Wyze Cam Plus Lite subscription lets you pay what you like (including $0)

If you have Wyze budget security cameras, the company has introduced a new, even more budget subscription tier called Wyze Cam Plus Lite. Sitting below the $1.99/month Wyze Cam Plus level, the company says you can choose how much to pay for it – including $0 …

Cam Plus Lite gets you person detection (instead of just motion detection), as well as 12 seconds of cloud storage per activation. Wyze made the announcement in a forum post

If you’re familiar with the smart home space, you know that monthly subscriptions are becoming an absolute business necessity to build a sustainable IoT business in 2022. If you’re familiar with Wyze though, you know our founding principle is to be friends with users.

Over the last few years we have been desperately trying to navigate this dichotomy. After nearly going bankrupt during the outset of the pandemic, we launched Cam Plus, our premium service that maxes out your Wyze Cams with tons of extra AI and cloud storage features. This is by far the best experience for Wyze users, and the recurring revenue saved Wyze, but it means many of our users don’t have access to our most innovative product features. :pensive:

Last year, after much soul searching, we had somewhat of a lightbulb moment and started experimenting with a “Name Your Price” concept. The experiment was with just a small subset of users, but what we saw was incredible. When we gave a premium feature to users with no obligation to pay for it, many users voluntarily paid for it anyway to support fellow Wyze community members!

Cam Plus Lite gives you Wyze Person Detection and 12-second Event videos as often as every 5 minutes, saved in the cloud for 14 days. It will allow you to receive and filter motion Event videos with people in them to make sure the notifications you get are meaningful. This will apply to our current lineup of Wyze Cam models, no matter how many of these devices you have on your account – now or in the future.

The company says that the cloud storage of course adds to its operating costs, so it asks users to contribute, but doesn’t want anyone to be excluded.

Note that the existing free tier includes the 12 seconds of cloud storage, and you’ll lose this on February 15 if you don’t subscribe to Wyze Cam Plus Lite by that date. The move appears to be a way for the company to encourage free users to contribute something, without forcing anyone to do so.

Wyze security cameras are not HomeKit-compatible, though you can add them to HomeBridge. Given their low price, this can be an appealing route for some wanting a smart home at a smart price.