August View Doorbell Camera

Product Description

Instantly know who's at your front door - no matter where you are - by installing the August View doorbell camera in your home. It features a traditional doorbell design and will stream 1440p video directly to your phone for ultimate convenience. [Read more]

Top Reviews

Excited but disappointed
by Denise Hall (2 out of 5 stars)
April 14, 2019

Update 2: 4/26/2019

Since the last update its been outside. I must say my husband's phone gets better notifications that mins which us weird since we are both signed into the app as "owners".

At the last update the battery was full. It is now dying. There is also a lovely small red light that indicates when the battery is dying. OUTSIDE ON THE UNIT.

It takes forever to get an image when the notification comes in. the notification that someone is at the door comes to us both but we cant both access the video. And the app does not tell me when he has already answered even though it still gives me the option of answering. The only solution I can see for this is to have only one person be able to answer the door.

I may also need to eat my words on the IR. It's a bit grainy. Inside the house it was really sharp but I guess closer images get that resolution. Pictures attached.

I'm sending it back.

Update: 4/24/2019

It lost a star. After playing with it for a while indoors I finally put it out today. I have charged this device 3 times in the past 11 days. The first charge lasted less than 24h. I moved it out the kitchen because I figured it was the excessive activity. I really cant control my neighborhood though, so... idk.

I have to say I'm not thrilled about the lots of lights that this thing has. It's one thing to light up when its rung but there are other indicator lights that would be OUTSIDE and my phone gets no notification. I have no idea what most of it means. The pulsating green means there is no wifi - WHY WOULD I NEED TO KNOW THIS OUTSIDE?? WHY WOULD MY NEIGHBORS/VISITORS HAVE TO KNOW??!! And how the hell do you reboot it? Removing the battery doesnt work unplugging/replugging the chime doesnt work, pushing and holding the reset button on the device doesnt work. Overall, the bell isnt working if the light is not off or pulsing white when rung.

The wedge is fairly well applied to the wall with 2 screws. I opted to use 2 longer screws than the ones provided since I was putting it on wood. The L bracket is... applied ok in the Wedge. Since it could only be put on with the 1/16(?) Flat head screws provided. I had no choice.

I worry about putting my $250 outside when I attached to device to the bracket though because even when locked in I can easily slip it up and out of the track it slides on to. If I really wanted to I could just break it away by cracking the plastic bracket. I'm not impressed.

I'm currently paying for my subscription so that I can make use of the replacement warranty if it is stolen. I still have a little time with it before I can return so will probably do update 2.

I'm really hoping they have some update to the software or at least a promise to create a more secure bracket for the device. Fingers crossed.

Original review: 4/13/2019

Ok so I was really excited to get my doorbell. This is my experience.

Unboxing was nice except I couldn't remove the battery without feeling like I would break the thing. I had to use a blunt object to hold down the pin while sliding it out. Still not sure I wont break it just because of the design. Side note: it's a whole lot easier to remove the battery from a ring with a similar set up.

I charged the battery overnight just to be sure so cannot comment on how long it takes to charge (more below).

Set up was easy. Follow the instructions on the app. What I did meet though was a problem for other people in the household who had permissions to get access. My husband had to sign out and sign back in, uninstall and reinstall before he could see. Everything else went well.

There is a warranty for theft (havent figured out the strings attached ie if you have to subscribe to more than the free basic option) . I do like that there is a way to secure the unit in place so that it is not easily removed. I do wonder though, about the warranty, it appears that the unit would be registered to my account and therefore would not be able to be activated by anyone else (assumption).

The picture quality is awesome! Daytime and IR. I am truly impressed.

If you want live feed it is limited to a short time before it kicks you out (varied so it may be related to internet connection). That's cool. I also love it that the app shows a record of who looks in love and when.

Back to the battery. This was the most disappointing part. The battery was put in around 10am and by midnight it was in the red. Nearly dead. I charged again in the night and will update if the battery life improves.
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A misanthrope's dream
by K. Durivage (5 out of 5 stars)
April 22, 2019

I bought this after being a satisfied user of the August Smartlock. As a person who never wants to leave the house, when necessity drives me to go shopping, I tend to load up. The door unlocking for me was very convenient when I'd buy groceries for the month or litter for my many cats. As much as I don't want visitors, the functionality seemed sound and I could just continue to ignore people as I did with my dumb doorbell.

This doorbell has exceeded expectations. The battery seems to be drained every few days, so if I run into someone who tried to come over, I have a very handy excuse on why I didn't answer. "I am not a hermit- I bought this $230 doorbell so I could see visitors!" I tell them, convincingly.

On the off chance the battery has a charge and I want to look at the outside world, the camera takes 30 seconds to "wake up" which is a long enough time for me to lose interest and pay attention to the real things that matter in life (my many cats).

