It seems to be the norm to release unfinished software. Wyze constantly practices false advertising. And they have been doing this for years with product claims and incorrect product pictures. You’d think at some point the FTC would get involved.
I have used many different “security” systems since the days of closed circuit. I currently own and use Ring, Eufy, Kasa, and Wyze devices. None of them work on the whole the ways I would prefer, but I don’t expect them to be perfectly tailored to my preferences. Kasa and Eufy are probably the most predicatble since they are rarely change much and are pretty basic. Eufy is definitely the slowest. Ring and Eufy are more expensive for what they offer. Wyze is overall the least expensive after Kasa, but far more featured and dependable in my experience.
Frankly, I don’t get the big hubbub over the new app. I will add here that I use the Apple IOS version of the app. I wish everyone would list what version of the app and mobile OS they are using in their posts since it occasionally appears something is working differently for them than it is for me.
At any rate, The new app is a bigger change from the original app than any other. I am not used to everything about the new app and change is occasionally a pain, but I do see it as an improvement and look forward to updates.
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My cameras are pretty much useless since the update. My wired doorbell screen is black (no video) and I’ve no audio. I’ve not the ability to review events on 6 wireless cameras despite it queueing as though ready to play.
It’s a shame, everything was working perfectly these past 15 months.
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The Hubbub is they released an app that wasn’t fully tested. The UI design took away organizational features the old app had. What used to be fairly simple, now requires more time to find what your looking for.
The new UI design is clearly aimed at customers with only a few devices. I had (had) over 80 devices, and over 100 entries in the device list with shortcuts and groups.
The app is very BUGGY. It won’t refresh the device list without exiting the program first.
The connection time to the camera’s is at least double what it used to be, if they connect at all.
Once connected, the streaming errors out after a few minutes, while the old app you could leave up for hours.
I’ve already replaced 30 devices with another product and I’m working on replacing the rest. It will take some time as some of my devices are in other states.
I’ve purchased tplink Kasa/tapo for most replacements. For some of the outdoor camera applications, I’ve expanded my use of REOLINK. Otherwise, it’s Tapo.
I’m done with WYZE.
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I am deeply disappointed with the current state of the Wyze app, particularly the 3.0.0 (519) release. It is evident that the app was inadequately tested under realistic conditions involving a substantial number of devices. Here are the issues I have encountered:
The UX appearance and design is nice but the impact on the app for devices trying to connect is crippling. It is too much and overwhelms the app.
- Device and Environment Details:
- Device: Samsung Note 20 Ultra 5G (Android)
- Network Setup: Wyze products are connected to a business-class, dedicated hardware wireless access point, capable of supporting up to 128 simultaneous users.
Products Owned
- 12 active cameras Gen 3 & 4 (Stationary/Pan) a couple older Gen 2
- 6 inactive cameras
- 4 Electrical Power Outlets
- 2 Air Purifiers with Smoke filters option
- 1 Thermostat
App Functionality Issues:
-
Camera Connectivity Problems:
- Frequent difficulties connecting to cameras, particularly on the favorites page. It is hanging and even when you try to click on a camera to drill into it, it hangs most of the time. This forces you to exit the app, empty the cache, stop the app and try again only to end up stopping and starting is. Also, the loading live stream either hangs or does not progress the clock on the display. Then it plays catch up. You can clearly see the clocks not progressing constantly.
- This issue required me to have to limit favorites to 5 cameras out of 11 previously viewable.
- Issues persist even after clearing the app cache and restarting the app.
-
Live Feed Problems:
- The live feed overwhelms the app, causing delays and connectivity issues.
- An option to disable the live feed and show only the last thumbnail would mitigate this problem.
-
Device Response Delays:
- Wyze wall power outlets exhibit significant delays when switching on or off.
- Air purifiers are inconsistently displayed as offline despite being online.
-
Group Functionality Issues:
- Groups of cameras hang or fail to load properly, disrupting camera access.
- This longstanding issue, present for 5 years, remains unresolved, leading to discontinuation of group use in previous app versions.
-
Order and Organization Problems:
- The order of devices on the devices page frequently resets to an old, undesirable arrangement.
- This disrupts the ability to monitor specific areas or follow individuals moving through property in a logical sequence.
-
Concerns Regarding Development Oversight:
- It is my belief that the product manager may only manage 2-5 products, if that, and thus may not fully understand the issues experienced by users with larger setups.
- The release of the 3.0 app version suggests a lack of awareness or consideration for users managing more than 5 devices. This oversight indicates a serious lapse in quality control and user experience considerations.
- **Suggested Improvements:
- Provide access to the 2.5 APK installer to immediately address these issues while you work on the REAL 3.0 performance issues.
- Implement an option to disable the live feed to reduce app strain.
- Enhance app stability and connectivity, especially for users managing multiple devices.
- Address issues causing devices to display as offline or respond with delays.
- Resolve persistent group loading issues and improve device order management on the devices page.
**
It is crucial that these issues are addressed promptly.
The current state of the app undermines its reliability and the effectiveness of the security solution it is intended to provide.
The decision to release this version of the app, given these significant shortcomings, warrants serious review and accountability.
Many are seriously and deeply invested in your product portfolio, which I might add is also being pitched as a security monitoring solution. Need I say more?
“If I had to rely on when needed this in a time of a security crisis, I could not consider this reliable”
Wyze could become culpable and responsible for something much more serious than just not being able to connect to a device, preventing visibility to view a REAL THREAT.
