Home Monitoring. Meh. It needs help. Please help it!

Services & Integrations
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Okay. I just got my Home Monitoring kit today and installed it. Easy to install. The longest thing to do was decide where I wanted the motion sensor. Great job Wyze on the hardware!

I am VERY VERY disappointed with the software implementation!!! I had to turn off all notifications from it because it was driving me CRAZY!! Even in disarmed mode you get a notification when someone is in your living room, then when it is clear. Then when someone goes outside from one door then the other door then they came back in and I AM SO TIRED OF NOTIFICATIONS and I have only had it on for 3 hours!

This has GOT TO BE IMPROVED!!! I pictured this awesome controllable interface where you could have a ton of settings for each mode. Oh, you say you want it disarmed?? No problem! You can turn just the notification for the outside on then. Cool, huh? Wrong. There are no settings to do that. Oh, you say you want to be able to turn on the indoor camera when you set it to away mode and you want to be able to turn on the motion sensor and the door sensors? Wouldn’t that be great!! YES, it would.

But, not it isn’t.

There are very few things you can configure. I even called in to see if there was something I was missing. Some hidden feature set just waiting to be explored! But alas, no. The person could not help me do it. He tried. But it just isn’t there. Right now, I have ALL MY NOTIFICATIONS TURNED OFF for everything. Which makes my existing camera 100% worthless. I am not happy with this purchase at all.

I just don’t understand why the hardware is so good (when we have been waiting on the hardware) and the software (which has been available to be worked on whenever you want to work on it) is so unintuitive. Fire the scrum manager!

Okay, now for the perfect world I envision(ed) with this technology. Let’s say you are about to be late for work and you have your car keys and your lunch. Your hands are full and your kids are finally grabbing their backpacks to head out the door. Oh! You forgot your wallet! You run back in to get it while yelling for your kids to get in the car so you all won’t be late for work. You know what I’m talking about, don’t you?? This is me. This is you. We are CRAZY when we are leaving the house. But wait, we want to arm the system before we leave. Just in case. Well, let me see, I need to turn on my notifications first, so there’s that. Now, I need to turn on that indoor camera because my wife is creeped out by it being on when we are home. Now, I need to make sure all the sensors are active and the doors are closed. Okay. Whew. Almost there. I know! I’ll arm it now. This is horrible! Most of this should be set by setting your preferences for each mode. Hit one button and your done!

But wait! There’s more! Let’s go really way out there. Let’s use our amazing thinking caps!I think it would be amazing to be able to say “Alexa, I’m leaving.” And the system arms itself to the mode you have selected for phrase. It sets all your prefs into place and you are flying out the door with enough time to stop at Starbucks (better mobile order!) and get a drink! Sweet Fancy Moses!

Now, you arrive back home in the evening after a long day at work (the coffee has worn off). You walk in the door and you say, “Alexa, I’m home. Safe word is pajamas.” And, tadaaaaa! Alexa changes your settings to home and you are all ready to get in those pajamas and relaaaaaaxxxxxxx. . . Zzzzzzzzz.

Sounds great doesn’t it??!! Smile and wave, boys. Yes it does. That would be great. But it isn’t in there yet. Maybe one day.

So, wrapping up. Can we PLEASE get something happening with the software interface that makes this thing usable?? I am so disappointed with this. I am already regretting my purchase. Very sad, indeed.

Signed,

Disappointed Dave (NOT a CIA agent)

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I, for one, really don’t want Bezos knowing my movement patterns.

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We already use Alexa Guard, I set up IFTTT to turn on my indoor camera through that.

I’m not that interesting . . . if I was a CIA agent then I would be more concerned. But, I mean, of course, I’m not. I mean who in their right mind would post here that they were one when they weren’t??!! Ahem. I have to go now. If I answer any more questions, I might be in trouble.

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I guess I don’t completely understand your notification issue. I turned off notifications for contact sensor opens and closes (except for the door that is used less often), and I turned off notifications for the motion sensor. But I still have all of my notifications for cameras, and anything else that I want to be notified about. It is a bit time consuming to go through each one to set them up like I want, and I don’t know if there is a better way to do that. But I’m happy with how to configure notifications for HMS. Is this an Android/Apple thing? I’m android.

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I think what the OP, and myself would like, is the option for push notifications be muted when entering Disarmed/Home mode. When entering Away mode, notifications would be enabled for selected sensors. It can be done by going in and manually doing it for each sensor but this would get old real quick with each HMS mode change. For example, walking thru the house at noon or opening my front door, my sensor sends out push notifications every time it happens…easy fix mute notifications right, Wrong. When I go to leave and set the HMS to away, notifications are disabled so I won’t know if a door or motion sensor goes off without changing my notification statis back to enabled…I don’t think this is an issue on iphone since Alarms are critical alerts and get pushed regardless of notification status, but on Android it certainly is a problem since we don’t have this feature.

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I’ll have to experiment with this. I don’t want or need notifications for the sensors themselves, ever. Except for if the door has been open too long, or if the door that it’s used much is opened/closed. Other than that, I have notifications disabled. And after arming HMS, it alarms me when anything is tripped. But that’s HMS, not the individual sensor. For me, this is ideal. But with notifications on at the sensor level, I can see notifications being annoying.

