Paid Subscription For Cloud Storage

EDIT: Complete Motion Capture was launched on 11/19/19!

This feature is under consideration but is definitely not something that we’d rush into. Currently, our cloud storage includes 12 second alert videos with a 5 minute cooldown period (using a microSD card for local storage bypasses these recording limitations). We can’t just adjust how long videos are stored to add length to stored videos because the pricing structure isn’t linear. Some people have requested that we add an optional subscription service that WOULD NOT remove the current functionality but would allow people to use more storage space (adding to video lengths and/or removing or reducing the cooldown period).

Best,

WyzeGwendolyn

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I would like to see a paid option that allows for a shorter cool down period than today’s five minutes.

[Mod note: Moved this topic and subsequent replies to merge with existing paid subscription topic]

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Absolutely. Currently we get a 12 second clip, five minute cool down, then if there is still motion another 12 second clip.

I know from past posts longer clips are not really an option and neither is continuous cloud recording. So my request is to consider a paid feature that would let us have a lower cool down period so that we can get more 12 second clips than we can now when there is continuous motion. Paid since it would likely increase your bandwidth and storage costs.

A use case is a camera that picks up a driveway and porch. Right now a car pulls up and trips the motion (car itself or lights from the car), then someone comes up to my door but the motion alerts completely missed capturing the person and I am left to rely 100% on the SD card working.

Having a paid option so that we could get a 12 second clip with 15-30 second of cool down drastically increases the chance of me seeing the person approaching my property.

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Got it. will monitor this request for consideration.

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As an interim/in-between option, it’d be useful to have the option to have more frequent notifications without cloud storage if an SD card is present. Bonus points if the notification sends us to that point in the SD “Playback” timeline.

There’s really two issues here:

  1. The cooldown causes the customer to not be aware that there was new motion.
  2. The amount of cloud data stored needs to be necessarily limited to keep Wyze’s costs down.

Given that Wyze has given us the ability to have more extensive recordings on SD without additional cost to Wyze, and already implemented an easy mechanism for reviewing them remotely, it seems sensible to leverage the SD for enhanced performance.

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This feature, for me at least, would be huge. No offense, but I can’t seriously consider this as a security device as is. Sure I can put a SD card in and record continuously, but what happens if the camera is stolen or completely destroyed? I get 13 seconds that may or may not show me anything of value. I would gladly pay a subscription to get rid of the cool down period for cloud storage.,.heck I pay Ring a lot of money for this exact feature, Only difference is I paid $150+ for the hardware rather than $25. So, I hope you add this functionality at some point, until then I’ll just be watching from the bleachers.

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Why not let people choose free options! I feel like advertising the 14day storage can cause misconception by omission. (previously I said it was a scam but I used poor wording)

You are only really giving us less than 1hr a day. Its actually less than what I even listed because the 12second time is included is not included in the cool down.

Give people the option to pick equal recording times then. These are just some examples but you can allot the same server space. 14days is useless anyway.

14 days - 12 seconds recording with 5min cool down = 57.6mins a day = 806mins total max
7days - 24 seconds recording with 5min cool down = 115mins a day = 806mins total max
2days - etc = I don’t feel like calculating it
24hrs - All motion events recorded up to 12hrs with no cool down = less than your 14days anyway.

I just received these cameras and having 14days recording is useless for me and most I would think. My Logitech circle has only 24hrs recording but it continuously records all motion with no cool down. I can guarantee its recorded less than 12hrs anyway. Its far more useful with no 5min cool down and anything that happens within 24hrs you download. The app is far easier to navigate but that’s a whole other problem you have.

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I get that 14 day free cloud storage is a great selling point but why not give the option of 2.5 min cool-down with 7 days retention? or upload screenshots every minute of continued motion until the cool-down period is over. I just setup my 2 cameras yesterday and am impressed so for but the 5 min cool-down period might be a deal breaker.
A lot can happen in 5 mins and there is a good chance that the camera and SD card will be stolen or destroyed during a break in.

Thanks

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Your post has been merged with this topic. Please vote for this at the top left of the thread. Thanks!

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@JonSnow, it’s not a scam but we appreciate you giving us the opportunity to address this. We looked through different options before we launched and, unfortunately, the costs for cloud storage are not linear even when only looking at the storage space/time. We also are billed for the number of requests for videos uploading and then being downloaded.

We are a new and small company with limited resources. If we had a higher cost product (like the Logitech Circle that you mentioned), we would have more margin to operate. But many people are happy with the features already available for Wyze Cams and raising the cost would make it more difficult for many people to afford our product. We’re aiming for accessibility as well as quality.

That said, we are constantly looking for ways that we can improve our services. In this particular case we would need more revenue to offer different cloud options. As a quick note, if you choose a 24 hour storage plan, you would need to be able to check the cloud every single day or else you will lose footage before viewing it.

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wyzefrederik Wyze Team
December 13

Are you really calling us scammers? No I said I feel like advertising 14 days video storage is a scam because if you advertised 12 second recording every 5 mins you would likely not be selling well. 14 days storage somewhat implies that a day is 24hrs not whatever it really is. Does it say someplace on the website that the camera will stop uploading no matter what after 12 seconds for 5mins? I am sorry if it does I didn’t see it.