*** I WANT TO LIKE THIS PRODUCT AND I AM REALLY TRYING TO, BUT YOU ARE MAKING IT VERY HARD TO DO SO.**
*** PLEASE FIX THESE PROBLEMS ASAP!**
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BRAVO!!! Thanks for taking the time to make such a professional write up of the frustrations. Many of us are experiencing, but cannot verbalize it the way you did. Thank you very much.
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Well said in a measured and technical description of issues. What I find unbelievable is the lack of action or comment on behalf of WYZE, this speaks volumes for the unprofessionalism of their technical staff. Having built this mess, own it, roll it back to the previous version and redevelop and fix app version 3.0 or what have you, the feedback is remarkable they have lots of sandbox work to do before a real-time release with the ability of staying on the previous version or upgrade.
Regards,
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Well put. I agree.
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Clearly Wyze likes to change things just for the sake of change. This app did not need the changes they made and all they had to update were ways to make it load faster and bug fixes. That’s it!
Is it that Wyze hires people so young that they get bored easily and need constant change in their lives? Read the room Wyze and listen to your customers. Take the time to really test the software prior to releasing it.
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No company would do something to intensionally break their app or upset their customers.
Wyze have made several posts in the past that they needed to improve the background of the app to make it more consistent & easy to maintain. (E.g. dark mode which many people requests)…
It started as an app for cameras & now contains all of the other devices & features, it’s a 1GB install on android…
The app was beta tested for a long time & is working fine for many people.
For me the new functionality is a good improvement if it works (organising your own favourites, routines etc into one page)…
Yes there are always things that can be improved & bugs (like every company)…
Wyze has a big US userbase but is a tiny company compared with other smart home manufacturers as they don’t sell in Asia or Europe.
They have probably a handful of people working on the app itself if not less.
The support for this forum for example is done mostly by volunteers who do not work for Wyze & it’s very rare for anyone from Wyze to comment on the threads.
The only way to get Wyze to listen to your suggestions is to join one of the FixItFriday threads, Live Chats or contact the official support.
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Agreed!
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For me. I tried to like the 3.0 app, but the more I try, the more I dislike it. Im being nice without using expletives. I might be ok with the app if Wyze would have a setting in the app so USERS can choose the Devices tab as the default, instead of the Favorites tab. You need to realize that maybe every device that people have purchased are Favorites. Right now, I do not want to expand my Wyze universe due to this app. I have already started a thread in the App section of the forum to voice my huge disappointment with this app. Better yet, allow the BEST IMPROVED previous version of the App available for IOS.
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Well, obviously no company would intentionally break their app. A company should not also constantly add features that cause issues, when they aren’t needed. At least give us an easy way to roll back updates that cause us issues! I’ve been buying Wyze products a long time (when they were selling V1 cameras and changed my order to the V2’s), and every time they change the software there are huge issues. Why? Because they don’t test it long enough. And maybe they only have a handful of people working on the app but they’d have more resources to work on it if they wouldn’t focus so much on constantly releasing new product (which always have issues). And your FixitFriday suggestion doesn’t get much done when people don’t look at the thread or care to vote. Contacting support is the biggest waste of time because those people just read troubleshooting scripts. Remember when Wyze applied for dropping the ball with regards to customer service and promised to fix things, I’m still waiting for that to happen.
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I want to do this but then there is no way to stop the camera from recording, for times when I’m going to be in its view a lot. For instance, if I’m out mowing the lawn I don’t need it to record me doing that. They need that option for each camera on the Devices page. It doesn’t feel like they thought any of this through.
There are 2 simple works arounds if I understand what you are trying to do:
-
Create a group containing your garden cameras & add it to your favourite. Then you’ll have an on/off button for it on the icon.
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Create a simple automation “Back Garden Off” & “Back Garden On” to enable or disable motion detection/notification/power as you prefer:
I had already done the same thing in the old app.
The nice part with the favourites tab is you can add cameras, groups, shortcuts in any order you choose…
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Maybe Wyze should rename and publish the old app so the 2 versions can exist on the same phone. Use whatever is convenient. No new code that Wyze could screw up. 
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100% agree!! I said the very exact same thing to Wyze customer service rep a few weeks ago and have many times over the years. They don’t listen. They just do whatever they wanna do, they’re very young, and experienced and they have no idea what they’re doing. They’ve got too many excuses now and they’re not focused anymore. Probably making too much money, upper management needs to intercede and then get involved in the situation with the new app. it’s extremely frustrating and very unfortunate for Wyze. So much competition out there.
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We can all thank Google for the “let the customers do the testing” philosophy of modern software development.
Wyze make 30$ cameras, Tesla make 100k$ cars…
Both have the same philosophy.
I did a bit of googling and as an example.
Wyze has between 100-300 employees.
Sonos (who also made a big mess of their last app update) has 18,000 & it will be almost 12 months before the fix all the bugs/missing features they introduced.
TPLink has 24k employees competing with similar products in the same space.
Wyze has a product which punches above is weight in terms of price but people forget that they never made a profit until last year so are limited in terms of people and development resources…
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Then why do they have so many products so quickly for available for sale? I don’t believe this. They are definitely profitable wise, they sell high volumes of their products. That’s why they are successful.
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I have one group (4cams) and the rest (7cams) I do not want in a group. So you are saying do it their way and NOT my way. Opening the app with all cams wanting to stream just makes this app not friendly under my configuration. Extra step(s) to access something is not making things faster or better.
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