Competition is heating up

[jrodricks]

With news that the new Eufy cams will be $40 (and $50 for pan/tilt) and support HomeKit natively, I’m wondering what Wyze has on the software roadmap. The Eufy cams will support 2k video, which should provide better resolution. That, combined with HomeKit’s iCloud storage is very compelling at the price point.

It’s about $35 for a Wyzecam with an SD card, so the new Eufy is worth a look.

The community has been all but begging Wyze to focus on improving the app and the user experience instead of expending their hardware lineup. With the Lock software trouble the some (many?) folks are seeing, here’s to hoping Wyze doubles down on software and firmware improvements to stay competitive.

[cnnn]

Wyze is great. But eufy with HomeKit support at the price tag is very tempting.

Game on wyze!

[MarkR]

That price would be very good, given that they seem to be priced MUCH higher … several hundred dollars.

[myswtest]

I was browsing YouTube about three weeks ago and came across a “I finally found my home security camera” … it may have been a Eufy - I’ll have to find it… it checked all his boxes for: inexpensive, local (no cloud or external server to reach out to) , easy to mount, local SD card, and maybe battery powered?

I’ll research to make sure I’ve got it correct

EDIT: yea, so even in my old age I got it correct

Wireless Security Camera System - EufyCam E Review

[angus.black]

@jrodricks

It’s about $35 for a Wyzecam with an SD card, so the new Eufy is worth a look.

You’ll still have to buy an SD card for the Eufy. It says built in support for up to 128GB SD.

[rbruceporter]

I think Wyze has been a wake up call to the industry. I am going to buy a Eufy to try, if it can function as local network only that would be a game changer for me. And the HomeKit support is great as well.

Have to wait and see, I am sure new things are coming from all the vendors. Iteration is the life blood of any product line.

[jrodricks]

HomeKit comparable cameras can use iCloud storage to securely store the video clips. Which, for most cases would negate the need for an SD card with a Eufy cam.

Really what I’m hoping for is that this lights a fire under the Wyze app development team for feature improvements- that that requires them to not need to develop more products.

I love Wyze, but I worry they’re falling victim to the classic business practice of stretching themselves to thin.

[angus.black]

@jrodricks

HomeKit comparable cameras can use iCloud storage to securely store the video clips.

I see. That is very useful.

I agree, Wyze does need to get their spp up to date.

[cf7]

if Eufy can function under Local Area Network without WAN(cloudy). I am in.
Do they have option to opt in/out upload? but not mandatory?

thx for the info.

[myswtest]

@cf7

if Eufy can function

Did you read all posts?

[myswtest]

To be fair, this story showed up in tech news - Wyze up at top

Best Cheap Home Security Cameras for 2022

[jrodricks]

The Eufy Indoor cam hasn’t been released yet. My guess is that articles like that will change in the next 60 days.

[xtremehumvee84]

Only pro for me would be the 2k resolution, I don’t use apple so homekit doesn’t matter to me.

[cf7]

you meant your first post. yes
but
OP did not mention it, tgerefore I ask again.

thx.

[cf7]

BTW, soke to a friend… He said SimCam S1 can do LAN P2P. not sure how is this brand.

[myswtest]

@cf7

He said SimCam S1 can do LAN P2P.

I found this interesting

We will open source software development kit (SDK) and the source code to the public through website and GITHUB . Developers can DIY their desired AI functions , such as catching your dog from stealing food on the table (as shown on above video), or identifying their own license plates and opening the garage door among other AI functions.

SimCam - An Unparalleled AI Home Security Camera

[peepeep]

@jrodricks

The community has been all but begging Wyze to focus on improving the app and the user experience instead of expending their hardware lineup.

From Senior Director of Technology & Services, @Frederik, about six months ago:

@Frederik

I don’t see how they’ll be able to continue rapidly expanding features without forcing people to adapt to a changing interface (or forego updates, which has its own drawbacks.)

We won’t and we are thinking about that. The approach to UX was one thing when we had one product: 1 camera. When you launch the camera, we know what you want to do: use the camera. But when you have not one but many cameras, sensors, bulbs and plugs then it becomes very difficult to know why you are coming in the app. There is also people like me: with many cameras in their house. (about 15 including in & out of the house). The amount of video produced per day is beyond what can be reviewed by watching the videos.
We also have something different coming. While the devices that we have brought to market so far are dedicated to the home, there are two devices that are personal in nature. The mobile phone and the upcoming scale.
This means that we have to change how we are approaching the app and what it means to use the app. The challenge is that for the customers that have one camera, or a couple of bulbs, we should not have a very complicated UX, the simplicity that we had when we launched the app should still be there BUT the UX should allow to take on the complexity of customers with a very large set of the devices (in quantity and diversity).
So what are we doing? First, we realize that the original team was stretched beyond limit. So we more than triple the number of designers that are working on creating your Wyze experience. We also are rethinking the app from the bottom up. We started 6 months ago but hit an impasse. So we double down and are hard at work in creating the next version of it and we are starting to get some pretty interesting lessons.
One is that to unlock and contextualize the devices, we will need to augment the quantity of organizing concepts.
For example, we are looking at the notion of Home because for some automation we need to know if the user is home or close to home and what are the devices that are at that location.
Another lesson is that being device centric makes some of the UX difficult because you might jump from one device to the next when trying to do something. For example, a doorbell, a contact sensor and a lock might be working in tandem when someone is at the door.
So we are looking at all those challenges and trying to create the best UX possible.

[myswtest]

@peepeep

From Senior Director of

Does Wyze gather requirements from “regular ol’ users”? If no, that’s the issue.

A software company can not produce a quality UI/software/hardware to be consumed by the general public. unless they engage the general public for requirements.

[rbruceporter]

They certainly do, they solicit feedback from all. And they seem to listen fairly well too!

[cf7]

I tried to get more info on SimCam. there is no forum. so it is a Negative for the brand.
but I found a reviewer…the product was a year ago.

SimCam review