Review Insights · App Store
YI Home
ZK (HK) LIMITED · 69,957 ratings · ★ 4.3
4.3
★★★★★
69,957 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 87 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"cameras"
44 negative reviews mention this · 51% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Overrun with Ads. If you just purchased these cameras, return immediately. It used to be an ad here or there but now you can’t even switch between cameras without watching a 60 second ad you have to click the x on four times to get rid of. Not worth it anymo…" - NoName4321
2
"camera"
34 negative reviews mention this · 39% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Overrun with Ads. If you just purchased these cameras, return immediately. It used to be an ad here or there but now you can’t even switch between cameras without watching a 60 second ad you have to click the x on four times to get rid of. Not worth it anymo…" - NoName4321
3
"company"
20 negative reviews mention this · 23% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Overrun with Ads. If you just purchased these cameras, return immediately. It used to be an ad here or there but now you can’t even switch between cameras without watching a 60 second ad you have to click the x on four times to get rid of. Not worth it anymo…" - NoName4321
4
"subscription"
18 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Overrun with Ads. If you just purchased these cameras, return immediately. It used to be an ad here or there but now you can’t even switch between cameras without watching a 60 second ad you have to click the x on four times to get rid of. Not worth it anymo…" - NoName4321
5
"every"
15 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Overrun with Ads. If you just purchased these cameras, return immediately. It used to be an ad here or there but now you can’t even switch between cameras without watching a 60 second ad you have to click the x on four times to get rid of. Not worth it anymo…" - NoName4321
6
"unusable"
14 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Ads are non-stop. This app has become unusable. When I open it I have to: play a game that’s an ad, to go to the App Store, click out of 3 screens, go back to yi app, click out of another ad, click out of a promotion, then I get to my camera with an ad overl…" - Crew Jones Beat Bart Taylor
7
"watch"
14 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Overrun with Ads. If you just purchased these cameras, return immediately. It used to be an ad here or there but now you can’t even switch between cameras without watching a 60 second ad you have to click the x on four times to get rid of. Not worth it anymo…" - NoName4321
8
"these"
13 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Overrun with Ads. If you just purchased these cameras, return immediately. It used to be an ad here or there but now you can’t even switch between cameras without watching a 60 second ad you have to click the x on four times to get rid of. Not worth it anymo…" - NoName4321
9
"free"
13 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Stay Away. Purchased this app several years ago and then added 2 more to the home. Sorry to say that you will be bombarded with commercials/advertisement. Now you have to buy into a subscription which is ridiculous. By the time the commercial/advert…" - WND 23
10
"view"
12 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Worse Camera App ever. Too much Ads ! 2 minutes un-skipped Ads once app is opened ! And very annoyed Ads inside the app blocking the interface. Also limited view time for playing recorded videos ! This App is sucks ! People already spent money on the camera and …" - Iphone88lins
11
"years"
11 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Overrun with Ads. If you just purchased these cameras, return immediately. It used to be an ad here or there but now you can’t even switch between cameras without watching a 60 second ad you have to click the x on four times to get rid of. Not worth it anymo…" - NoName4321
12
"these cameras"
11 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Overrun with Ads. If you just purchased these cameras, return immediately. It used to be an ad here or there but now you can’t even switch between cameras without watching a 60 second ad you have to click the x on four times to get rid of. Not worth it anymo…" - NoName4321
📋 All 87 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Overrun with Ads
If you just purchased these cameras, return immediately. It used to be an ad here or there but now you can’t even switch between cameras without watching a 60 second ad you have to click the x on four times to get rid of. Not worth it anymore! Adding a subscription fee after having these for years is bad business and I’m tired of this nonsense from every company. Zero stars.
Ads are non-stop
This app has become unusable. When I open it I have to: play a game that’s an ad, to go to the App Store, click out of 3 screens, go back to yi app, click out of another ad, click out of a promotion, then I get to my camera with an ad overlay. What a joke! Buy WYZE!
Hot garbage filled with add
What they have done to this app over the years is the most flagrant money grab. The app has so many deceptive ads, it is virtually unusable. This company is dumb. If it had a more reasonable amount of ads I would use the app more and they’d generate more revenue. As it is, I only use my cameras for rare emergencies now vs just checking it out of curiosity. What a terrible short-sighted disaster this app has become.
Constant commercials
Constant commercials
This app is a virus
This app is nothing but adware now. When I first got these cameras they were great. I loved them and always recommended them. Now it’s almost unusable unless you pay for one of their plans and get rid of ads. My cameras have SD cards in them so I don’t need online storage. It’s such a waste to pay for the membership just to get rid of the ads. I’ll be switching cameras soon and I recommend anyone thinking about this brand to STAY AWAY. They’ve really let me down.