Finally, it is secured to the base with one "locking" screw that you use a flathead screwdriver to put into place. This locking screw is easily defeated by lifting and slightly twisting the doorbell around the screw, so I'm hoping someone will steal it soon and I can never get around to replacing it.

If you never want to meet people at your house but want to pass as a normal human being for a while, this is the perfect doorbell for you.

Update: It seems that it's just the first charge that lasts a short time - and yes, I did let the battery charge overnight until it was full. The firmware update the first time it comes online must eat away battery in a way normal use doesn't.
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This Product Clearly Wasn't Ready to be Released...
by KJ (3 out of 5 stars)
April 17, 2019

UPDATE 5/25/19 - Changed from 1-star to 3-stars: So the company acknowledged that their product was not ready for release, and offered to refund everyone the purchase price (minus sales tax) in exchange for providing feedback via a series of surveys. Since that time, they have released multiple software/firmware updates, and each one has improved things incrementally. While previously the thing was completely unreliable and hardly ever worked, it is now much more reliable. It now works *most* of the time (I'd estimate it's cracked 90% now), but not 100%. But that's a sharp improvement over the roughly 10% when it was released. And the battery life is still nothing close to what was promised. But overall it is now a decent product that merits 3 stars in my opinion, and it gives me faith in the company that they owned up to their mistakes and are trying to make things right. To get to 5 stars they would need to 1) significantly improve battery life or include a second battery with purchase, 2) get the reliability up to 100%, and 3) cut down on the time it takes to pull up the live stream (which is currently I'd say an average of 10+ seconds, but sometimes more than that, and sometimes it doesn't work at all).

All the reviews here are pretty consistent, which should tell you everything you need to know. I have the August Lock (which has worked great), so I was very excited to pair it with the new Doorbell. Let's see, where to begin...

THE GOOD:

The unit looks nice, and the night vision is very good. And when it works (which is hardly ever), it's great!

THE BAD:

Setting up: Took a little longer than expected. Battery takes forever to charge, and as someone else mentioned, it is very difficult to remove. As for the actual setup, the way the doorbell slides into the wall mount felt very flimsy. It took many tries to get it locked in, and I kept thinking it was going to snap the plastic and break.

Motion Alerts: I turned the sensitivity all the way down to 20%, but still most of the alerts show absolutely nothing. I've even been looking out my window right when an alert is triggered, and there's literally nothing in sight. Sometimes it picks up a car driving by, but doesn't actually catch people near my door. And the little 5 second videos that you can view for 24 hours are usually useless. It usually plays out like this: mailman delivers my mail and walks away, then about 5 seconds later I get a motion alert. So I open the app to view it, but then you can't look right away because the video is "processing". A minute later it will work, and it will just be a 5 second clip of nothingness because it started after the mailman already left.

The other problem is that the first half of the 5 second video is always the video focusing, calibrating, and starting with an all white screen, which means it's really a 2 or 3 second video. And the still image that shows up on your phone is completely whitewashed because it's focusing, but that means you can never actually see anything in the image. And on top of this, the function of downloading the video (only available for 24 hours unless you pay) doesn't actually work!!! You click the button to download, and it just goes on forever without ever actually working. Then once you give up and click cancel, it goes to the page trying to sell you their subscription service. What a joke. I would upload one of the motion alerts to show you what I mean, but obviously I can't because the download function doesn't work...

Streaming: When it works, it's pretty good. There's a lag of about 5-10 seconds or so, but then you get a nice clear stream. However in my experience, this is the case about 5-10% of the time. The rest of the time, it's just loading and loading and loading, then finally you get a message that the doorbell is offline or there's some other error message. My guess is that this is largely due to it losing internet connection (?) but even this doesn't really make sense. I have a very strong router that is very close to my door, and my phone can still pickup my wifi signal halfway down my street. I even purchased a wifi range extender to see if that did anything, but it didn't. So as a doorbell, it's basically useless when it doesn't work 90% of the time...

Battery: The listing says the battery lasts for 3-6 months. Mine went from 100% to under 40% in *LESS THAN 24 HOURS*!!! I fully re-charged it again, and once again it went from 100% to 70% in the same day. I'm guessing this is maybe because it's constantly searching for wifi thus draining the battery. But even if that's the case, how can August seriously claim this lasts 3-6 months when it doesn't appear that it would last 3-6 DAYS!!

