Would you pay for RTSP?

Wyze News
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This is possible. There are camera brands out there that offer this already.

I would guess Wyze will likely start with a few new cams and see the demand. Then potentially expand to older wired continuous streaming cams since RTSP is designed for this. Then lastly consider expanding to older motion triggered RTSP streaming on battery cams. This is a lot trickier to implement though, and as with all battery cams, you lose the first few frames of an event while the camera wakes up and then a few frames while it makes the rtsp connection.

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Why won’t Wyze Camera company make what people want. Solution: Junk what you have and buy what you want. That 's the way to get things changed/

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I don’t know that doing that will make a noticeable difference. RTSP users are a very, very small subgroup of people. The number of people who leave would not be higher than the number of new people constantly coming in. So, I don’t think that alone is significantly noticeable.

However, they do see public comments related to the issue and the people who use RTSP are typically more tech savvy and influential. They will see more of these people recommending competitors simply because they are the cameras they use even though the advanced features aren’t something most users care about. Wyze works great for the majority of people, but the people that would enjoy Wyze aren’t getting referred to use Wyze because the advanced hobbiest users and influencers that people trust will refer people to use the cameras they use even though they use them for features that don’t matter to the people being referred.

That is a much bigger issue for Wyze, who doesn’t use traditional marketing and relies on things like word of mouth. Wyze is a great option for most people, but they get recommended less because they are lacking things the small group of influential users want. That is their biggest problem. I think they are coming to realize how this makes a difference in a secondary and indirect way, which is why they are asking about it here now. If they start to include RTSP, it will hardly be used by many people, but it will satisfy many of the influential people again and get them back in the running for high recommendations.

But for most people? I don’t think leaving Wyze and going elsewhere will make much of a difference to the direct statistics. There really aren’t a lot of us RTSP users for it to show a significant correlation, and those who do use RTSP rarely have subscriptions (though some do, like me, we are the rare exception). So, more likely, leaving actually boosts their revenue because there will be fewer non-subscription cameras tying up the server and bandwidth costs with authentication, more data being stored, etc. They just need to realize all the loss of referrals and credibility it causes to not have RTSP or Home Assistant integration. Basically all their competitors are doing it, which makes influencers choose those first and then recommend what they use as their primary camera preference (even if it’s for reasons that don’t apply to half the people they’re talking to).

Speaking of which, both Aqara and Reolink recently announced full “Works with Home Assistant” official integrations now too! Open Home Foundation said there are lots more qualifying company announcements coming later this year too. If Wyze isn’t one of them, then they should really be reaching out to the Open Home Foundation team about it, at least for the free promotion:

Your devices will be promoted through Home Assistant’s official channels. Most importantly, these devices will become the preferred choice for over a million households using Home Assistant.

It only costs about $610/yr since they are just covering the admin costs for it (fair).

Though, Wyze would have to change their business model to prioritize local control and have cloud be opt-in only. Otherwise, they can instead do the OTHER kinds of official integrations, just not the high standard of “Works with Home Assistant” like the other competitors that will be getting more high recommendations from the influential hobbiests and techy people that people seek out for advice.

Wyze, if you’re listening reach out to the Home Assistant (Open Home Foundation) team: Partnership Manager, Miranda partner@openhomefoundation.org
+41 (0)76 406 58 71

I guarantee if you start switching to local control as a priority (including something like RTSP options) and cloud as secondary (with subscriptions), and add Works with Home Assistant…being an affordable US company (unlike Aqara and Reolink), you’d instantly be back on the radar of some of the biggest influencers again as one of their top preferences and recommendations. This is literally one of the main things holding you back. Those are just the facts. There’s a clear roadmap to overcome that hurdle and regain a lot of the same grassroots excitement you had with users in the early days. Just add more value with your cloud stuff as an add-on and integrate those bonus features into Home Assistant too. Tons of people (like me) would love to still pay the subscription if you added a lot of extra value like your advanced AI and notifications for automation triggers, etc. through the cameras.

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Strange question. Yes? I’d pay slightly more for the hardware if it meant I could take more local (secure) control of it. Like many people, I’m increasingly interested in devices that don’t rely on cloud services to function. I’m a big Home Assistant fan, with a NAS filled with my own audio and video content. I definitely like the hardware for the cost. I don’t like being tied to the app and an SD card. RTSP and/or working with HA would be my wheelhouse. It’s one of the reasons I’m moving to other brands frankly.

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I’d love to have RTSP available for your cameras. I have a dozen or so in use, but they’re one-by-one being replaced by your competitors because RTSP is included as part of the purchase by Reolink, Amcrest, etc. already. Having a local feed of your camera streams is an important product differentiator, if you’re trying to make a business case. Or, I guess, more accurately, NOT having a local feed via RTSP is differentiating your product in a negative way.

I think the question of how much money can we charge for this is a false premise and really short sighted for any business. You should, also be looking at “how much money we will lose on new purchases if we DO NOT implement this.” Market research is great, but if you’re asking the wrong question of the research, your results won’t be worth anything.

For me, and many I know on this forum, we’ll gladly use it, and in turn, keep buying your hardware. If you don’t implement it then each Wyze camera that fails will surely be replaced by one of your competitors. Then you’ve lost any hardware revenue, subscription revenue, and eventually when all my Wyze cameras are gone, another customer completely.