Stay Away
Purchased this app several years ago and then added 2 more to the home. Sorry to say that you will be bombarded with commercials/advertisement. Now you have to buy into a subscription which is ridiculous. By the time the commercial/advertisement is over a travesty would have occurred. You can’t even use your own SD card to monitor. Changing them out for the Soliom Home Cameras which are sharper and free.
Garbage app and company
They have ruined this camera system, the app is inundated with Temu ads, even after you have to sit thru for 30 seconds, wasting critical time to see what’s happening on your cameras, the app still covers up the screen with more ads, it’s pathetic and unusable. I’m looking forward to hacking these cameras, taking them over to my own app system, otherwise, sell cheap and/or toss them, don’t buy anything YI at this point.
Worse Camera App ever
Too much Ads ! 2 minutes un-skipped Ads once app is opened ! And very annoyed Ads inside the app blocking the interface. Also limited view time for playing recorded videos ! This App is sucks ! People already spent money on the camera and the developer also force people to buy their app ! This is crazy man…!! People, listen ! DO NOT BUY this products….!
If using free, tons of ads are coming
I bought 4 cameras and connected to the app. This ap was really nice and user friendly until they started to push you buy premium version. There should be some limitations on ads.. it is disturbing to watch the video even when it is on sd card. Terrible experience, anywhere you tap ad jumps in. Do not recommend it.. sorry, engineers have done good job but marketing and sales, terrible.. this is not the way people should try to sell their products..
Way too many ads
It’s not even functional now to try to use my cameras. Ads are constantly being spammed. Try switching between cameras? Ads. Try using the microphone? Ads. Try rotating the camera? Ads. Beyond ridiculous. Throwing away all of my cameras and going with a new company.
RETURN CAMERA ASAP - update, deleting and returning. too many ads, can’t turn ai
Update- app gets worse every week, I’m done deleting and returning the camera.
I was about to order 2 more cameras and then I got a freaking promotional ad and found a much better system. What people say on Amazon is true… too many ads! It’s non stop trying to push their subscription and other BS. Please consider another brand
I was about to order 2 more cameras and then I got a freaking promotional ad and found a much better system. What people say on Amazon is true… too many ads! It’s non stop trying to push their subscription and other BS. Please consider another brand
Ads ads ads
I paid for these cameras a lot of money I have lots of them and their app is total trash. Why do I have to sit through hours of ads to skip through to see my cameras??? Shame on this developer
Pop-up city!
Infuriating pop-ups if you do not pay the monthly cloud storage fees!
I do not want monthly payments. I opted to use a standard local card. This method would work GREAT if the app didn’t avalanche pop-ups continually! They intentionally place the pop-ups where you need to click to review videos on the local card.
I would highly not recommend this app, unless you are OK with being ransomed with monthly cloud fees! 🤬
I do not want monthly payments. I opted to use a standard local card. This method would work GREAT if the app didn’t avalanche pop-ups continually! They intentionally place the pop-ups where you need to click to review videos on the local card.
I would highly not recommend this app, unless you are OK with being ransomed with monthly cloud fees! 🤬
Bad Update!!!!! Warning!!!
Makes your iPhone get hot!!! App is glitchy, and it crashes repeatedly. Ads appear over the video screen randomly. Ads will also block buttons needed for play back. Ads will also run at app startup and once ad timer is at zero, there is no way to continue. Sound cuts out randomly. Pressing the “Record” button makes app crash immediately. I don’t know how Apple even allowed this trash of an app on the store. App is useless garbage, until fixed. 5/6/26
805 CA. IPhone 13
805 CA. IPhone 13
So Many Ad!!!
Horrible! Ads like crazy!
Horrible
They’ve now added ADS that you have to pay for a subscription to have the ads removed. If I need to hurry and check my camera, I now have to wait an entire 60-90 seconds before I can view it because if these stupid ads. I’ve had these cameras for at least 3 years and this recent change is terrible. I’m trashing these in the next month and switching to Blink or Ring.
Scam!!!!
I’ve been trying to get my Kami Cloud plan canceled and they’ve been so sneaky in trying to prevent us from canceling. I just got charged today because of the auto-renewal even though I’ve been telling Customer Service to please just cancel. They keep offering me 3 months for free but I don’t want it. I just want to cancel and now I need a REFUND from today’s charge!!! SHADY COMPANY, DO NOT SUBSCRIBE!!!!
NEVER EVER EVER UPDATE THIS APP…PERIOD!
NEVER EVER EVER EVER UPDATE THIS APP! THEY LIE ABOUT ‘SUPPOSED’ IMPROVEMENTS AND WELL, PRETTY MUCH LIE ABOUT EVERYTHING. THERE ARE NEVER IMPROVEMENTS, JUST TAKEAWAYS, ADS, ADS AND MORE ADS.