CONCLUSION: If this product worked as described, it would be perfect and well worth the cost. But as it currently stands, it's a product that doesn't function properly 90% of the time. Motion alerts have a notable lag and usually don't capture anything. Connecting to the live stream, usually doesn't work, and even when it does it takes a long time to get there (and by that time the person at your door has probably already left). And it seems like you will be charging your battery constantly, which takes about 4 hours each time. I guess I'll hold out for a little longer to see if August releases any firmware or software updates that fix these issues. But if not, I will certainly be returning this item before the return window closes. Incredibly disappointing.
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Terrible product, don't waste your money
by Kyle Damian (1 out of 5 stars)
April 12, 2019

I was extremely excited about this product since it didn't require doorbell wiring. Since we already had an august lock (which we love) we thought the doorbell would be a nice addition and wouldn't require another app like Ring. First thing I noticed was that they didn't include a USB charger connector, only the cord. While I didn't need it, it seemed cheap to me to not include. The set-up process was annoying because they don't let you view what the camera sees when finding the position. So you have to pair it, exit the setup, check the view, and then un-pair and restart the process again to have the installation instructions. The battery was also completely empty and took about 3 hours to get a full charge.

Once it was set-up, I found it extremely unsecure. It's locked to the wall base using only small flat head screw on the bottom. It could easily be ripped off the wall or even removed with a tool in 10 seconds flat. I was willing to let this slide since they do offer theft protection and replace it if you pay $3 a month and file a police report and pay $20 for shipping.

After install, we starting to see the real downfalls of the doorbell. First is it takes about 30 seconds to load the live feed (they call it waking up the doorbell). It usually fails to connect (even with a strong WiFi signal) to get a live feed and usually takes 3-4 tries.

The notifications from motion detection are not videos. They are about 3-4 images in a video file. So it is very jumpy. I got a package delivered and the pictures it took didn't even get a good look of the delivery man.

Also if you try to connect when someone rings the doorbell or activates the motion detection, by the 3-5 minutes it takes to connect they will be gone.

I believe a lot of these will be fixed in the future, but I didn't feel any safer with this doorbell and it is just a frustrating experience overall. The quality of the video was nice though whenever it did connect.

I have returned the product and will try the Ring wireless version. I guess I will have another app.
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Horrible, so frustrating
by MadManYan (1 out of 5 stars)
April 11, 2019

Folks, I am not a beta tester but I sure as hell felt like one. Do not buy this, it does not work. I have the August lock and love it. I figured I would get the doorbell to stay in the same family. Big mistake.

I connected the app and doorbell simple enough. But that's where it stopped. I tested it by trying the live cam. It worked less than have the time for the live streaming. It takes a good 30 seconds to connect, if it does, then streams. The other times it just says fail to connect. And this is with the device in my hand indoors, testing.

The moment that I mount it on my door, the wifi drops. And I have mesh so there's no weak points. My devices all have perfect signal outside my door but this doorbell can't seem to keep a signal. And you would think if I bring it back in that it would reconnect, nope. I have to go through the wifi wizard again to reconnect it and put it back online.

This was a total waste of time and money. I even called August and had to teach them how to reconnect it so that he could test the device. The sum of it all, "I sincerely apologise for this inconvenience." That was my solution folks.

Stay away. Go with Ring. So sad to see August deploy such a garage product.
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WARNING - NEEDS SOFTWARE UPDATE - DOES NOT WORK IF WIFI NETWORK NAME HAS AN ' (APOSTROPHE) IN IT!
by Matthew (1 out of 5 stars)
April 19, 2019

You might think I made up the issue about the Wifi name (it seems ridiculous to me), but read on.

I pre-ordered this product as I have an August Connect Door lock that works well. (Specifically I have a Yale lock with August Connect installed that I like and can recommend as both the lock and the iOS app work well, so I was excited about adding the video doorbell functionality!)

However, I have not been able (despite WAY too much time spent trying to problem solve)

As of 4-19-19 I do not recommend this product until the software is fixed. I just got off the phone with customer support (who were very helpful) as I have been unable to set up the August View video doorbell.

I was unable to get the device to connect (not a problem with the August Connect module for the door lock) , and got a variety of error messages. And the device installation instructions (using the August app on the phone, which also has functioned well otherwise) - kept indicating that the device should have a "pulsing green" light after a reset during installation, but with numerous attempts at reset I would get a solid green-blink green-turn red-turn green and repeat along with failures to connect.

There was no useful information on the website/FAQ on troubleshooting these issues.

Ultimately I contacted Customer support at (844) 284-8781) ( phone number is also not on the FAQ section, you must search separately on their website).

After a painful hold process, I reached a very helpful and supportive customer service representative.

Their efforts also failed to connect the device or fix the issue - and after about 40 minute on the phone and discussion with their engineers, they told me there is a software issue where the device will fail to connect to a WIFI network that has an appostrophe in it (such as JOHN DOE'S WIFI NETWORK), and even worse that flaw sends the device into an un-recoverable mode that can not currently be reset.