Do you really think we would increase the retention and our cost to scam people for a feature that we are offering for pretty much free? No I think you are off topic here. For example I just pulled this from your website. I think this can cause misconception by omission. (previously I said deception but not really what I meant)
“Free, rolling 14-day cloud storage. Wyze Cam automatically records a 12-second Event Video when it detects motion or sounds. Videos are securely uploaded to the AWS cloud via end-to-end encryption and are accessible for 14 days — no subscription or monthly fees required.”

24 hours of recording means that you have to be on it on a daily basis if you need the recording. The 14 days is what has been assumed offers a good amount of safety if you are not looking at your cameras events on a daily basis. I am trying to think of a scenario where a user cant view an alert within 14days. Your camera is strictly app based. Its users must have a phone. According to Asurion Americans check their phone once ever 12mins on average. The only thing I can think of is jail. https://www.asurion.com/connect/tech-tips/are-you-addicted-to-your-phone/
Americans check their phones 80 times a day: study

Also the costs is not equivalent. Your analysis is disconnected from the reality. We are not billed just for the size of the files, we are also billed based on the number of requests (pushed to the cloud or read from the cloud). The no cool down would increase those numbers in a very significant way including also the plain storage cost. Ok I agree with you then. I still think turning the upload off after 12seconds for 5mins is a bad solution.

You also make technical assumptions that are not accurate and that are dictating some of the capabilities and choices. Sorry, so what are the capabilities and choices?

Oh and the Logitech Circle (2) costs $119 ($150). Not $20. That gives them way more margin to operate. And as far as the majority of our customers are concerned, 24 hours retention is useless. but so is 14days if its more likely to not have captured what you needed. “Oh”

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No I said I feel like advertising 14 days video storage is a scam because if you advertised 12 second recording every 5 mins you would likely not be selling well. 14 days storage somewhat implies that a day is 24hrs not whatever it really is.

I think it is a matter of perspective. What we are trying to say is that any video stored in the cloud will be retained for 14 days from the moment of the recording. This is comparable, yet not exactly the same as any other cloud camera provider.

Saying that the we are recording 12s every 5 mins can also be misleading as it might imply that there is a continuous recording. As you know, this is not the case. Alert videos are recorded only on events though there is also the option to record continuously with the addition of a microSD card. Trying to communicate all of these options and combinations succinctly is difficult and that impacts the marketing.

Does it say someplace on the website that the camera will stop uploading no matter what after 12 seconds for 5mins? I am sorry if it does I didn’t see it.

I believe so but I might be wrong. I have not reviewed the website in quite some time.

I think you are off topic here. For example I just pulled this from your website. I think this is somewhat deceptive.
“Free, rolling 14-day cloud storage. Wyze Cam automatically records a 12-second Event Video when it detects motion or sounds. Videos are securely uploaded to the AWS cloud via end-to-end encryption and are accessible for 14 days — no subscription or monthly fees required.”

Could you elaborate where this is deceptive? The only part that might be missing out of that statement is the 5 mins cool down. Other than that, the statement is complete and accurate.

I am trying to think of a scenario where a user cant view an alert within 14days. Your camera is strictly app based. Its users must have a phone. According to Asurion Americans check their phone once ever 12mins on average. The only thing I can think of is jail. https://www.asurion.com/connect/tech-tips/are-you-addicted-to-your-phone/
Americans check their phones 80 times a day: study

This is an average. There are several scenario that are “breaking” those assumptions. The first one is that people going on vacation might not have network coverage and could be disconnected for more than 24hours. Example, you go overseas or you go on a cruise (you lose the connection while on the boat). Some long flight might create some issues also. Granted it is unlikely but possible and we have had discussions with community members about it.

Second scenario, notifications are the best effort and not a guarantee from Apple and Google from what I can recall. As such, you might not receive the notification.

Another scenario, which was my case, the number of notifications was too high and I did not check all the videos of every notification. I had an attempted burglary at my house and the police asked me to check my videos because some neighbors had been burglarized. The request came 2 days later.

So for all those reasons, 24 hours is usually not a recommended duration for the retention. 14 days vs 7 days, that’s debatable.

You also make technical assumptions that are not accurate and that are dictating some of the capabilities and choices . Sorry, so what are the capabilities and choices?

The current implementation is creating a file in the memory of the camera. Once the recording is complete, it is pushed to the cloud.

So we can’t, with the current implementation, just open up the duration until the motion completes.
We have more memory but we have to preserve it to make sure that other in camera features can be implemented. The choice of 12s is a balance.

We are looking at ways to increase that duration and there are multiples ways to do so but we don’t have a valid solution at this point that we can publish.

still think turning the upload off after 12seconds for 5mins is a bad solution.

This is the best solution that we have found at this point to maintain a low cost. I agree that this is not optimal and that’s why we usually recommend the addition of a microSD card to enable the continuous recording.

so is 14days if its more likely to not have captured what you needed.

