Kami Home Reviews

Yi and Kami (same parent company) used to be good until they’ve slowly stripped away features and now displays ads before you can access your cameras. It is frustrating to have to deal with ads when you get an alert from your camera and cannot view the video right away. The biggest pros to these cameras was the built in SD card slots so you can have a SD card in them to record the video and not have to pay for cloud based storage or subscription. Now this company is requiring the purchase of their cloud “premium” subscription in order to remove the ads. I will be replacing their cameras with Kasa and Tapo cams, same SD card slots and functionality but without the ads.

If you’re going to delay the viewing of my cameras with ads, then the cameras should be free. I do not appreciate displaying ads for cameras I’ve paid for. By the time I get through the ads, the event for the alert I’ve received has already passed. I am scared for not being able to view critical events right away, where each second counts. Update: And their response is to offer a discount on their premium subscription to remove the ads. What a shake-down! My Kasa and Tapo cams are ad free and works the same way. Buy those instead. (Sort the reviews by most recent and you’ll see how these cams used to be good. Now they are just money hungry. Yi and Kami are the same company so don’t buy Yi cameras either unless you want the same headache dealing with ads.)

It takes minutes to load at times, always at least 20-30 seconds which is NOT ideal for urgent situations. Many times that’s all that is needed for my son to fall out of his crib since I was waiting for the camera to load/connect. I’ve had this camera and app for more than 3 months and I’m really disappointed with how much money I put in to it (over $100, for the camera and cloud plan with all the “features”). At first, I loved the design and the idea of it all until I quickly realized how slow it runs, thus causing more stress. At that, it does not keep recordings from all times so when I need to playback something and it does not register or acknowledge there was movement I will not be able to view what exactly happened. It has potential but it not what it says unfortunately.

loading time and the ads before you can access KamiHome are crazy. I heard a knock on the door and went to check, and by the time KamiHome actually opened and stopped playing ads the person who was at the door (thankfully just a ups driver) was already driving away. there has got to be a better way to do ads. I know you need money, but I need to LIVE a little more. I have been having legal and safety issues with a family member and have considered a restraining order, but we decided on cameras for the time being. would help if the cameras weren't nearly useless. your profit should not come before my families lives, find a better solution to the ads.

KamiHome has added ads every time you launch KamiHome . It makes me watch between 2-6 ads before letting me see my cameras. So, if you want to use these cameras for any type of actual security, they’re completely useless. We’ve spent hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on these cameras. Now they’re all going in the trash and we’re changing to an app and cameras that aren’t going to force us to an watch ad (or 6) before we can see whether or not someone is breaking into our home. The burglars would have cleaned out the entire house before the dumb ads were over. This should be illegal and the developers should be ashamed of themselves. Hope that ad revenue is worth risking peoples’ lives.

I’ve written to customer support twice on this issue with no actual help from them. I have the battery powered outdoor Kami camera. It was easy to setup and shows a great image. However we have had no success in capturing motion at our house. Our son who walks out of the front door where the camera is posted and down to the mailbox. He is only on camera opening the front door upon his return. We have had multiple people walk on to our property only to be captured after standing at the front door for a period or time. This camera doesn’t have a “zone” and I’m not sure what makes it pick up some images. We have played with the settings and even have it set for the highest alerts. Today it missed my son walking to the front door until the door was opened beneath the camera. Yet, it showed the large fedex truck driving away earlier this afternoon. I don’t understand. We have a full charge on the batteries, an SD card installed and have adjusted the settings multiple times. I have had this camera less than 1 month. We only got this camera because we loved our indoor Yi camera. This Kami wireless camera is junk!! I’m sending this back for a refund immediately.

Do not use KamiHome for anything that matters. We use these cameras for my father who is elderly and a fall risk, having fallen and broken his hip previously. If he falls or needs help, we WERE able to quickly see and communicate with him. Now the company has chosen to load full page ADS you just sit through or exit before being able to view the cameras. Sometimes it’s one ad, sometimes it’s SEVERAL ads in a row you just close to even open the camera list/views. How embarrassing for a supposed security company. Do NOT waste your time on these cameras or their services if you actually need them for security or emergencies. They do not care if someone lives or dies as long as they get their ad revenue. Kami should be ashamed of themselves.