They are sending me a replacement and are having me mail in a return - and are indicating they are working on a firmware update to fix the problem. Their current recommendation is to rename the network. But this is a HUGE PAIN IN THE ASS for anyone these days and is in my opinion an unreasonable expectation in a modern home (let alone a home with a wifi doorbell)

Even weirder, there is no such problem with using the August Home Connect (wifi bridge for the August Lock), so this limitation is even more frustrating.

It's enough of a frustration that I can not currently recommend this product.

Final warning - the device makes a weird clicking/electric snap noise on a regular interval. It's a strange sound and I wondered if it was defective, but the customer service rep tells me that is normal. (It would be a no-go noise if it were in the house, but I don't think I will here it when it is installed on the outside).

Bottom line - I love the concept, but this generation new product is not ready yet. Hopefully they will get his fixed soon.
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Buggy AF
by Motorolo (1 out of 5 stars)
April 13, 2019

This is my first foray into wireless video doorbells, prior to this i had a wireless doorbell which was just that, a bell. Needless to say, i was really looking forward to installing a smart doorbell when the "dumb" doorbell died. I saw the sleek packaging for the august doorbell, and saw that the locks were well received and figured this would be a no-brainer. unpackaging everything, it seems well built and solid. setup at the table top was easy and straight-forward, as was installation outside.

that's where the party ended, however. the app crashed continuously, the connection with the doorbell was sporadic at best, and the video would show an accurate preview picture but refuse to connect live after "loading" for minutes. about to throw this in the return bin and find another dumb doorbell. if the locks worked as poorly as this item does i'd be locked out of my house most of the time. very disappointing.
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Disappointing
by RJ (2 out of 5 stars)
April 12, 2019

While the doorbell is very easy to install and set up (once you realise that the chime has to be installed separately and then paired - which isn't obvious at the start), it is operationally disappointing.

The doorbell unit is nicely designed and seems well made, but the mounting is flimsy and the doorbell will be easily removed and stolen.

It was immediately obvious that the doorbell button is quite hard to press. Not a problem for me, perhaps, but my mother who has arthritic hands and fingers would struggle.

While testing the doorbell, it became very clear that the app (Android) is not always responding to the doorbell being rung; when it does respond, it can be with quite a lag. The app also took too long to connect to the live video (my home network is fast). When the connection is made, the video and sound are both very good quality.

On one occasion, the activity history shows "Missed visitor at FRONT DOOR". Tapping the video box reveals "An error has occurred and your video is not available. We're sorry for the inconvenience".

The chime is not loud enough nor does it sound for long enough. It might be sufficient for a small flat with all the internal doors open, but not for a house.

While writing this review, I received the message saying that the battery is low. Odd since I have just recharged it (the battery arrived only 40% changed, I should add). Checking the settings reveals that the batter is, indeed, 100% charged.

Some of the issues may be rectified by firmware and app updates, but my overall impression is that this product was released to market earlier than it should have been, and that more testing should have taken place. I will persevere, and if the problems prove temporary, I will update this post.

Update: On trying to download video, I am told that there is an error: "We apologize... (Error code: DVR00 2)".

Who tested this product?
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Super buggy
by Trisha J. White (2 out of 5 stars)
April 17, 2019

Really not ready for normal use. The motion alarms are so slow to react that by the time it sends a picture the person is gone. 90% of the time you try "live view" it literally takes over a minute to wake up... I timed it. The other 5 percent just fails. That leaves only 5 percent of the time it works.

Worse yet, when someone rings the door bell it also takes longer than 30 seconds before you have video, if it connects at all.

My device did a current firmware update as of 4/12 so it's current.

I like my August lock but this doorbell is not even beta quality.

Hardware seems nice and night images look good. Has serious fishbowl distortion which is odd as one of the selling points on the August website is the opposite.

I'll keep it for a week to see if August can rapidly push out firmware but if not, I'll be returning it.
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How did this product even get released
by Viantay (1 out of 5 stars)
April 19, 2019

I love my August Lock Pro.....I was looking for a doorbell and thought this would be the perfect addition. What a disappointment. It was quick and easy to install......everything else is a disaster. Forget any extra features this might not have, the one thing you have to do right as a video doorbell, is let me answer the doorbell!!! I got tons of notifications of movement, but 90% of the time it would not let me open the live view to see what it was. If it did work it was a full minute later! I left this up several days hoping things could possibly get better. The 1440p view looks beautiful if it ever works!!! I gave up and installed a Ring pro doorbell tonight. What a difference. Ring comes up almost instantly when I open the app. I never get any failed connection warnings or any waking up notifications that take forever to load...what a joke of a product the doorbell is. Ditto to what everyone else here has said...same issues, except for the beta testers who miraculously had a different experience then the rest of us...This is going back in the mail to Amazon on Monday.

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