Beta Testing Application For Google Home

Like others, I have been beta testing my WyzeCams on a couple of Google Home Hubs and thought I’d share what I have observed so far.

  1. I don’t record audio for most of my cameras and so it isn’t very important for my use cases. I’d be happy with a Version 1 without audio and a later Version 2 with audio vs, waiting for a Version 1 with audio. Even when there is audio it would be nice to have the ability to stream the video and mute the audio. Most of the time, I want to be able to check the video but do not want to disrupt other audio (perhaps music) that is playing in the room.

  2. After adding the Wyze service to Google Home, I renamed a couple of cameras in Google Assistant to make it easier for Google Assistant to recognize what I was talking about. After that, Google Assistant has always correctly understood what I asked for. I have had no issues with the Wyze service “disappearing”.

3, As we all know, there is a roughly 15 second lag in the video stream. Overtime, I usually see it gain or lose no more than a second or two. If I ask Google Assistant on my phone to show a camera on a Home Hub, the delay often seems to be roughly 30 seconds. Occasionally, I see the delay increase by quite a few seconds as the video streams plays.

  1. The video stream to Google Home doesn’t seem to be as reliable as in the Wyze app. As others have noted, I sometimes see “Smart Home Camera” on a blank screen or the moving white line across the bottom of the Home Hub. Sometimes the Home Hub seems to get stuck in that state and it takes some work to get it out. I experience some version of these issues often enough that I wouldn’t use the Google Home integration in its current state - I’d just continue to use the Wyze app.

5, On a more positive note, I’ve successfully tested a variety of combinations of asking Google to stream different cameras on different Home Hubs at the same time and even used the Wyze app to stream concurrently.

  1. Google doesn’t complain when I ask it to stream a camera to a Chromecast Audio. That may make more sense when audio is included in the video stream. However, if I attempt to play a Youtube video on a Chromecast Audio, Google Assistant tells me that it can’t do that so this is a difference in behavior.

  2. It is a little difficult to compare the video quality of the Wyze app and Google Home given the lag. Initially, I thought the quality was a little worse via Google Home and that perhaps there might be transcoding artifacts. Now, I am not sure that is the case. When it streams successfully (see 4 above), the quality is certainly good enough (especially considering the price).

  3. Before Google Home integration was available, I used to occasionally stream camera video from the Wyze app on my iPhone to an Apple TV via Airplay. This has far lower lag (a second or two at most). While I certainly prefer a more native Google Home integration where I can just use Google Assistant to initiate the display, having the ability to Cast from within the Wyze App may be another way to get a low lag display.

I hope this helps. I’ve been very pleased with my Wyze cameras and am encouraged by the direction Wyze seems to be going. Integration with other home automation environments is very important to me.

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We won’t be able to get to 5s until we completely change all the underneath technology and switch to something like WebRTC. This is considered but I don’t see anything happening before end of the year.

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That is sad. I mean, the 15s delay is at least something. I would rather have the feature with a 15s delay then not at all. I would however show some type of message to the user. Granted, I don’t think we know what the delay will be always.

Again great job, and I think for the future WebRTC may be better. :slight_smile:

The problem also is that we don’t have any control over that user experience (when the connection is being made). This is all Google.

WebRTC is designed for low latency so that should help massively. Also HLS is file based where WebRTC is stream based.

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Google Home Update:

During the Q&A video, I mentioned that Google Home Integration would be ready by Q1 with a 99.9% chance. We are at the end of Q1 and the Google Home integration is not ready for production! I could call for 0.01% but that would not be fair. So here is an explanation of what is happening and what we are looking at with a new set of dates.

The initial development was completed at the end of January, just a week before we shot the Q&A video and we had, at the time, identified 3 issues. One was extremely damaging with the stream dying after 20s of streaming. The internal plan was to release the feature by the end of February but we had communicated the end of March to the community. This would give us about a month of contingency in case something went wrong.

The issue described ended up being extremely complicated to troubleshoot and involved four different companies on two different continents with all the difficulties associated with different native languages and time differences. We managed to identify that the audio portion was causing the issue and that removing it would allow us to gain the stability of the stream. The problem is that we used all of our contingencies to reach that point. The problem with the audio is still not fixed and we still don’t fully understand what is causing it. It is still a top priority not only for us but for Google.

So, what does it mean for the release?

We started the beta testing with more than 1,000 users, which is unprecedented and the results are very encouraging. We also initiated the request from Google for the release to production, which should give access to everybody and will not restrict the access to beta testers anymore.

We reached out to the community and asked if the initial release without sound was valuable enough or if we should wait until we have a fix for the sound. The result was unanimously to release without sound first. Here’s a link to that discussion from our Roadmap topic:

(Google Home/Assistant Integration - #338 by WyzeFrederik)

So the initial release will be without sound. Google told us that if no blocking problems arise during the validation that we should have a release within 2 weeks. This means a release around mid-April.

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And some of us don’t use FaceBook (or Instagram, or Twitter). :see_no_evil::hear_no_evil::speak_no_evil:

ok, I might speak a wee bit of evil at times. but that is only when the bottle runs dry.

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Never been on Instagram, or Twitter, ever.

I deleted my Instagram and Twitter accounts. I tried Vero, too. I found no real use for them.

I have sound disabled on my cameras anyway (since they’re recording exterior places from inside, so sound would be near meaningless). Looking forward to the release, or another beta batch as I just got a 2nd camera setup.

Your second camera should have been included to google home automatically. If not, let us know.

Glad someone brought this up! I won’t participate on forums with either due to what I consider their abuse of power and information. I don’t understand why beta users or wyze customers are directed there.

Is there any updated link to add the action to google so we can test the Google hub integration?

the previous link is not active anymore
https://console.actions.google.com/u/0/project/wyze-af349/simulatorcreate?isDeepLink&fbclid=IwAR3M8UTYxvaD6YSHyWb6fpQB5RcOM_H40qyEzTZgBcFh3T7pi_C2zGudxAc

Any new updates on this ? Looking forward to this feature or atleast testing it .

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I couldn’t get my cameras to broadcast to google home or chrome cast to my tv yesterday

There was an issue yesterday that @Frederik investigated. He said it should be working now, but you may have to re-link your Wyze account to Google Home.

I just checked and it works…thanks

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Mine are still linked and not working. Should I unlink them and relink them?

I indicated that earlier. :slight_smile:

By chance is there a timeframe for when it’ll be available to the public?

We’re hoping for any day now! The ball is still in Google’s court. :slight_smile:

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