The app view from a Lorex doorbell on a phone. Lorex/Amazon
Does it work with smart home platforms? If so, do the smart features work well together?
Today, a smart home device is expected to work with at least one major smart home platform. Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple HomeKit are the main ones you need to look for. Apple support is harder to find but if the rumors are right Apple is due to release its own security camera before long and support should become more common.
Note that the Matter home standard, which enables cross-platform functionality and other tricks, isn't really available for video doorbells. The Matter standard has been very slow to add video functionality and it's just not ready for home cams of any kind yet.
Privacy and security
Video doorbells capture a lot of everyday moments and many of them store that footage in the cloud. One of my priorities is checking a brand’s track record with privacy practices, digital storage and overall security.
You’ll see I discuss topics such as how readily a doorbell maker hands over video to the authorities or how they have responded to data vulnerabilities in the past. This is also the reason why some doorbells didn’t appear on my list: Wyze, with repeated security flaws as recently as the September 2023 video-caching issue that let others look through strangers’ doorbells, didn’t make the cut.
This doorbell model has a crazy number of features but you'll need to enable most of them.
Video storage and subscriptions
Video storage is integral to the video doorbell experience. With so much video automatically captured, I focus on how that video is uploaded, its storage limitations and how easy video is to access or share. Saving video footage is especially important if you want to report a porch pirate to the police or save a similar unpleasant event to take later action. (But sometimes you just catch animals being cute.)
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