Shortcut on the alerts/events playback for live view and recorded playback

Shortcut on the alerts playback screen for live view and recorded playback (if an SD card is present).

It would be nice to be able to quickly go from viewing an alert notification to the live stream and/or full local recording.

MOD NOTE: This feature has been added in the version 2.6.x app release. Look for these icons at the bottom of each event video playback screen:

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Hello! Another thought I had. I love the cloud video notification, but it can be frustrating to have to remember the time and then go back to the playback menu for that individual camera to find where it was and see past the 10-15 second cloud video.

When an SD card is installed, I would love to see Wyze either

  1. Make it so when you select a notification it brings you to that time stamp in the playback menu, instead of the cloud video. Or,
  2. In the cloud video have a button that brings you to that same time in the playback menu. Then you could watch the cloud video and move to the playback menu to see what happened after the limited cloud video.

Thanks so much Wyze team!

6 Likes

Why not put a button on the screen when the 12 second alert video is playing that would take the user right to that time on the "View Playback” of the device for that alert so the user can see more of what happened then just the 12 second video (that they might have to hunt for in the timeline)?

9 Likes

Very good ideas indeed. Anything to allow for a quick viewing of the ‘View Playback’ would be great. Also, is it just me or is the ‘View Playback’ clunky and unreliable?
At times the recorded View Playbacks disapear even though action was captured on the 12 second video notification. Also, at times when I push on the View Playback buttons to jump foreward or backward in time the buttons dont function.

Would be great if you could automatically jump to the playback (assuming an SD card is installed) from a notification event instead of having to note the time, and then scroll back to it in the replay.

1 Like

Here are my thoughts on the flow within the app based on getting an alert notice pushed to my phone. I’m not sure if any of this is new, but I’ve certainly seen bits a pieces in several Roadmap threads, so I’ll try to summarize it here. First, I would like, as a setting, to choose what the push notice does when I click on it. I see three options.

  1. Go to Live Stream so you can see exactly what is happening now! This would allow you to talk to someone knocking at your door, someone stealing your deliveries or see something happening in the room you’re monitoring. Going straight to live stream would also give you the opportunity to press the record button in case they take your camera, including the SD card. I know that’s a concern, I just don’t know how often it really happens. Having a thumbnail in the push notice of what triggered the alert could be helpful depending on how mission critical people feel about their cameras. I doubt I would stop to study a thumbnail, but others might if they prefer option 2 or 3.

  2. Go to the 12 sec video like the push notice does now when you click it. From there, you will have the options to jump to that point in playback or live stream, see below.

  3. Go to the SD Playback to the point the 12 second video would start playing. This allows you to scroll back for those continuous recording people or scroll to the beginning of the minute for the event triggered people. You would also be able to play more than 12 seconds of what took place. For people with SD cards, you could give them the option of not storing 12 seconds of video to AWS, unless they wanted it as backup should someone swipe the entire camera. The police aren’t going to do anything with that video unless a more major crime took place, but you never know you may catch your jealous neighbor taking your Wyze camera.

If I can’t get configurable settings for the push notice, I would argue for changing it to #1.

On the Event view screen, include buttons (shortcuts) to go to Live Stream and the SD Playback at the point the 12 second video would begin. It would also be helpful to have these buttons available on the Notifications list page. If people opt to not store video to AWS, they would still have a notice recorded on the Notifications list page and could jump from there to Live Stream or the alert in the SD Playback. On the Notifications Page, the jump to Playback point button would be for each alert and the Live Stream would be somewhere in the page header since it doesn’t need to be repeated with each alert notification.

I think this combines numerous requests that I have seen and hopefully covers the flow within the app once an alert is received. It also give people options to have their own unique flow when they get an alert.

5 Likes

lol, or not.

I think this is a good job of summarizing and organizing all the requests on this topic. Hopefully it will get some priority for implementation. Gotta vote!

2 Likes

How long is it going to take for some of these suggestions to be implemented?

I have three Wyze Cam V2 and am considering returning them because I don’t want to use the cloud storage and just want to have a motion alert for as long as there is motion (no limit) and have it go right to the beginning via the microSD card. But, currently it’s just 12 second clips in the Events section which are on the cloud (which I don’t want) and I need to find it manually in the playback section.

How long is it going to take before we see improvement here?

If you think this is bad, go look at P/C browser with 342 votes or RTSP with 566 votes.

I think the most disappointing aspect of this is, even though I came up with some of these ideas on my own, I’m not the first to come up with them. I am not sure if any of it is actually new. This means a lot of people are independently hitting the same wall, over and over again. Cam ask a good question on how long, since people have been asking for a while. I think the real question is ‘why’ don’t they fix this? Instead, they added “Shop” and “Discovery” to the main page. WyzeMark answered the question in another thread, resources and future direction. A+B=C.

Joseph Stalin said some version of “It’s not the people who vote that count, it’s the people who count the votes.”

Yeah, there’s a lot to like about WyzeCam, such as the affordability, constant updates, and responses on here, but the lack of essential features is concerning…

Arlo Q is better in my opinion. But if WyzeCam can just add a few more features such as this one, it’ll be great.

Why is this at “maybe later”?

In my opinion, this should be priority!

Why can’t clicking an “event” just go to that part on the microSD with the continuous recording? I don’t know much about app development, but is it really that difficult? (That’s an honest question.)

Some things are more or less difficult than others and which is which is not always obvious unless the know the detailed structure of the code. However, it is also a matter of prioritizing all the wants and wishes against the scant availability of developer resources.

5 Likes

Maybe they need to get another developer.

I’m considering returning my cameras.

There was also a post from back in March from someone working with a school willing to purchase a large number of cameras if they could view a minimum of four cameras on the app at a time. So, WyzeCam is losing business due to their slow app development.

Also keep in mind these are enhancement requests not defects. While I too wish for a more polished app I know what my $20 is buying me and am glad the suggestion is even being read. Wyze is pretty open about what they are doing and with engaging with their customers, most companies could care less.

2 Likes

Great points!

Yes, these are enhancements, but if the app only had live stream you could say the same thing about playback or motion detection being an enhancement. I would still prefer a single Wyze cam over a Ring doorbell, but scalability is an issue when adding cameras to the Wyze app. The work flow of moving around the app is horrendous when trying to follow something, or worse, somebody walking around your house when you have multiple cameras. Without improving the work flow and having multiple live stream viewing capability, it’s going to stay more of a novelty. For the record, I consider a Ring doorbell a novelty too. The details of multiple crimes around my neighborhood will back that belief up.

In another thread you were mapping out pricing options for the cloud storage, but you’re thinking about returning your cameras?

This is very true. The ability to swipe from video to video was removed when viewing notifications because of limitations of the batch they pull them from. If they can’t go from video to video there, how are they going to go to that point in the playback? Maybe in the push notice they need to send the complete timestamp along with the camera information or just go to the live stream, which is also an option I included.

Yes, because I don’t know how long it is going to take for them to implement this stuff. I’d be willing to go without the cloud storage, but the problem of not being able to quickly see a full event by tapping it or even playback via cellular are significant enough to consider returning.

I have an Arlo Q and it’s much better, mostly because of the app and cloud storage. Although it doesn’t take a microSD card, it does record almost the full motion event (I’ve gotten around a five minute clip before) and it offers paid 24/7 cloud storage if I’d like to get it.