Wyze Cam adds 'no big deal' AI filter to cut down on your notifications

Wyze just introduced a new feature called the “No Big Deal” (NBD) filter to reduce unnecessary notifications. This is meant to address the excessive notifications that come with a security camera, including false alerts and unimportant NBD events.

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Imagine you have a camera by your garage and spend a few hours cleaning your garage or doing yard work, for example. Reducing repetitive notifications by marking them as NBD would prevent your phone from getting motion-detection notifications every minute. Instead, your Wyze Cam would recognize that as an unimportant, repetitive activity and stop sending notifications for up to a three-hour block of time.

NBD filter scores explained

The NBD filter uses artificial intelligence to score notifications from 1 to 5, depending on the type of activity detected. The higher the score, the more critical the event. A score of 1 would include mundane, low-importance activities, like leaves blowing in the wind or a car driving by. A score of 5 would be reserved for consequential situations, like a stranger near your door or the sound of glass breaking.

Here are some examples Wyze gives to explain each score:

• Score 1: A robot vacuum cleaning floors, cars driving by, a known person doing dishes.
• Score 2: Sounds of a dog barking (likely low importance).
• Score 3: A delivered package, a crying baby.
• Score 4: A stranger approaching, a car arriving.
• Score 5: Glass breaking, a gunshot, a stranger lurking.

NBD filter isn’t free

The NBD filter will only be available with a Cam Unlimited Pro plan, which costs $20 monthly. This AI-powered filter complements the Wyze Descriptive Alerts released in January. The Cam Unlimited Pro subscription uses AI to generate an alert description and intelligently search through up to 60 days of event recordings. The plan also includes 24/7 emergency dispatch.

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To filter alerts as either NBD or critical, Wyze uses AI to analyze video footage and score them. For now, Wyze is conservative with filtering notifications by only sending a phone notification for events that get a score of 2-5. The company says it will consider further user feedback to potentially exclude notifications from scores 1 and 2 in the future.

The scores aren’t visible or controllable from the user experience, so users aren’t currently able to change the score on their footage. But Wyze is planning to give users full control to personalize the settings on their cameras.

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