is no risk or missing out. There is no “too late” and anyone who doesn’t get the memo or wants to do it after February will still be allowed to do so…they won’t actually lose out.
I respect everyone’s opinions and feelings, even those who disagree or are upset. I am simply saying that from my personal perspective I find this change to fairly reasonable. Wyze found lots of people never use their cloud events at all, and some people actively want to get rid of it and couldn’t. All of that unnecessary cost was pointlessly costing Wyze money that they could instead reinvest elsewhere. I think it was a brilliant move for Wyze to find a way to reallocate those costs and resources in a way where everyone can get what they want. Those who don’t want their videos stored on a connected server somewhere, now get what they want. All that wasted cloud storage and bandwidth is now saved and with that savings Wyze gives Person Detection to everyone (which costs in cloud processing expenses…but has been offset by all those who no longer use the cloud space and others who decide to donate money). Further, Wyze doesn’t lock anyone into a deadline or a chosen rate. We can add it at any time and we can change our payments based on whatever we feel like at any time, even free, never locked in. If Wyze makes MORE money or this is successful then they can potentially expand and offer more features too (my hopes, not Wyze’s promises). I personally see no downside. and they upheld all their promises of free cloud.
I talked to a friend with Wyze who told me they are going to decide what to pay based solely on how much they decide to use person detection. Their personal decision is that the base rate is “free cloud” and if they decide they like person detection, then they will pay a little bit extra for that extra feature if they decide to use it. They feel no guilt at staying free for cloud. A family member who makes over 6 figures told me he’s going to pay a little bit anyway, not because he feels guilty but because he can afford to and it will make it possible to help cover costs for others to have person detection for free.
Nobody needs to feel “guilty” for whatever they pick. Seriously. I think Wyze’s reallocation of unused cloud events to cover the extra cost of person detection is a great way to be able to offer more functionality to customers. Allowing people to be able to pay what they feel it is worth IF THEY WANT TO, is a reasonable business option. I’d honestly rather have them do that than seek more investor funding for more growth. Whoever came up with the idea to reallocate the wasted cloud expenses to offer people more functionality was genius, IMO, and they did so through finally also giving people an option to switch to local storage only without losing notifications, but still be linked right to where those events started on the SD card. I personally see no downside and nobody losing out at all with this change and anyone can change their mind at any time.
Even if someone ever wants out of Wyze completely, they have awesome resell values. I just looked on ebay for what USED Wyze cams actually sold for recently, and they were still selling for most of their original retail cost:
So even the people who really want out have a great option too because Wyze devices hold their value pretty well with a pretty high demand even for previously owned and used devices on auction sites…so even the people who want to switch companies aren’t really “losing out” on anything either as it appears pretty easy to recoup the costs selling to someone who is satisfied.
Again, I totally respect different opinions and feelings, and from everything I’ve looked at with this change, I personally feel like Wyze did a great job at making sure everyone can get what they want out of it, and they upheld their earlier promises to see if the name your price model was sustainable and then possibly expand it to everyone else, and they fulfilled this promise by reallocating wasted cloud storage people didn’t even wany/use while offering people a way to finally be local storage only while still getting notifications. I give props on that because I previously criticized them for limiting Legacy person detection to only people who activated pre-11/2019 when they first made that change and now I am man enough to say I was wrong and I give Wyze props for following through on their promise and offering it as an option to everyone like so many of us told them they should do.
I will keep a secondary account without person detection or cloud events so I can see what happens after the change and see how everything works without cloud events.
I am man enough to say Carver was wrong, too. 
Yes but you’ve missed my point.
The people who will lose out, the ones I am talking about, are those who unknowingly fail to take action now, and come to find their Events missing when they need to check them later. Whether they miss the news, or changed their mail address, or neglect to opt in, or don’t have the time, or don’t understand the terms and how they apply to them.
As others have written, the people who happily installed Wyzecams and check them ONLY on the rare occasion they need to - an item went missing, or there was an accident, or a burglary, etc. Unlike us weirdo forum dwellers, most normal customers aren’t even thinking about their cameras for huge stretches of time.
So those customers are going to go looking for who took their wallet off the table 6 months from now, and will find there is no Event video to be had. They will have lost.
And many of them will NOT have installed an SD card either. They will have lost.
Regarding your "people wanted to turn off cloud Events but retain notifications* theory I have 3 thoughts - 1. I’ve been here quite a while and don’t ever recall seeing that complaint. 2. I expect it’s a vanishingly small subset of people. 3. Why would someone who doesn’t want their video stored in the cloud be okay with clear image thumbnails of the exact same video… being stored in the cloud?? It’s not even solving this narrow edge case.
I agree that extending person detection to everyone is a great thing but let’s not gloss over the absolute fact that many unwitting Wyze customers are about to lose out.
There’s a picture of Carver with a big dust cloud around it just below your post… 
Wuh, now it’s below my post…
Wyze is gonna owe both of us new keycaps. (well, mine are virtual so…)
For newcomers or those who have not joined CamPlus lite before February 15, all they have to do is subscribe to CamPlus. Then they will have the option to subscribe to CamPlus lite for an amount of $0 or more. If they want, they can cancel their CamPlus subscription and keep their CamPlus lite. Am I wrong?
