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Canary Announces Two-Way Audio Calling Between Security Camera and iOS App

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Security camera company Canary recently announced a trio of new features coming to its smart home security system and mobile apps, including two-way audio calls between a Canary camera and smartphone, a live security feed with reduced latency, and an all-new web app with live streaming.

Rolling out over the course of this week is a refreshed version of Canary's "Watch Live" feature, which "dramatically" reduces the latency of live videos being recorded by the Canary camera. The company said it's done away with a five second delay previously found in Watch Live, allowing users a "virtually real-time" look into their home while watching on an iOS or Android device.

canary-talk-4.jpg
Prior to the release of 2.7.0, you may have experienced a delay of about 5 seconds between what you saw in the Canary app and the activity that was actually occurring in an environment. With the new and improved Watch Live experience, latency has decreased, giving you a virtually real-time view into your home.

To achieve this, we completely redesigned the backend of Watch Live to prioritize real-time video delivery. By implementing a dedicated video pipeline, and adding adaptive video quality to the Watch Live experience, we were able to make Watch Live truly live.
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Canary also announced a user-requested feature that enables two-way audio calls between the security camera in a home, and a user with a smartphone outside of the home. Called "Canary Talk," the company described the feature as a home intercom, allowing users to simply tap a microphone button when in Watch Live to have their voice broadcast to anyone in the vicinity of their Canary. At-home users can then respond to the call by simply talking anywhere near the Canary.


Canary Talk will be available in the new version update 2.7.0 on the company's iOS and Android apps, but will debut first in the Canary All-in-One device, then launch sometime in September for Canary Flex devices. No matter which Canary it's used on, Canary Talk will require the company's $9.99/month subscription membership.
Whether you're using it to talk to the kids, a nanny, an aging parent, your new puppy, or to ward off an intruder, Canary Talk gives you a voice at home no matter how far from it you are.
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Additionally, any Canary membership users can now stream live video and view recorded content from their camera while on a desktop or mobile browser. The company said that the introduction of its new live-streaming web app will help Canary users watch their home while they are at work, without needing to bring up their smartphone.

The 2.7.0 update for Canary is available to download now on the iOS App Store. [Direct Link]

Article Link: Canary Announces Two-Way Audio Calling Between Security Camera and iOS App
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/08/14/canary-two-way-audio-calling/
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Reactions: TechGuy848
I mistakenly bought into their system over a year ago with an indoor canary and the outdoor one, counting on homekit integration in the near future.

I have my cams for sale now and I am switching to SmartThings with Arlo cameras. Not having any HA integration is ridiculous in 2017 for a "smart camera".
 
arggg14 said:
I'm a fan of this system, but I do remember them promising HomeKit support almost a year ago...
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Many companies have promised this. Often when it has been this long, it means that they've thought about it and decided against it. I've followed several companies that have canceled planned support over the years. However, I think there might be hope for some of these companies now that in iOS 11 you can implement HomeKit support through software instead of a dedicated chip. I think this has been a big hold up.
 
I've been wanting one of these but holding out for HomeKit support as well. From what I read the HomeKit model was put on the back burner to finish the outdoor cam. But that was a year or so ago.
 
I don't see the 'talk' button. I have the standard canary (not flex) and version 2.7 app and a membership. I'm in the UK. Is this feature US only for now?
 
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That chime would get annoying very quickly. I'm assuming there's a way to change it or turn it off.
 
They cancelled the Canary Plus project months ago (it was supposed to bring HomeKit).

I replaced mine because of that 5 seconds delay, and because there is no way to automatically trigger the siren when a movement is detected.
 
I have a canary, in the US.... no talk button yet. Is this feature for existing canaries or for upcoming hardware?
 
DVNIEL said:
I have a canary, in the US.... no talk button yet. Is this feature for existing canaries or for upcoming hardware?
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OK, so reading the blog on the Canary website it's clear that this feature IS for existing hardware all-in-one units, but, like the revised live view, it's rolling out across the week. So I expect the "talk" button to appear by the end of Friday.
The press release makes it sound like talk is immediately available with version 2.7 of the app... The blog clarifies this isn't the case, so I'll have to sit tight for a few days...
 
Interesting to see them demo'ing a bedroom (infidelity?) cam.

Would have been very useful for my divorce settlement. ;)
 
As of 3 October 2017 a lot of the basic functionality is transferred to their Premium Service at £7.99 a month.

Night mode gone, recording while Home gone, only get a 10 second preview of the thief now.

There is a long list of basic functionality you now have to pay a ransom of £7.99 a month to get back.

Along with long outages and product failures introduced with new firmware the Canary is no longer a viable security device, too unreliable, too expensive.
 
Because of all that bad news, I asked canary for a refund of my camera, because it dosn't do what I paid for.

They offered me 50% discount on their plan for the next 12 month, and I said "no". Live Mode and video recording were free when I bought one, that's why I bought it. So I strongly disagree to pay now. They should apply that only to new customers, or not at all.
 
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