It’s been over a year now since the revelation that we’d be lucky enough to turn our old houses into smart homes. How long does it take to have people test these products (no neutral wire switches)?
And how soon before it goes out in the market?
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They had this in development at the end of 2022, but then a lot of people kept telling Wyze to go back to their roots and focus on cameras and existing products, so they declared last December that 2023 would be “the year of the camera” and they put most everything else on hold, including this product. They still launched a couple of non-camera products this year that were already mostly finished with all the R&D steps, but anything else they could easily suspend, got suspended.
I am hoping they will finally pick this one back up in 2024 when the “year of the camera” is over.
I would certainly love to start expanding my smart home with something other than cameras again though. I don’t mind Wyze making cameras their priority, but I will be very disappointed if they basically drop everything else for longer than just 2023. I’d prefer to grow my smart home with Wyze stuff so I know I’m being treated fairly with reasonable prices.
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ahhh, thanks fr this explanation.
I am ready for the "Wyze Year of Home Automation/Security"
A lot more Wyze products would sell (to me and others) with better Alex integration, and Google…
It is confusing how individual functions are enable into Alexa rather than all of the functions of a device… The programming for integration seems so product specific??
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I gave up waiting because if the AMA news. I have already installed a handful of GE Cync No-Neutral switches. They were normally $45 @ Lowes. I just bought the 8 remaining switches I needed on sale thru Amazon for $24 each.
GE CYNC Smart Light Switch, No Neutral Wire Required, Bluetooth and 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi 3-Wire Smart Switch, On/Off Paddle Style, Works with Alexa and Google Home, White https://a.co/d/h4XNP48
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Oh, those look pretty good. Great price too! I am tempted! Thanks for sharing! I might give in to buying some of those.
I’ve been eyeing these Aqara relay modules which will turn any lightswitch or outlet into a smart one (actually can control 2 at a time, and no neutral wire needed, and you can use your same normal looking light switch or socket, etc):
https://www.amazon.com/Aqara-Requires-Contact-Boilers-Supports/dp/B0CC2B8C37
I watched this review on it and it nearly has me convinced to buy a bunch throughout my house to turn lights and outlets into smart ones even while keeping the existing ones as they are:
It’s about $10 more than the GE ones, but I think it has a lot more options, including support for more systems like I want (Home Assistant). So, just another alternative that people can consider.
I think I want to make sure all my lighting stuff from now on will work locally though. Cloud-dependent solutions just have too much of a delay for lighting automations to have to go from my house to the brand’s servers. then to Alexa’s servers for the automation, then back to the brand’s servers to trigger the automation, then back to my router then over to my lights. There often ends up being 3-6 second delay (or more) for such lighting automations, and that is a long time for a light to be delayed. I don’t mind it too much, but it feels really weird to my wife and guests to have such long delays.
Smart Relay Modules and Switches have been out there for quite some time. Sonoff has been making some very reliable switches and relays for a long time that are quite inexpensive ($10 to $20).
The problem with these is that they need to be able to fit into the junction box with the existing switch or a special low profile switch has to be swapped in. In older construction houses, that switch box is very tight and shallow as it is and it is steel. Modification of the junction box to fit the unit isn’t an option and an upgrade to today’s deeper boxes is incredibly costly and time consuming as it would require cutting the plaster or sheetrock away from the box to upgrade.
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Yeah, I haven’t actually opened mine to see the size and how much room is in there yet…so I might be out of luck, but I like the idea. I did save the one you posted as a good cloud-alternative if I don’t find a good local option. At least the GE ones work with Google and Alexa. At the very least I can make it turn off all the lights my teenager keeps leaving on. 
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I just bought 2 GE Cync. No neutral.
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If this is in process/development, why is it labled Probably Not?
They addressed this during the last AMA. Basically, it used to be in development, so it used to be listed that way. Then everyone told Wyze to stop releasing non-camera products (plus they ran into some development struggles), so they cancelled it. So, it used to be listed as in progress and now it’s not and now they have no plans to pick it back up again so it’s listed as probably not.
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Thanks. Certainly confusing enough.
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Who is everyone? I am certainly not on that train. This implies they dropped development on all new non-cam products and abandoned feature enhancements (and customers) on all existing non-cam products in response to some customer base outcry for more Cam products. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
The reason they have abandoned these existing and new devices [IMO] is incredibly simple…
Money .
Selling the devices for pennies over cost to “Disrupt the Market” doesn’t pay for continued support and feature development. I would willing to bet it barely pays for initial development. If they can’t put it on a subscription, they don’t want it in their product line. Subscriptions pay the bills, not hardware. For proof, all you have to do is review all the posts about the hard sell pestering Cam Plus Subscription Ads that have been forced on customers thru the app. Wyze is no longer an IoT Hardware Company. They are now an IP Cam Subscription Company.
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Haha, good point. I’m not on that train either. I was mostly paraphrasing the feeling I got from some of their past rationales about why they switched to the Year of the Camera in general. I was using “everyone” non-literally, though I have definitely seen users complain at them every time they launch a new product (especially on Reddit). Personally, I think Wyze will regret it in the long run. There are only so many cameras the average person wants/needs, and more and more companies are putting local AI stuff on their cameras, while others add things like RTSP so people can run their own AI detections through open source stuff. I don’t know if it is wise of them to put all their eggs in the now highly competitive camera basket. Time will tell.
Anyway, here’s one of the responses about the Non-Neutral-Wire Switch having development struggles:
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I know you were 
, and I knew you would take it the right way. I also got the same impression from the past rationales that were thrown out there about their refocus. None passed the simple sniff test.
The thing is, this can’t be used as an excuse for dropping non-cam products. Those users rant when new Cams are released too and bring to light the lack of standardization, connectivity, functionality, and feature development being ignored in the cams that are already out there.
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