One of the challenges when you own one or more of the best home security cameras is sifting through all of the recorded footage to find the moment or event you're looking for. However, Ring, and now Wyze, are leveraging AI so that you can use natural language search to dig through your hundreds of hours of videos. However, using these features doesn't come cheap.
Wyze's new service, called Cam Unlimited Pro, launches today (Jan. 14) for $19.99 per month or $199 per year; it's available anywhere in the world, though many features will be geo-locked to the U.S. and Canada.
Wyze Cam Unlimited Pro uses AI for two features in particular: Descriptive Alerts and Video Search. Like Ring's AI-enabled version, Wyze's Video Search will let you type in a phrase, such as "person wearing orange jacket walking two dogs," and it will scour your footage for a scene fitting that description.
Descriptive Alerts will give you more detailed information at a glance when one of Wyze's cameras detects motion. Instead of something like "pet detected," you'll receive a notification such as "small brown dog playing with tennis ball."
Wyze Cam Unlimited Pro will work with every Wyze camera except the Wyze Cam v1, Wyze Video Doorbell v1, and Wyze Cam Outdoor v1.
Among the best security camera storage plans, Wyze's $19.99/month price is the same as Ring's Home Premium service. However, one key difference is that Wyze's plan only saves videos on a rolling 14-day basis, while Ring's will store videos for 180 days; this spring, Wyze will increase the storage to 60 days, but that's still a sizable difference.
To be fair, Wyze does have one of the least expensive plans, which starts at $2.99 per month for one camera, and includes person, pet, package, and vehicle detection; however, you don't get the AI features.
Wyze's AI features also don't work with its Home Monitoring service, so if you’re currently subscribed to the latter and upgrade to Cam Unlimited Pro, you'll lose features such as professional, and Wyze's sensors will no longer work with your system.
It's only a matter of time before other security camera companies also offer AI in some respect; Arlo uses it for person, package, animal, and vehicle detection, but not to the extent that Ring and Wyze are implementing it. While Ring's cameras aren't overly expensive, now that Wyze is entering this area, it gives homeowners a lower-cost entry into home security with AI features.
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