14 days is not about the capture but the retention. So 24 hours, 2 days, 7, 14 or unlimited would not necessarily fix this. If the event you are looking for is not recorded, it will not change.

See fourth paragraph here:

https://support.wyzecam.com/hc/en-us/articles/360012422291-Can-I-extend-the-length-of-the-alert-video-

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Good find I give you credit RickO. I searched the website for it and didnt find anything last night.

Its kind of hidden within the faq section though and not even listed on the common question section.

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That’s something that I can bring up with the team. I found 6 entries that included the cooldown time when I searched for it in the support side but I definitely hear you about it not being prominent enough. :slight_smile:

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[WyzeFrederik]

Could you elaborate where this is deceptive? The only part that might be missing out of that statement is the 5 mins cool down. Other than that, the statement is complete and accurate.

Ok I will change my wording and say it can cause a misconception by omission. Sorry I may have incorrectly used the definition in this situation. I will edit or delete previous posts.

This is an average. There are several scenario that are “breaking” those assumptions. The first one is that people going on vacation might not have network coverage and could be disconnected for more than 24hours. Example, you go overseas or you go on a cruise (you lose the connection while on the boat). Some long flight might create some issues also. Granted it is unlikely but possible and we have had discussions with community members about it. The longest flight from the USA is 18hrs. Airplanes have wifi now. The cruise ships also have WiFi and cellular networks. You should add emailed alerts actually now that I think about it. I even got email and internet on an aircraft carrier in 2004.

Another scenario, which was my case, the number of notifications was too high and I did not check all the videos of every notification. I had an attempted burglary at my house and the police asked me to check my videos because some neighbors had been burglarized. The request came 2 days later.
Ok so your storage was useful in this situation. But I am curious as to if it was captured on the memory card or the cloud because of the cool down? Since you are getting triggers so often you dont look that also means your upload is not even on 5mins after all these useless alerts you ignore. The camera is in cool down after the useless upload potentially so often both you and the camera could have ignored the event.

I also want to point out that you viewed it within 2days in this case and I said I was trying to think of a scenario where you could not view it for 14days.

So we can’t, with the current implementation, just open up the duration until the motion completes.
We have more memory but we have to preserve it to make sure that other in camera features can be implemented. The choice of 12s is a balance.

Is it possible to have the camera use the memory card? Have it mark a 1min block on the card for upload if motion was detected within that min? Have the card record in 1min blocks like a dash cam if it doesn’t already. It would prob cost more money though but why not ask i guess.

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24 hours would be useless to me, even 2 days, Anything less than week , would be a deal breaker for me

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Using the SD Card could be also an option and we have to look more into the details of it. One thing to look into is the latency that it is introducing between the writing of the files and the reading for sending the files in the could. One optimization that we have talked is to try to use the local file would be on the SD Card instead of the cloud file.

We are also looking at HLS to see if there is a benefit for all the scenario. One of the benefit is that it is a chunking the stream into different files. This can probably remove the time limitation but it will not be working for the real time required for live streaming. We have also to see how the replay would work…

In other words, we are looking at the best solution to resolve that issue. With the outdoor camera that we are working on, we know that more and more people will be looking at the camera for security purpose and we would like to offer a solution.

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I know I was greatly disappointed when I got my wyze cam and realized there was a five minute cool down. Yes it was on the website, but I can’t remember if it was anywhere on Amazon. I do know that it wasn’t the easiest to find. This is ultimately why I returned the camera. I really liked the camera, and I loved the cost, but this was a deal breaker for me. If my use case was a baby monitor, or just to check in on my pets while I was gone, this would be perfect. However, if I was to use this for any security application, the five minute cool down just doesn’t work. I get that I can get continuous recording with a MicroSD card, but that MicroSD card does me no good if the camera is stolen. Not trying to offend anyone or start an argument, but I have to laugh at all the articles I see written that tout this as a security camera that has more features than Ring/Nest/name your other big brand. For me, someone who is very security focused, the five minute cool down for cloud recordings just kills it. I’m hoping that at some point you will offer a paid subscription, or change that model, but for now I just continue to sit in the stands and watch.

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THE BEST SOLUTION… is for WYZE to build an API for SD card users that automatically grabs/copies the data on the SD card and stores it to the network LOCALLY:

It’s 2019 (almost). People have the ability to buy, or already own, a NAS device. Your NAS device can back up to any cloud service either by built-in design or by app. SO now a savvy consumer can buy an excellent WYZE camera, put in an SD, which (when you build the API, that is) offloads any recordings to a local NAS, where it is up to the savvy consumer to get it into whatever cloud service they wish (i.e. give consumers a CHOICE of what provider to use).

SO why should WYZE have to re-invent and re-package something that already exists? It doesn’t.

I bought their product because it is FANTASTIC and GREATLY PRICED for the 95% who don’t make 6 figures a year. I don’t need or want them to bump the price up to support any cloud subscription services. That would KILL everything that makes this a compelling camera to purchase.

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