I don’t think it’s even that complicated - both CPL and CP will be selectable from what I understand.
Any day now, this will all be behind us. Well, any month now… 
If it is like that, it will be even easier forever the possibility of having the cloud.
Just for the record, I agree with Carver. I even remember the thing Customer says he doesn’t. So.
I think Wyze has done STUNNINGLY well here. Stunningly. Not perfect. But stunning.
I’m even cockeyed enough to think this may be happening (oooooh, I hope it is, I hope I hope I hope…)
(I have edited this comment several times.)
You make valid points about people who not pay any attention for months until something happens they finally want to check, then realize they ignored all the push notifications, warnings, emails, etc…
I wish there was a better way to inform people. Not sure there is much more that could reasonably be done to inform everyone about the change. They did say in the letter “We will send you lots of reminders.” which I think is likely to bring some complaints as well…though I don’t have a better solution besides something like, if a person acknowledges one of the messages, stop sending them. I guess we’ll see how that plays out. At least they’re trying.
Not sure what a better solution would be to cover those people. I suppose they could make it so anyone who is already active would need to actively opt-out instead of actively opt-in, Only new accounts would need to actively opt-in. Current customers could have been given a choice to select to opt out or opt in and have non-responses set to continuing with cloud. That might’ve been an overall better option. It wouldn’t have drastic savings initially, but it might’ve worked out okay in the long term doing that.
I have talked to several…some very upset about it. I thought there was no way it would ever happen though…
Regardless, here was a wishlist item for it, though it was a relatively low amount of people supporting it:
Absolutely, they will certainly be the exception or niche market, but it is important to some people for whatever reason, so occasionally we get people posting asking how to do it without cloud events.
Honestly, I think they should offer people the option like Eufy Cams do to have just text notifications or text and thumbnail notifications. I would not be surprised if they update it this way in the future to allow people to pick. I’m sure it would need another firmware update.
Yes, this is the current intent as I understand it. Newcomers will not have to subscribe to cam plus to have this opportunity. Even a new customer should still be able to sign up for Cam Plus Lite, even at a rate of $0, even after the Feb 15th changeover just like anyone else is not being limited to a hard deadline based on what the email said.
Wyze is attempting to normalize an indefinite name-your-price subscription model because their data showed that their customer base made it sustainable. My personal opinion/guess is that Wyze might expand it to offer more stuff in similar fashion but I think they’re playing it safe and moving slowly to ensure they don’t get too far ahead of themselves with false assumptions on what they can sustain. Jimmy hinted at this a little:
Wyze had previously said in one of their AMAs that they would love to be able to offer basically all their services this way since they’re basically built on the idea of low profit margin offerings, but they need to make sure they aren’t risking long term sustainability. The amount of future features that will be included in things like this will be fully dependent on how successful it continues to be.
And this, folks, is what you call inside baseball: substantive, arcane and precise.
It’s like watching electronic sausage being made. Mmmm…
Yes, I love conversations with @Customer including when we disagree, maybe especially then. I can always rely on him to be logical, insightful, and honest about what he thinks, good or bad, and very reasonable, in addition to being well educated and really resourceful and very familiar with the forum.
If you look at my profile, he’s toward the top of all my stats since we’ve had these kind of awesome respectful conversations going on for almost 2 years now :
I think he provides a REALLY valuable perspective in this community. Everyone’s perspective and opinion is valuable, but Customer often helps me to break my confirmation bias and consider other perspectives and such, so I am very prone to read what he says and enjoy conversations with him.
He’s funny, too.
I hope Wyze will allow us to make a single ANNUAL payment for paying what you want. Currently my contribution is 0$ because of that. I’d rather give my money to Wyze than give it in transaction and currency conversion fees. I already pay two annual subscriptions for CamPlus. I don’t need more and I’m willing to pay a certain amount ANNUALLY for CamPlus lite.
May I say something? Ok.
I’m a regular-person/geek hybrid. Maybe 70/30, at worst, 60/40.
I speak geek. Sort of. Y’know, muddle through.
Exhibit:
Not sure what a better solution would be to cover those people. I suppose they could make it so anyone who is already active would need to actively opt-out instead of actively opt-in, Only new accounts would need to actively opt-in. Current customers could have been given a choice to select to opt out or opt in and have non-responses set to continuing with cloud. That might’ve been an overall better option. It wouldn’t have drastic savings initially, but it might’ve worked out okay in the long term doing that.
So, I reads this, and it makes me laugh, because I’m pretty sure it makes perfect sense, but I can’t prove it, because I can’t get through it without laughing, because I’m a geek hybrid…
Eh?
So, my Christian carpenter told me it was Marx who said, ‘You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs’, which I had said to him and he’d looked up.
That’s how I feel about the unfortunate few who will get broken in Wyze Great Omelette Adventure. I am willing to be one of those unfortunate few. I promise to be philosophical and good humored if it happens.
Will “you”?
(you=adult wyze customer)