I really think we’re talking about 2 different things too. You mention muting the notification. Almost like a phone OS function. I don’t do that. I disable the notification I don’t want for each sensor in the Wyze app. Notifications really aren’t an all or nothing thing. And, you can turn on notifications for door closes, but not door openings, or vice-versa. The app is versatile in that regard.

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Thanks for the reply…so the way it happens currently at my home. I have notifications for each sensor off. When I place the HMS in Away mode, open a door, I get no notification when that door is opened. The only time I get any info that the door alarm/sensor has been tripped is when Noonlight text me after the delay. I get no alarms on the phone (the hub does go off) that anything has been tripped. Mind you I am on Android 11, are you iphone perhaps?

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Android here (Pixel 5). This is where I need to do some further testing. I’ve not yet let it alarm all the way to Noonlight. So, I’m not entirely sure what will happen. I’ll try this weekend and see what happens. But I can totally see now what you and the OG poster are asking for. It’s my understanding that when the alarm is tripped, I would get notified and could then view the event log to see what happened. That’s what I expect and want. But I have to test it to see if that’s what happens.

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Hey thanks peeps for the postings! Saeafamily is right. Mainly, I thought I would be able to control what each mode does with notifications. I haven’t turned on Noonlight yet either. I am a little frightened to do that.

When I’m home I don’t want every door and motion sensor going off with notifications. When I’m sleeping I want some of them and when I’m away I want all of them (because there shouldn’t be any). I mean, to be really functional it has to be something they implement at some point, right? I just thought that it would be already done, at least at a basic level.

Dave (remember, not CIA)

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Dave…I’ve been really pleased with it except for the notification thing…I’ve enabled Noonlight which works great. What I’m doing now when I wait on some type of fix is turning all notifications off and then when I arm or as Away ree able them…not very ideal but it works in the interem

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I appreciate that encouragement.

I really need this to be easy. I have to activate the camera as well every time I leave. Thats quite a bit of finagling when leaving and arriving. That got old the first few hours.

The thing is, it doesnt have to be difficult. This is a software issue. Not a hardware one. Which means that it is an easy fix. I just wouldnt recommend it to anyone until they do get this fixed.

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Is it possible to use a Shortcut Rule? Have not received my HMS yest, so Cannot test. But basically, setup an Away Shortcut rule and enable what you want. Then Setup a Home Shortcut Rule and disable what you want. One press then.

Simply Curious

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Unfortunately that is a negative…that would be the easiest way to give everyone Complete control over what sensors they want to do and when…hopefully in a future update :crossed_fingers:

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Alright. Testing complete. And I totally get where you’re coming from now. This is a similar issue to the doorbell. When someone presses the doorbell button, it’s just another random notification. We really need it to take over the screen and buzz until it’s been responded to. The HMS is no different. When I tested it, there is no notification when entry has been made. And when I let it trigger the alarm, all I got was “motion detected”. Going into the app, that’s when you see that, oh, the alarm has been tripped.

I’m still in test mode, so I don’t yet know what the interaction is with Noonlight. But I HAVE to have better notification than this BEFORE it goes to Noonlight.

Dave (not CIA) :slight_smile: IFTTT would be great for setting up actions to enable and disable notifications on the sensors themselves. But only after the new sensors are added to IFTTT… Although, it would be nice if the notifications were more configurable in the Wyze app.

Hopefully, Wyze will get something figured out about this. I still very much like Wyze and their products. But the software side does need tweaking.

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Not all notifications are active in test mode. For example, the iOS Critical Alerts are deactivated in test mode.

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I am playing with shortcuts to make a master one for when I am home and another when I am not home. That way I can disable those pesky notifications when I’m actually at my house and then change over to “Ninja Mode” when I’m not there (notifications fully enabled). I don’t like the idea of doing it this way AT ALL. Not as elegant and not as sensible in today’s age of configurable routines. BUT, it will have to do I suppose.

Note: Ninjas are very difficult to pick up on motion sensors and door sensors. So if you want to catch one, then get some crunchy leaves. They hate those.

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I admit, I’m not a Home Monitoring user, however Wyze have been having issues with notifications for YEARS and I assume HM will be no different (typically lack of notifications or very late notifications, but lately, it’s been never ending notifications). I get so many right now, I turn them all off except for one. Also, I just noticed that “Rules” are not always working. I would never recommend Wyze for HM or security, cheap camera’s?? Even that is a wobbler. Good luck getting your HM working as expected, I’m sorry I can’t be more help.

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Actually, I don’t think that the notifications are the problem. I am receiving them just fine and I turn them off just fine. The problem is the availability to tailor your notifications and settings for each mode in home monitoring. That’s really the problem in a nutshell. It should be completely customizable for each mode.

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Yes…receiving notifications is not the issue as you said. Allowing rules to be made and applied to the different modes allowing notifications to be turned on or off for each sensor would solve all problems…

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This. And the notification settings in the HMS should have priority:

  1. Armed - Highest Priority settings - trumps all other settings/rules added to this
  2. Home - Second Priortiy - trumps other settings on those sensors added to this
  3. Disarm - resume regular settings/rules for those sensors added to HMS