I purchased several Kami cameras a few years ago because they seemed cost-effective and useful. A key feature was the microSD card slot, allowing users to store and view recorded clips triggered by motion detection. While Kami also offers cloud storage, it is expensive and should not be necessary. Since they are not getting enough subscriptions, they are now abusing KamiHome by aggressively pushing their services and, more recently, displaying advertisements instead of your camera feeds. And when we purchased the cameras there was no “add-free” subscription, just an app to use the cameras, nor the expectation that one would need this to use KamiHome . This is a betrayal of trust—customers purchased these cameras expecting a reliable experience, not an app cluttered with ads. If you’re in the market for video cameras, avoid Kami. Instead, go with Eufy, as they don’t force subscriptions or ruin their app with pop-ups and ads. And please stop responding to all recent reviewed like mine offering a discount on the new “add free” subscription and accept that you have become a predatory brand!

Used to love and recommend these cameras! Started with Yi outdoor cameras with audible motion alarms. These had built in AI to try and filter out only human detections. Kept adding now up to 8 both inside and outside. One update removed the ability to view more than one feed. Forcing you to pay for the cloud! I don’t need it! I have 256gb cards
In all of them! Then they killed the ability for the outdoor cameras to detect people in the AI again forcing you to pay! It reverts to any motion! I tried the cloud trial and it’s useless anyway. The audible beeping alarms sound at every shadow and bug flying by! The new firmware that detects humans, animals and cars merely filters those items to only alert your phone to those items! However it beeps at every single movement of anything! Was a great feature to let someone know that they are being watched. Now the audible alarms are all turned off because the beeping all day and night drives everyone nutz! Used to be a great company and now they are gearing towards subscriptions and refuse to address issues to make the cameras better! Find another brand!!!!

First I know this review will get buried as all negative ones about this product do. You’ll see the positive ones first. I had 4 of these cameras in operation. Yes they worked well for almost a year. Then the marketing began. At first the cameras wouldn’t work unless I subscribed. I managed to click around the blocks and was able to use the systems. After a few months I had to sign in and reset my password to use the cameras. Next came having to reload KamiHome on all my devices. Finally I was blocked from using the system at all, and here’s the scary part. They blocked my accounts and gave me a listing of ALL OF my account activity with details of every alarm and use . They were monitoring Everything!! Wow, how scary is that. They even had my user name for other apps that I use. If you have read this review this far here’s what I tell you. Unless you’re into being hacked and scammed do not use these cameras. One, you are being serious tracked, two, there service are not inexpensive and doesn’t deliver, three, system is not secure, and finally there is no technical support to solve any problems. And DO not click on the link they provide. Doom and gloom will follow.

These cameras used to be the best on the market really good quality cheap easy to set up. Then a few months ago they started flooding their app with ads. It’s so bad you can’t even get to your cameras without clicking 10 times through dozens of ads. It’s made KamiHome and the cameras unusable. If you want to get to a camera quickly and view something that is going on you can’t do it anymore.. I will be replacing all my cameras because they have ruined KamiHome . Don’t waste your time unless you plan on paying for their expensive cloud service to get rid of the ads that are actually in front of KamiHome you can’t even get to it anymore without going through them.

Horrible app! The cloud service isn’t much better. KamiHome will say you have one uploaded video and yet if you manually scroll through the day there are many captured videos. Don’t count on seeing the same thing twice in the saved videos however. I had to go back and capture an incident and even though I knew the time stamp it was no longer available. It was within an hour of it happening so it should still be stored in the cloud I pay for. I have had this service over 6 years and the quality has gone to crap.

I’ve been using Yi cameras for a few years. I had two of the minis and have just recently expanded to a dome cam, some more minis and a couple wireless indoor cameras. I’ve had great luck with the minis in fact I have just signed up for cloud service which I never had before. However, the indoor wireless camera refuses to pair properly. I’ve gone over and over with customer service trying to get it rectified. At this point I am asking to return the one indoor wireless camera that isn’t working in exchange for a new one that hopefully will. They have been very willing to work with me, but I disappoint it’s just a waste of time. Should I receive a new camera that works I will come back and edit this review.