QUESTION: HOW MANY CLICKS ON A USELESS AD DOES IT TAKE FOR IT TO GO AWAY?
ANSWER: 4-5
Unacceptable. These are marketed as SECURITY CAMERAS! HOW SECURE CAN YOU FEEL WHILE WAITING FOR A 20 second AD, that hopefully won’t scam you into opening your web browser with yet another SPAMMING opportunity for this company?
It’s a joke that Apple allows this company to lie, deceive and try to manipulate consumers into purchasing their cloud services!
SHAME ON YOU APPLE!
QUESTION: HOW MANY CLICKS ON A USELESS AD DOES IT TAKE FOR IT TO GO AWAY?
ANSWER: 4-5
Unacceptable. These are marketed as SECURITY CAMERAS! HOW SECURE CAN YOU FEEL WHILE WAITING FOR A 20 second AD, that hopefully won’t scam you into opening your web browser with yet another SPAMMING opportunity for this company?
It’s a joke that Apple allows this company to lie, deceive and try to manipulate consumers into purchasing their cloud services!
SHAME ON YOU APPLE!
Free isn’t free!!!
I use to really love Yi and their cameras. But they have been increasingly pushing non-stop ads into the platform. It makes the app almost impossible to use without watching ad after ad. The price for the service is way too much and they try to hide that by showing you the weekly or daily price. Support contacted me to tell me that if I prefer not to have ads then here is an offer for a subscription.
Ads Overload
There is an ad every step of the way. Lord forbid you have to actually look out your camera you have atleast 3 ads and they want you to pay for everything it’s expensive and mediocre.
Disgruntled Customer
Will be using a different brand soon. Sent customers to them but their new ad system is ridiculous. I have an emergency at home and look at cameras but have to sit through ads. I don’t mind some pop up ads but now I have to watch a King get squished by some falling balls for 10 seconds before I can see if my house is on fire or not. Will be switching to a more reliable brand. I don’t mind paying for streaming service but this new ad system is insane. DO NOT RECOMMEND!
Scam Cameras Scam software
Bad quality hardware. Software is always asking for money and is useless piece of spam advertising
Steal you data & Spam!!
All of the five star reviews for this app are 100% fake! There is no way that this app would earn a five star review due to the fact that it hassles you literally every seven minutes to purchase their cloud services! Further than that, they are storing your data from their cameras and analyzing it without your permission for use for their AI training and this is in China so anything that you put on their camera is going directly to China for their. Worse is the fact that when you subscribe it tries to subscribe you outside of the Apple ecosystem so have fun! Go look at all the one star reviews on Amazon and dig into the review reviews here and you’ll see the real reviews are the one and two stars, and all of the five star reviews were either bought, faked, bots or some other form of manipulation! There is no way that this app is over three stars, you cannot go to view your video without it nagging. I have a high-end micro SD Chip made for streaming and recording from my GoPro video, the app tells me no video was recorded, yeah if I go into the SD card, it actually did record it, but the app doesn’t want you to see it because it tells you to subscribe to. Further than that, the app is set up to give you notification on the camera cameras that you don’t have an SD card in it that there was motion every seven minutes we have three cameras and two of them that do not have SD cards are exactly timed for both giving not notification that there has when in reality there’s been nothing recorded, but then they pop up the ad and say subscribe to the cloud service to see the recording. Honestly, Apple should remove this app from the App Store.
New Upgrade is a Scam
We have had these cameras and have served us well in monitoring an elderly family member in their home for the last 2-3 years. However, the latest update is currently filled with ads to the point that an ad disturbs my ability to check on my family every 45 seconds. This is incredibly disappointing, annoying, and worrisome given that there are legitimate things we are trying to look out for while checking on family. We spend more time being stuck with ads now that I cannot block, instead of being able to have eyes on someone vulnerable. Absolutely ridiculous, a shame, and truly disappointing that they’ve forced folks into subscription plans that are also financially heavy.
Terrible app too many ads
They're way too many ads when starting the app if there's an emergency and I'm forced to watch 30 seconds to a minute of ads, this causes a huge risk I would avoid if I were you.
DO NOT BUY CAMERAS FROM THEM
I purchased camera’s from them and when they first start the app was not bad but now you can’t on the app to view your camera’s with ads popping up. I can’t understand why they put ads on the app when it’s part of the camera’s you buy. Very bad!!!!!
Too much ads
Buy their products only if you want to watch ads. Too much ads and can’t access the camera videos or app without watching ads.
Choose a different company
These cameras used to be great. Now they have a million annoying ads.
