WOW! That is incredible! Thank you for sharing. I am grateful to Wyze for having this conversation instead of just cutting it off (which they could’ve easily done). I love the wording of “we are planning a way forward to continue the integration with HA” and happy to be good a citizen of their platform. I mean, I am one of those users, and yet, last year Wyze sent me an email saying I was among their 2% of customers. I have every subscription they offer now (legacy Person Detection, Cam Plus Unlimited, HMS, Sprinkler Plus, etc)…I would venture to say that is the main reason why we account for 50% of their traffic. Yes, Wyze may have Millions of different customers, but the majority of their most loyal and top customers that bring them the most business and PROFIT like me are the ones who also like other integrations such as Home Assistant. So it’s a distortion to say that only a few people use Home Assistant…yes, that may be true, but obviously the MAJORITY of their overall business, not just total users but total income base (over 50% apparently) are the ones who really want these API integrations.
That is something Wyze needs to keep in mind. Not the number of people (many people might just buy a single cam or something), but consider that those like me who have over 100 Wyze devices who make them the most money and tell everyone else I know how awesome Wyze is (and thus bring them TONS more money) are the ones they should really be catering to because in the end it pays off to cater to your top user base this way. That’s the perspective I am taking from this and hopefully Wyze keeps in mind. Don’t just think about individual customers who many only have a couple devices and never buy another thing from you ever again, think about those of us who bring in the majority of your business, both directly ourselves and as other people the awesome home automations we set up and show to everyone else.
Just last week, my teenage daughter brought 2 of her friends to our new house for the first time and as she was showing them around our house, I overheard her ask them if they anything from Wyze and proceeded to tell them how awesome Wyze was at letting us do all this cool stuff with our house. That was free advertising for Wyze right there.
In many ways, The Home Assistant integration is bringing in more money for them that it is taking away. It would be insane to kill it off…at worst they should make it official and build in their own integration so they can actually get better data from it and profit off the non-personalized stuff better like they can through the app.
I just hope nobody looks at that stat and misinterprets it. When I hear it, what it tells me is that if Home Assistant people are drawing more than half of all their traffic, they need to quit manipulating the report and saying hardly anyone cares. What it should tell you is that your primary users including your Influencers and top customers are the ones who want it, not some random one time customer who wants to look at their dog and never pays for a subscription. I have EVERYTHING from them (besides the watch…and that only because there is no API for it) including all the subscriptions and Home Assistant compatibility is still my #1 priority request from them. It’s not making me cancel all my subscriptions, in fact the subscriptions ENHANCE everything.
If they were smart, they could do the Home Assistant integration themselves and build extra features into it by having the subscriptions. Let me use pet detection as a trigger, or package detection, or configure more awesome stuff with my thermostat and sprinkler. You will INCREASE your income if you do it right from all the people like me who are bringing you the most money.
I’m just saying, that’s what I get out of this facts release. All it tells me is an overwhelming scream that this integration should be one of their biggest priorities because we Home Assistant users are their primary influencers and will drive more business to them, and give them even more of our own business, which is obviously SUBSTANTIAL if half of all interaction comes from us.
Thanks for sharing, that is the best news I’ve heard on this in a while. Wyze is taking it seriously, and in the next AMA I am going to make sure to make this perspective clear…stop thinking of us as just a small fraction that don’t matter and realize we are your influencers giving you the most profit and driving most of your new business in one way or another. That’s what I think (hope).