Wemo expands its home security lineup with a smart video doorbell

By Patrick Hearn Published January 6, 2022

Wemo is known for easy-to-use smart home products, but its lineup has always been on the smaller side compared to the competition. The Wemo Smart Plug has earned a spot on our list of best smart plugs, but the company never focused heavily on home security — until now. Today at CES 2022, Wemo announced the Wemo Smart Video Doorbell.

This video doorbell has a 178-degree field of view combined with a 4-megapixel camera. Throw in the enhanced night vision and zoom functionality, and you can keep an eye on what’s happening not just at your door, but in your yard, too. The Wemo Smart Video Doorbell works exclusively with HomeKit Secure Video, which also means it’s easy to set up and manage through the Home App.

The Wemo Video Doorbell works with HomeKit Secure Video. — Image used with permission by copyright holder

The Wemo Smart Video Doorbell is pretty bulky in appearance, flaring out at the top and featuring a large doorbell button at the bottom. It’s streamlined for easy use; no guest will wonder exactly what button needs to be pressed to ring the doorbell.

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One of the major benefits of using HomeKit Secure Video is that all footage is analyzed on the user’s device. This means much more security for any footage, and that on-device intelligence is used to distinguish between people, pets, and cars, rather than sending it to the cloud. The video is also end-to-end encrypted .

In addition to the Wemo Smart Video Doorbell, Wemo is upgrading all of its most popular products — including the Wemo Smart Plug, Wemo Smart Light Switch, and Wemo Smart Dimmer — to support Matter over Thread. Wemo is working with the Connectivity Standards Alliance and the Thread Group to streamline the setup and operation of these products.

Wemo is just the latest of many companies to join in the Matter and Thread movements. This connectivity removes the need for complicated setup processes and means that devices that can’t normally work together will soon be able to go together like peanut butter and jelly.

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Patrick Hearn writes about smart home technology like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, smart light bulbs, and more. If it's a…

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