Summary
- Wyze introduces an AI-based “NBD” Notifications Filter to categorize events, reducing unnecessary alerts.
- The filter prioritizes critical events like glass breaking, avoiding notification overload for users.
- It’s included in the Cam Unlimited Pro subscription for $20/month, supporting all Wyze cameras.
Few smart home devices make as much sense as security cameras, which cost next to nothing compared to the practical safety and peace of mind they provide. But constant false alarms can lead to notification fatigue, and might lead to users overlooking alerts when they really matter.
Wyze, manufacturer of some of the most capable outdoor security cameras, wants to fix that. Its Descriptive Alerts already use AI to summarize what it captures, so you don’t have to study every clip the second you learn about it. Now, its “NBD” Notifications Filter is expanding the use of machine learning to automatically categorize detected events and tell users if something’s worthy of immediate attention, or if it’s really no big deal.
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An endless swarm of notifications is enough to turn anybody off smart home devices, but it’s something almost every user experiences from time to time. Even precise descriptions in plain English get old and in the way when there are too many of them. So the company applied an AI filter to score a wide range of potential daily events, and make sure you receive notice of the most critical ones.
Nobody buys a security camera to watch the wind blow. — Dave Crosby, Wyze co-founder
We love a clever, straightforward feature name, and the NBD filter does exactly that. It filters out notifications that are no big deal, like a plastic bag floating in the wind, or a smart robotic vacuum doing its job. It also keeps tabs on and prevents overly repetitive notifications, like an ongoing windstorm you already know about, or a lawn-mowing session that takes an hour.
Ever seen those terrifying alert images that turn out to be a moth landing on a video doorbell? The NBD filter is built to squash them (the alerts, not the bug). Cars passing your home but not stopping, and just barely triggering your motion detection zones, won’t clog your notification shade anymore. And you won’t get a worried message from your Wyze cam just because you, the user, walked into a room.
The feature scores events from 1 to 5, keeping unimportant issues quiet, but drawing your attention more closely to more meaningful events like a package arriving. It puts extra emphasis on likely critical occurrences like glass breaking or someone loitering on your doorstep. The streamlined alert delivery makes it considerably less daunting to check your notifications — you won’t have to dread wading through a bunch of unhelpful events to get to the important things that happen while you’re away.
The upgraded feature comes with Wyze’s Cam Unlimited Pro subscription, priced at $20 per month or $200 per year. While that’s not exactly cheap, it includes app-connected emergency dispatch in addition to 60-day rolling cloud storage, which could potentially avert disaster and provide powerful context when dealing with security events after the fact. It’s supported by all current Wyze cameras, and available now.
