6 ms·

I often wonder how Wyze makes any money. They're usually 2-10 times cheaper than their competitors, while providing better features, better design, and better

I often wonder how Wyze makes any money. They're usually 2-10 times cheaper than their competitors, while providing better features, better design, and better support. I love all of my Wyze devices and purchased another $100 worth of them just yesterday (3 bulbs, 2 sockets, 3 sensors, 1 camera, 1 SD card). I like how they go out of their way to add features to their devices. For example, they provide a firmware for the Wyze Cam that turns it into a webcam, which I've been using for online education for the past few months. For the past few days, I've done extensive research on smart watches and fitness bands. I looked into everything, from Apple Watch, Tizen, Pebble, WearOS, Fitbit, PineTime, etc. I haven't found anything with such a good value as the Wyze Watch. Some of the hackable nRF52832 based devices (PineTime, Colmi P8) have similar prices, but they have a smaller display, no SPo2 sensor, and you basically have to write your own OS (InfiniTime, WASP-OS, Zephyr, RIOT). I'm really impressed. I wonder if there's a catch.

fullstop 6y ago
You might just be seeing the markup of other products. Their products are cheap enough that if it misses a motion event you'll say "oh well, it's doing well for a $20 camera."
xnx 6y ago
You were able to find sensors? When I've looked they've always been sold out for months.
- electriclove 6y ago
  They are coming out with new sensors.
wsinks 6y ago
Are they selling a bunch of activity data to people or something? $20 for a smart watch has me wanting to try this. I wonder if the catch is that they only work for about a year?
adkadskhj 6y ago
It's funny - i avoid Wyze because it seems such a good deal. Something seems off about that, the price is simply too good - and i loathe being the product these days.
- gm 6y ago
  I hate being the product as well, but it's pretty much inescapable now. Paying for a service does not opt you out of being marketed to other income streams as a product (ie, combined stats, being part of a test group, etc). The best we can hope for by paying for a product is getting additional features and not being inconvenienced (ie, avoiding ads).
  - vorpalhex 6y ago
    I almost bought an $80 pdf application (pdf expert) only to find out it phones home with my device details... And now that company won't be getting my $80. I'll use the open source alternatives, even if they aren't as nice to use. Use open source, write your own open source or just do without. You can't just accept the inevitable and bow into it - inevitability doesn't change morality.
    - nicoburns 6y ago
      Device details? As in, operating system and version, cpu, etc. That seems super reasonable for support purposes...
      - vorpalhex 6y ago
        > 2.1.2 Regarding the App: certain data is transmitted by your mobile device: namely your IP address, the periods of time in which you use the App and the type of device you use (e.g. IPhone, IPad), as well as events within the application recorded with Amplitude analytics in order to give us the possibility to continuously improve the App. From their privacy policy. Oddly enough, no, they don't need to broadcast my ip and when I use the app. Not required at all for me to read PDFs. They may want that data - and if so they should ask me instead of just taking it.
paxys 6y ago
Selling at a loss to build up their ecosystem I imagine, same as Amazon with all their devices.
- fullstop 6y ago
  They could be hoping to be acquired by Amazon as well.
  - electriclove 6y ago
    This. The founders are all exAmazon and I think this is a likely exit strategy.
megaunicorn123 6y ago
"Wyze Labs, Inc ... are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates." I would like to believe there is good in the world, but other than Linux nothing has held it up.
- dogma1138 6y ago
  While Wyze has undoubtedly a relationship with Amazon that goes beyond them being just ex engineers the trade mark disclaimer isn’t for Wyze Labs Inc itself which is privately owned but for Alexa and the rest of the Amazon products they integrate with.
- Shared404 6y ago
  > but other than Linux nothing has held it up. You could probably include the EFF, GNU Project, BSD's, and a couple others as well.
- comfydragon 6y ago
  Inspect Element shows that's just a formatting goof in the footer. Wyze is not part of Amazon (...yet...). © 2020 Wyze Labs, Inc Amazon, Alexa, Echo Spot and all related logos are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. Google, Inc., Google, Google Home, Google Home Mini, G logo, The Google Assistant built-in, and related marks and logos are trademarks of Google, Inc. All rights reserved.
- untog 6y ago
  You've misread. > © 2020 Wyze Labs, Inc Amazon, Alexa, Echo Spot and all related logos are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. The page is copyright Wyze Labs. Separately, those other terms are trademarks of Amazon.
  - megaunicorn123 6y ago
    I blame their website for the mixup. they forgot a newline.
woah 6y ago
There are a lot of cameras at that price range. I got one from a competitor (some router manufacturer, forgot which one).
dperfect 6y ago
This may have changed, but in the past, I believe they were essentially just rebranded Xiaomi cameras (possibly from other suppliers) with different firmware. I originally thought the Chinese products were clones of Wyze, but it appears Wyze is actually just using existing low-cost hardware from overseas. Happy to be corrected if I'm wrong though. FYI - for some camera models (Xiaomi or Wyze), you can flash them with this custom firmware[1], allowing for a lot more customization. [1] https://github.com/EliasKotlyar/Xiaomi-Dafang-Hacks https://github.com/EliasKotlyar/Xiaomi-Dafang-Hacks
knowaveragejoe 6y ago
Has anyone done a thorough security analysis of any of their devices? Do they phone home or otherwise open some sort of back door? I agree that it does seem too good to be true
samspenc 6y ago
I was only aware of their Wyze Cam (which I have a couple of) and I had no idea till I saw this post that they have other devices now, such as Plug, Bulb, Scale etc.
abawany 6y ago
Quality can sometimes be a bit iffy (my motion sensor and door open sensors failed) and now the useful camera event alerts are behind a (small) monthly fee.

