Both say that it requires Wi-Fi. This implies to most people that an internet connection is required, and if people want more specifics they can look further into public documentation, support, elsewhere, or just try it themselves on the 30-day return policy.
Keep in mind that forum volunteers are not Wyze employees. We are Wyze customers like you, albeit knowledgeable and experienced users who are quite familiar with all the documentation and have done extensive testing, etc. and volunteer to help other people in our spare time. We are not paid by Wyze, we are here to help. Spamoni was trying to help you understand that Security protocols require that a new connection between a device (phone) and a camera requires that they both get authentication from the Wyze server before they’re approved to talk with each other directly. It’s a security measure. After the authentication, the connection is peer-to-peer, and if you’re on the same network, then you could even disconnect the internet and you’ll still be able to keep streaming the liveview locally.
As I mentioned above, in a way you technically don’t. You only need internet to authenticate that your phone and camera are allowed to talk to each other. Once authentication is established/approved, then you are allowed to keep streaming locally without internet still active.
There are a lot of people who set up the cameras to convert the stream to RTSP using 3rd party projects like Docker Wyze Bridge, or Scrypted or a number of other things. They authenticate through the internet and then some of them even disconnect the internet after authentication and their streams keep working indefinitely even without the internet.
It’s implied when it says it requires WiFi. In this industry, if something is a “smart camera” or if it does not specifically say something “RTSP”, or “PoE”, or “Closed Circuit” then everyone generally knows it is a cloud-dependent camera in some way, which applies to the majority of smart cameras on the market. Still, even if they spelled it all out in detail, 99.9% of people don’t read everything on the website, in the manual, or in the FAQ’s, or the FCC approval reports, etc…so a lot of them, including Wyze manage this fact by offering people a 30-day money back guarantee. Get the device, set it up, test it out for the things that matter to you, If it doesn’t fit your needs, then return it.
If you really want a camera that doesn’t work with the internet or doesn’t require the internet, your options will be pretty small. But you should start by searching for cameras that do RTSP, PoE (note that not all PoE cameras are local, but it is more common), or say closed-circuit. You should also try setting up the camera without internet connected and also try connecting to it without internet turned on.
You’ll generally pay a much heftier price for these kind of cameras, but they have a lot of advantages too.
If you want to convert your Wyze cameras to be able to do this, then you can look into one of the options that convert the stream to RTSP. Wyze has actively helped allow 3rd party solutions to be able to do this by providing an official API Key. I have used Docker Wyze Bridge and Tiny Cam Pro in server mode to connect to and stay connected to cameras locally. Others love Scrypted, or special firmware, etc.
Just depends on your needs, but pretty much every major smart camera company assumes that you people have a basic understanding of technology and networking so that when they say they require WiFi that everyone understands that means they need the internet. Almost every brand makes this assumption (I have smart cameras from multiple companies and none of them specified this to me during my purchasing), especially if they don’t advertise RTSP, Closed-circuit, NVR, or PoE for that model camera. Brands prioritize what makes them different from the majority of competitors, not the same. Since almost all of them are cloud dependent, they don’t see that it is necessarily to make that a focus when it is assumed since that is the case for everyone in general unless they say otherwise since that is an “industry standard”. Also, most brands try to avoid overwhelming users with technical jargon details, particularly when the thing in question (internet) is considered a fundamental requirement based on “common industry practice”. A lot of companies will also do user research and feedback and may have learned from user feedback that emphasizing internet requirements isn’t a priority for MOST buyers, and that it is sufficient to just say whether it supports 2.4GHz or 5GHz. Most don’t care about anything else.
Anyway, don’t get me wrong. I prefer local connectivity too. That’s why, as I previously said, I run Docker Wyze Bridge to get n ongoing local stream. I may be switching over to Scrypted soon. I also use Tiny Cam Pro in server mode sometimes. If you want your Wyze cams to run locally, I suggest looking into some of those. Otherwise, you can look for something that natively supports RTSP, or is closed circuit. There are pros and cons each way, but I hope some of this gives you ideas of what might suit your particular needs. 