Update: As of the latest version of KamiHome on Mar. 3, 2020 (with the redesigned UI), the “new alert” dot no longer persists after viewing the alert, so that’s good. Notifications for the alerts now seem to appear promptly, so that’s even better.

However, now the Home/Away setting doesn’t work. Upon returning home and switching KamiHome to Home, the camera remains on and sends alerts when I enter the room. I have to go into the settings for the camera and manually switch it off. This is not a big inconvenience compared to tapping the Home button, but users should be aware that your camera may not be monitoring the house unless you manually turn it on, since tapping Away does not activate it (at least for me).

Old review: I don’t have the issues that other reviewers have mentioned, however KamiHome constantly tells me that there are alerts to view (by placing a dot over the Alerts button) when there are no new alerts. Sometimes tapping Alerts clears the dot and sometimes it takes more tries before it finally goes away.

The bigger issue is that push notifications simply don’t work. I’ve only received one notification from KamiHome , and it was days after the actual event where the camera noticed movement.

With a delay like that, the camera cannot be used as an alarm for the home owner, only as an after-the-fact record of what happened (assuming that someone doesn’t unplug the camera and take it before it uploads its footage!).

I move a lot for work and have had several different doorbell cameras. The camera provides quality recording, but the motion sensor leaves a bit to be desired. It will pick up a car driving by on the street, but doesn’t start recording when a person is walking up my walkway until they ring the doorbell. I wake up most mornings to numerous motion detection notices that, so far, seem to be cars driving by in the dark, or I have ghosts that hang out on the front porch. I’ve tried adjusting the Detection Areas and Detection Range to no avail.

If it hadn’t been free with my subscription to a monitoring plan I would have returned it.

I just purchased a Kami outdoor security camera. This camera is replacing my old wired yi camera. The camera said it comes with 30 day free cloud service I activated the free service plan but it says select camera to connect the plan to and it won’t let me select the camera it stays gray. I then tried to purchase the paid service plan upfront for $9.99 and the same thing happened it wouldn’t let me select a Camera to use. Now I have a free plan and a paid plan running concurrently for 30 days. I contacted customer support and still waiting for a response. Otherwise, the camera is easy to hook up and the picture quality is very good.

I really love that I can watch my son from any room and talk to him through this camera. It looks great and I am able to hear him, however I would have like the volume to be higher on the receiving end. I often have to turn it up on my phone all the way to ensure I can hear him. If it had not been for the alerts I may not know he’s crying due to the low volume. Also I’m not sure if this works on an iPad but since I don’t have a monitor this would be a great addition so I can constantly view the feed. Please add ASAP!!!

I enjoy our home monitoring system in place through the Kami cameras and online streams. Able to watch home from a far and get notification of packages and mail delivered and left alone safely until we can pick up. Easy set up and easy connections to install to net and get it going. Yes I recommend the products. Only reason not 5 stars is I’ve had 2 of the cameras go off online and not connecting after so they was replaced but yet to do it again so we’ll see

Pros: Started with kami baby and ended up getting the doorbell too. I love having the baby monitor and entryway camera on the same app. Baby monitor is AWESOME especially the breathing check option. no complaints.
Cons: sometimes KamiHome lags or you have to close it out and reopen it. And the doorbell sometimes misses video like when we come home for example. But it's peace of mind and better than nothing maybe i need to do an Apple update or something

I can watch my baby any time. I can scroll the video back to see when she woke up and fell asleep. I can talk to her on the intercom to see if she wants anything and how she’s doing. Kami saves videos and time stamps when any significant sounds or movements happen, so it can be even easier to see when she wakes up or wants anything. We have one camera with a view of her crib and a second camera with a view of her playpen, and it’s really easy to look at either one. I can easily record and save videos using KamiHome , which is great when cute things happen so I can share them with the family. As a stay at home mom Kami is one of my favorite things.

I use 4 different Kami and Yi cameras at home to augment my security system. Love the 6s quick alerts that it sends and also allows me to watch full videos. I like to watch the different rooms, front and back when I travel to see how the house and plants are doing. Like the new UI with single page for alerts and videos. The home/away mode function is a bit unclear, would like to get even fewer alerts when I am home.