Totally Worthless
Great app except the constant ads are making it hard the even connect. If you need to see quick who activated your cam… good luck with that and some ads are loud and makes it dangerous if you don’t want to be seen or heard by an intruder.
I’m replacing my cams with Reolink, no ads
I’m replacing my cams with Reolink, no ads
Annoying
Ads every click. So annoying. Worst company ever.
Horrible Company
This is a scam app. Somewhere underneath it, it might let you control and view your Yi cameras, but not until you’ve watched a half a dozen ads, and then they pop up on you over and over. This ought to be illegal. If I could give it -1000 stars I would
IMPOSSIBLE TO CANCEL
I have been trying to cancel my subscription for 3 months and they simply will not let me. They force you to submit a ticket which takes 3 days for them to respond too and no matter what you say they come back with something like “my supervisor said we can offer you an alternative solution. How about a discount on upcoming months?” And I have continuously declined and asked to proceed with a cancel. This has been going on for months and I now have to contact my bank to dispute because at this point they’re just stealing my money. My biggest regret was ever purchasing this subscription.
DO NOT RECOMMEND
My family has been using this app for 5+ years and it was great. Until the excessive ads started!!! Ridiculous. I shouldn’t have to watch ads or pay a subscription to look at my cameras!!!
Spammy and Ad intense
Completely unusable with pop up ads.
Fraudulent company!
I’ve submitted requests to cancel my account for months now and they are ignoring me and sending me automated replies.
Don’t buy the cameras, don’t purchase the plans, you won’t be able to cancel. My bank is disputing the charges.
The cameras used to be good but they have ads covering the images until you purchase a plan.
Don’t buy the cameras, don’t purchase the plans, you won’t be able to cancel. My bank is disputing the charges.
The cameras used to be good but they have ads covering the images until you purchase a plan.
Buy else where
I highly suggest looking into a different camera company as the ads for this app are getting worse. You could literally be in the middle of a home invasion and have to deal with ads before you can even open up the app.
HORRIBLE
The constant minute long ads to see your camera for 30 seconds before more Ads come up. Joke of an app, company. Just downright horrible
Won’t cancel subscriptions
There’s no way to cancel subscriptions on the app. You have to go through customer service and every time you say you wanna cancel they ask if you wanna do a free trial and you tell me want to cancel so then they ask if you want to do a free trial and it just keeps going around in circles they will not cancel your subscription.
DO NOT BUY THESE CAMERAS
They are removing bad reviews. The app is completely unusable because there are so many ads. They have recently stopped letting me see what’s happening live in my own house when I purchased the SD cards. It’s nonsense and this company should not be legally allowed to operate
Used to be great, awful!
This was a great app but creators became greedy and make people watch 1 minute add before you can check what’s going on in your home. They made people’s emergency into a joke!
You will not be able to cancel subscription
This app uses a chat bot to process cancellation requests and the chat bot will only offer discounts or free months of service. I have been erroneously charged for this service for four months now after multiple attempts to cancel! You have been warned!
Not functional
Ads are blocking key camera functions. Terrible user experience
Unusable
These used to be good before they started to push for a subscription model. There are too many ads if you do not subscribe making them unusable, even if you are using an sd card
Don’t buy
Please stop with the ads!
Too many ads
I’m trying to see my camera footage from previous days and an add keeps popping up every time o go to scroll through the time. They want you to pay stupid amounts of money for a camera that sucks. My mom said this camera used to be really good until they changed their policies and up charged for everything. Definitely very disappointing.
Garbage
This app and cameras used to be great. Some ads here and there. Ended up paying for a subscription to be able to replay and watch recordings of whatever the camera captured. It expired and I realized I didn’t utilize the feature as much as i thought so I didn’t resubscribe for premium. But now I get adds less than every 10 seconds. I can’t even use the cameras I already paid for because this company is so interested in forcing you to pay for the extreme price of the subscription. Adds that cover up the screen and basically FORCE you to click on them. Annoying. RETURN THE CAMERAS IF YOU CAN
Free version app sucks.
If you want to see nonstop adds every 5 seconds you can’t even review your footage. Should be illegal.
Was great, Now not so much.
the appeal of YI was that we buy the equipment and the app was free as long as we were using memory cards and not their hosting. So I invested in quite a few cameras that I have at my office and home. Now, they changed the app twisting our arms to pay for a non ad version by making the updated free version of the app spam us with pop up ads…. If that was the case, I would’ve just bought ring cameras from the Get Go…
Insane number of adds
The ads make the app unusable. Go with Eufy
YI Home is SCAM
Their cheap equipment is worthless! Do not buy!
+ 37 more in the clipboard copy
Sentiment summary
84%
Positive (4-5★)
4%
Neutral (3★)
13%
Negative (1-2★)