Wyze Cams - What MATTER(s)

[carverofchoice]

Wyze’s VP of Product just posted a lot of New Info related to Matter in the latest Wyze AMA. You can read a summary here:

AMA with Wyze VP of Product, Steve McIrvin - 6/15/2022 1:00 PM Pacific

I’m Wyze VP of Product Steve McIrvin - AMA! - Summary You may easily view every answer he gave without all the extra noise by visiting his profile link directly: https://www.reddit.com/user/WyzeSteve/ [Note, in the following summary, font changes such as bold, or text in brackets (such as changing “it” to what “it” is meant to stand for) are my alterations to add clarity or to help TL;DR people who want to scan responses fast. Each quote has the source link in the question for those who wish …

Here are some of the best excerpts that apply here:

@carverofchoice

MATTER INITIATIVE UPDATES

Great question! Matter is super strategic for us. Our first product in the Matter ecosystem will be out in just a few months, but I can’t reveal specifics yet .

The biggest obstacle for us, as you might have guessed, is that there’s really no definition yet for cameras in the Matter guidelines. It’s not one of the two dozen or so categories that they have defined yet. There is a working group that is just now being formed, so we intend to participate in that. Cameras are obviously our core strength, but we do feel that the other smart home products like locks, plugs and bulbs will benefit from supporting Matter in the future. It’s such an emerging space that it’s hard to comment on specifics, but we did join the CSA a year ago and will continue to invest in [Matter].

Does this mean, can you confirm that current devices will not support Matter with a software/firmware update?

[Current devices supporting Matter is] unlikely due to the requirements of running both the Wyze firmware stack and a Matter-compatible firmware image. We’ve been down several paths on this strategy and the most likely scenario is that we’ll need to introduce new products with higher resource limits (especially flash memory and RAM) to support Matter.

Any plans to release the API? This would be a huge help for more integrations with IFTTT or other home automation systems and tools!

Our shift in [the API/inter-connectivity] area will be toward Matter and figuring out the best local-control experience that integrates all the diverse parts of our ecosystem. A lot of the use cases that you would normally send over to IFTTT or Home Assistant, etc., will be covered by the new local ecosystem.

[Very excited that he is basically announcing a move toward local control/access here]

What do you see as the future of the smart home (beyond just Matter)? What do you think will be the next breakthroughs in the industry?

This will get me in trouble, but I want a smart home where my phone and app are never required. We track our user engagement by looking at the app usage metrics that Facebook popularized, like Daily/Weekly/Monthly Active Users. But for a lot of devices, I think that using an app means that your home isn’t as smart as it should be. Take a thermostat, for example–if you’re in the app, that means that the current temperature isn’t perfect and you’re trying to change it. If we can continue to refine our AI and rules engine, the goal is that the system learns how YOU define perfect comfort (or security, or access, or lighting, etc.) and you never have to pull up the Wyze app at all!

@carverofchoice

What concrete improvements do you personally believe you have contributed to Wyze since you joined the company? What are your primary goals and efforts for the near future (preferably something other than finance/profit related)?

Wow, this is super deep! I would love to grab a scotch with you some time and talk about my 1.5 years at Wyze so far. But as a simple summary, my contribution has been to raise the bar on product quality and focus us back on core smart home and cameras. I’ve killed a lot of product ideas that were pushing us too far away from that cohesive strategy of cameras, comfort and control. My primary upcoming goals are all related to some AMAZING cameras we have slated in the next 6-9 months, all of which were kicked off right after I started (it’s been hugely helpful to see the entire innovation cycle of these products instead of coming in toward the end like I did for many others). I’ve also been the loudest voice of support our Matter expert, Frederik, who has made a compelling case for the shift away from cloud-only control paradigms.

[The above response alone automatically makes him one of my favorite Wyze employees now!]

There are also several other comments which are indirectly talking about his strategies, many of which will be involving things like Matter in some way, so I highly recommend reviewing everything he said.

But in general, he confirmed that MATTER is “super strategic” for Wyze that they will “continue to invest in MATTER” and they will be participating in the group developing the camera category for MATTER, as well as confirming that their first MATTER supported device will be released in just a few months. Also, it sound like it is unlikely that current devices will have the resource minimums (flash memory and RAM) to qualify for MATTER.