YI Technology Reviews 722

Bought three of these cameras with the express understanding that they would serve my purposes without requiring a subscription - which they did for awhile. Then the company moved the goalposts on cameras I already owned that they are basically useless without a subscription. TOTAL SCAM. Shocked it is legal for them to bait and switch customers like this! Where do I sign up for the class action suit????

DO NOT USE YI/KAMI CAMERAS!!
Filled with tons of ads that you have to watch for as long as 2 minutes or so, just to watch your live feed of a SECURITY CAMERA!

Do not use at all!

Open the app - multiple ads with timers,

View live stream - multiple ads with timers and now limited to viewing under 2 mins before you have to watch multiple MORE ads with timers!

Everything has ads.
This is unusable, especially as a security app!

They also put lots of things that you used to have included for free, behind a paywall, even HD viewing is behind a paywall now!
And you are limited to under 2 mins to watch your live stream.
This should be illegal!

What is worse is that many ads are scam ads too which impersonate sites or would install malware/virus's if you installed them!

Imagine if you think you are being robbed.
You open the app to ads, then more ads to watch the live stream.
Takes you 2-3 mins just to view a live stream and then you are limited to a short viewing time before you have to do it all again!

Do not use Yi or Kami cameras at all!

App is unusable - intrusive ads. Cameras ok techically but ap and its intrusive adverts and compulsion to take expensive subscription make it unusable

How i wish i had read the reviews before i bought two cameras… cannot get passed the ads to even set up.. they will go in my bin……

This Company is a scam.

-Cannot Review SDCard
-Live view has been limited to 60 seconds without subscription.
-Cameras AI never worked, not worth the money
-Camera has unbelieve ADs that you cannot escape, and forced to click the link to get out of.

This company needs to be removed from all listing and not sold under google or anyone for that matter.

I actually used to buy their subscription, but now, given the deceptive practices they do, I cancelled a while ago, and slowly moving to other cameras like VICO.

Very Bad overall.

Worst cameras I've had the displeasure or coming across

Scam.
I bought my camera years ago. Now they forcing you to pay for subscription. Even for HD playback, you need a subscription.
Why would you buy a camera with HD feature if you won't be able to use that feature?

Never buy this product. It's totally based on app subscription. And app is horrible. You can't even open it to see your camera s from so much crap opening up. Viruses

Had 4 yi cameras on local recording for years. Cameras are good quality but the app is atrocious and since a recent update is now unusable. All these con artists want is your cloud subscription. Local recording is now only shown in SD and only for 30 seconds, making it unusable. I've changed all cameras to eufy ones which are far better quality and local recording is great.

To be honest this company is a RIP off. It's ALL SCAM! THE camera is no use AT ALL ANNOYING ADVERTISING EVERYTIME YOU CHECK THE APP. HOPE SOMEONE SUE THIS COMPANY AND ALL USERS GET Benefit form CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT!!! REALLY BAD EXPERIENCE.

This service is plagued with intrusive, persistent ads that are often very difficult to bypass. This is to pressure the customer to pay for the upgraded service to remove these ads.
I've already had one camera fail; so, once the other one goes dead, I will NOT be using this service ever again.
Don't waste your time with these cameras.

I threw out all 12 cameras that I was using the micro cards for recordings. As soon as I experienced them blocking my use of the micro card recordings, in the trash they went! Ads everywhere at every click. Honestly, these are useless unless you pay for the cloud.
Even when I did have a cloud subscription a year ago with them it did not work on the newer 5g cellular data. There was some sort of compatibility with the new 5g cellular. Cameras would work on older LTE cellular. So again useless.
It felt really good on seeing them all in the trash and my frustration was finally over!

DON'T BUY THIS GARBAGE.
Would give negative stars if they allowed it.
Can't view cameras due to ads and attempts to get you to pay for premium upgrade.
Lose connections with router 10 feet away.
NOW they are limiting you to 90 seconds of free viewing time so they can force you to upgrade.
Offer a low price to begin with then automatically charge your card $128 a year.
Look at all the bad reviews these crooks have received.

I purchased 8 of these over the years as they advertised use of SD cards for recording. Over the past few months they are now slamming ads & no longer support SD recording. Can no longer access these cameras due to AD circle of Death Spam you cannot exit. I am actively looking to replace these NOW USELESS CAMERAS. Stupid move!!

So many adverts as to render this product useless. I would not recommend this item.

The worst. When I first bought the cams there were annoying adds, but after that they got worse to where I would spend a lot of time trying to see the cam view. I bought a different set of cameras and they them in the trash

Almost impossible to use effectively due to endless adverts stopping you from viewing when you need to. Have now given up and will be replacing all 4 cameras we currently have.
Real shame, as the camera and picture quality is good.

If I could rate it zero I would. This Chinese company is a fraud. They say you can use SD card, then push you to buy cloud service by making the SD card unrecognisable. After charging you they don’t upload anything on cloud. So it’s basically a dummy camera you end up with. Avoid at all cost and don’t buy from Amazon. I will complain to Amazon to not let them sell this company products!!!!

Yi Techs new 2026 ploy! aAllow you only 90s of free viewing of your camera B4 blocking your access with ads. REPEATEDLY my security VIEWING has been COMPROMISED because the app is playing some 💩AD.
NEVER BUY Yi/Kami cameras the company PRIORITY has ALWAYS been its own REVENUE OVER YOUR SECURITY making it an UNTRUSTWORTHY company with an MORONIC CEO.
I will DITCH Yi cameras as EVERY app update is used to MANIPULATE MEDDLE or DUMB down CAMERA FEATURES & this has been happening persistently for YEARS.

I've had this security camera for about 6 years. I was satisfied with it until the last month or so when Yi suddenly and without warning began requiring an expensive subscription just to be able to view and unexpectedly began limiting the amount of time for live viewing to a mere minute and a half. Before you can view, you are now bombarded with loud, unending ads. My house is in the US but I am in Europe and I can no longer access my security camera easily. This camera will get tossed in the trash, replaced with one that is not a scam company like Yi. What they've done should be illegal. It's basically bait and switch. Do not buy anything from Yi.