fullstop 6y ago

You might just be seeing the markup of other products. Their products are cheap enough that if it misses a motion event you'll say "oh well, it's doing well for a $20 camera."

xnx 6y ago

You were able to find sensors? When I've looked they've always been sold out for months.

electriclove 6y ago
They are coming out with new sensors.

wsinks 6y ago

Are they selling a bunch of activity data to people or something? $20 for a smart watch has me wanting to try this. I wonder if the catch is that they only work for about a year?

adkadskhj 6y ago

It's funny - i avoid Wyze because it seems such a good deal. Something seems off about that, the price is simply too good - and i loathe being the product these days.

gm 6y ago
I hate being the product as well, but it's pretty much inescapable now. Paying for a service does not opt you out of being marketed to other income streams as a product (ie, combined stats, being part of a test group, etc). The best we can hope for by paying for a product is getting additional features and not being inconvenienced (ie, avoiding ads).
- vorpalhex 6y ago
  I almost bought an $80 pdf application (pdf expert) only to find out it phones home with my device details... And now that company won't be getting my $80. I'll use the open source alternatives, even if they aren't as nice to use. Use open source, write your own open source or just do without. You can't just accept the inevitable and bow into it - inevitability doesn't change morality.
  - nicoburns 6y ago
    Device details? As in, operating system and version, cpu, etc. That seems super reasonable for support purposes...
    - vorpalhex 6y ago
      > 2.1.2 Regarding the App: certain data is transmitted by your mobile device: namely your IP address, the periods of time in which you use the App and the type of device you use (e.g. IPhone, IPad), as well as events within the application recorded with Amplitude analytics in order to give us the possibility to continuously improve the App. From their privacy policy. Oddly enough, no, they don't need to broadcast my ip and when I use the app. Not required at all for me to read PDFs. They may want that data - and if so they should ask me instead of just taking it.

paxys 6y ago

Selling at a loss to build up their ecosystem I imagine, same as Amazon with all their devices.

fullstop 6y ago
They could be hoping to be acquired by Amazon as well.
- electriclove 6y ago
  This. The founders are all exAmazon and I think this is a likely exit strategy.

megaunicorn123 6y ago

"Wyze Labs, Inc ... are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates." I would like to believe there is good in the world, but other than Linux nothing has held it up.

dogma1138 6y ago
While Wyze has undoubtedly a relationship with Amazon that goes beyond them being just ex engineers the trade mark disclaimer isn’t for Wyze Labs Inc itself which is privately owned but for Alexa and the rest of the Amazon products they integrate with.
Shared404 6y ago
> but other than Linux nothing has held it up. You could probably include the EFF, GNU Project, BSD's, and a couple others as well.
comfydragon 6y ago
Inspect Element shows that's just a formatting goof in the footer. Wyze is not part of Amazon (...yet...). © 2020 Wyze Labs, Inc Amazon, Alexa, Echo Spot and all related logos are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. Google, Inc., Google, Google Home, Google Home Mini, G logo, The Google Assistant built-in, and related marks and logos are trademarks of Google, Inc. All rights reserved.
untog 6y ago
You've misread. > © 2020 Wyze Labs, Inc Amazon, Alexa, Echo Spot and all related logos are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. The page is copyright Wyze Labs. Separately, those other terms are trademarks of Amazon.
- megaunicorn123 6y ago
  I blame their website for the mixup. they forgot a newline.

woah 6y ago

There are a lot of cameras at that price range. I got one from a competitor (some router manufacturer, forgot which one).

dperfect 6y ago

This may have changed, but in the past, I believe they were essentially just rebranded Xiaomi cameras (possibly from other suppliers) with different firmware. I originally thought the Chinese products were clones of Wyze, but it appears Wyze is actually just using existing low-cost hardware from overseas. Happy to be corrected if I'm wrong though. FYI - for some camera models (Xiaomi or Wyze), you can flash them with this custom firmware[1], allowing for a lot more customization. [1] https://github.com/EliasKotlyar/Xiaomi-Dafang-Hacks https://github.com/EliasKotlyar/Xiaomi-Dafang-Hacks

knowaveragejoe 6y ago

Has anyone done a thorough security analysis of any of their devices? Do they phone home or otherwise open some sort of back door? I agree that it does seem too good to be true

samspenc 6y ago

I was only aware of their Wyze Cam (which I have a couple of) and I had no idea till I saw this post that they have other devices now, such as Plug, Bulb, Scale etc.

abawany 6y ago

Quality can sometimes be a bit iffy (my motion sensor and door open sensors failed) and now the useful camera event alerts are behind a (small) monthly fee.