Wyze Sense Home Security Review

What’s in the Wyze Sense Starter Kit?

Though you can’t buy the original $19.99 bundle anymore, you can piece together the same setup. You’ll get two contact sensors, a motion sensor, and a bridge. It’s important to note that you’ll need the Wyze Cam to plug the bridge into, so we’ll include that in this review as well. Let’s test out Wyze part by part!

Contact Sensors

We put the contact sensors on our front door and front window so that we could see if they have been opened or closed. Wireless, the sensors have a battery life of a year, and the adhesive on their backs made them super easy to install.

Motion Sensor

We put the motion sensor in our front hallway, as it has a 26-foot, 120-degree range. This coverage also extended into our living room. Like the contact sensors, the motion sensor is wireless and will last for a year before it runs out of battery. And as far as installation goes, it also came with that adhesive that made it as easy to install as putting on a sticker.

Bridge

The bridge connects the contact and motion sensors to the Wyze app so you can receive notifications if they go off. The bridge plugs into the back of the Wyze Cam, so you’ll need it to use Wyze Sense as well. While we only paired it with a few sensors, you can pair it to up to 100 Wyze sensors for those larger homes. That’s actually pretty impressive. Most DIY systems we’ve tested only support up to 40 sensors.

Wyze Cam

Although the Wyze Cam isn’t technically part of the Wyze Sense Starter Kit, we decided to include it, as it’s a requirement due to the bridge. Starting at just $19.99 for older models, the Wyze Cam remains one of the least expensive security cameras out there, but it doesn’t skimp on quality. Video-wise, we were able to see clearly in 1080p HD, the industry standard. We could also zoom in a whopping eight times, which was very useful to see what our kids were looking at on their iPhones. While the field of view was a bit narrow at only 110 degrees, overall, we were satisfied with the Wyze Cam’s video display, arguably the most important part of the camera.

We were also impressed with the camera’s night vision, which is made possible by infrared LED sensors.

The two-way audio feature turned out to be more useful than we expected. We checked in with our pet sitter while on vacation and found the audio quality surprisingly clear for such an affordable device.

Like the rest of Wyze’s ecosystem, the Wyze Cam plays nicely with Alexa and Google Assistant, but we’ll talk about that in more detail in a bit. Storage-wise, you can record locally to a micro-SD card, sold separately, and you’ll get 14 days of cloud storage on the house. With no monthly fees, the Wyze Cam is one of the most affordable options for indoor home security, so it’s definitely a wise choice, pardon the pun.

For a small monthly or yearly fee, we got person detection and unlimited clip lengths with Cam Plus, which cost us $2.99 a month for the Wyze Cam Pan (although we could’ve splurged on a $19.99 per year subscription to bring the overall cost down a bit). Before we paid for Cam Plus, our clips were only 12 seconds long and we got notified of any motion event, be it from an animal or car. With Cam Plus, our notifications were more specific and helpful, so we’d definitely recommend it.

Installing the Wyze Sensors

Setting up our Wyze system took less than 30 minutes. We started with the Wyze Cam, which only took a few minutes. After plugging in the camera, we connected it to Wi-Fi in the Wyze app. Then, we scanned the camera’s QR code, and it synced with the app. Next, we put the Wyze bridge in the USB port on the back of the Wyze Cam. The blue light turned on, and then we turned our attention to the Wyze app to add our sensors.

To install the sensors, we just clicked ‘add new device’ and repeated the process. As far as placement goes, you should put the motion sensor at least six feet off the ground, somewhere where pets can’t mess with it (looking at you, cats). The contact sensors will go about two centimeters apart from each other. The sensors are all peel and stick, making this installation process extremely straightforward.

Video Review

Did you know that Security.org is on YouTube? Watch our video review of Wyze Sense below to see if it’s the right security system for you.

Wyze Smart Home Integrations

Wyze also integrates with Alexa and Google Assistant. We tested out our Wyze Cam and Wyze Sense with both voice assistants, and here’s what we were able to do with each.

Alexa

Most current Wyze cameras work with Amazon’s ecosystem, not just the V2. We were able to have Alexa show us our footage on Echo Show, Echo Spot, and Fire TV devices. However, we weren’t able to speak through those devices; that only occurred through the Wyze app. We wish we could also arm or disarm the camera using voice commands, but this was a nice integration nonetheless, and we enjoyed seeing our kids faces on the big screen, i.e the TV.

Google Assistant

With Google Assistant, we were also able to show our camera footage on Google Nest smart displays plus Android phones and watches. Surprisingly, the Google integration offers more features. For example, we could turn cameras on and off with voice commands. Overall, we’d recommend Wyze to those already in the Google ecosystem, although it also works with the Amazon ecosystem.

IFTTT

IFTTT integration opens up a world of automation possibilities. There are thousands of connected devices that work with IFTTT that you can hook the Wyze Cam or sensors up to, automating actions to make your life just a little bit easier. For example, we had our LIFX Mini Smart Bulbs turn on whenever our Wyze Cam and Sense were disarmed, meaning we just got home for the day. That way, all our lights were already on, and we could do what we wanted to do: flop on the couch.

Overall, we’re very impressed with how easily Wyze integrated into our smart home, and with their other products, like the smart bulb and plug, the opportunities are even larger. They don’t call it a smart home for nothing!

The Wyze App

We used the Wyze app both at home and anywhere with the Internet. It was easy to live-stream footage, receive notifications whenever our alarms went off, or our cameras detected motion, speak through two-way audio, set up smart platform integrations, and more. Other Wyze users agreed with us, giving the app a 3.4 on the Apple App store and a four-star rating on the Google Play Store, so we’d recommend Wyze to both iPhone and Android users alike.

Wyze Customer Support

Wyze has expanded their support options over the past few years. Beyond the online help center and community forum, Wyze offers live chat seven days a week, plus email support. Our emails were always responded to within 24 hours. While we wish they had a phone line, we were pretty happy with their online availability and found that we got email responses within the same day.