YI is committed to using innovative technology to make everyday life safer, richer and more fun. With our passion hard work and commitment to combine the highest quality and value, millions of users from every corner of the world and all ages are feeling greater peace of mind, inspiration and connection with their families, friends and communities.
Most reviewers were let down by their experience overall. Consumers highlighted that the mobile application is heavily cluttered with intrusive advertisements and pop-up banners, making it extremely difficult to quickly check live home security feeds. Reviewers also reported that the company suddenly introduced mandatory subscription fees and restricted live viewing times for older devices that previously operated without any extra payments.
Some people were satisfied with the reliable hardware and good video quality provided by the devices. Consumers noted that the physical cameras worked well initially for their needs before recent software changes and intrusive advertisements ruined the overall utility.
The app limits access to the point rendering the cameras useless
If I could, I would give it 0 star to express my frustration towards the company. I have 11 of their cameras and have used them for years. They are ok, served their purpose, not top of the line... until recently they started to limit the use in the app rendering it almost useless unless you pay for their expensive subscription. Not a chance! They could have done it more tactfully but forcing their customers to buy their subscription is a very cheap way of doing business. I will switch to other brands.
Please be careful. They will continue to charge you even after asking several times to cancel your subscription. They reply to messages several days after sending them and trying to get answers. They will close the ticket without your response to their "resolution". I've messages no less than 5x and been told they fixed things in their end and am still being chatted.
Yi camera worked well to begin with but this year it is totally unusable due to pop up subscription advert for £24.75 a month, for a £15 dome camera. This was a dome also only capable of 2.4 gh connection not 5gh which is becoming the standard. Now in the Bin.
I have used these cameras for quite awhile now and was satisfied with equipment and app functionality. However the recent viewing timer and ad pop-ups have made it virtually worthless! I refuse to pay for a subscription for everything I use in life! It's beyond ridiculous! I paid for the cameras and that should be enough! Will be looking for a better replacement.
Total rubbish, don’t buy these cameras unless you want to spend ages looking at advertisements without any choice. Impossible to check camera footage because of the non-stop adds. Worst system ever.
Complete trash this camera used to be good now complete trash full of add. you can't even used this camera due to boring add ,Don't make sense when you buy the cameras on the first place .they wanted you to buy subscription .I wish I never buy them
It was... Ok. At first, but it had quickly transitioned to garbage. Don't waste a cent on this. You couldn't get worse service because there isn't any service, even if you're a paid subscriber. I've paid the full amount and received my service promises. They won't respond.
A horrible company. Definitely stay away. I purchased a membership and was charged twice. I requested a refund, and they opened an inquiry in their app. First, they said there were no duplicate charges; then they said, “We replied to you, check the app.” I couldn’t view anything. I saw a footnote saying to update the app. The app no longer exists, so I downloaded their new app. I signed in, and guess what happened? There is absolutely nothing related to my account—no orders, no complaints, nothing else. It’s as if a brand-new account was created from scratch. Friends, you can never reach them. Stay away. STAY AWAY.
Your app is nothing worth after pushing for paying abbonement and only 90 sec free watch. All over the word people leaves YI app and cameras.good luck worthless yi staff
Total junk. The only reason this app exists is to push endless ads. So many ads that it makes the cameras you purchased because a subscription wasn’t required totally useless. Ads pop up every 10 seconds, impossible to continuously view the camera feed during a security event, ads pop up when you try to pan the camera, you have to go thru a gauntlet of ads before the app will even open up making alerts useless. I would never by any camera or system that requires the Yi iot app.
They're now forcing a subscription to even use the camera for viewing. This was not advertised when purchased. They've essentially bricked my home camera. Criminals. Camera is now a paperweight!
Yi changed their app forcing intrusive adds and making the use unfriendly, they also did not honor their product warranty on one of their products making impossible to use . have been a customer for 7 year , will have to replace my three cameras
The hardware works fine and does what i wanted. I didn't want cloud storage, but a way to occasionally check on my pets.
However, the app is now so full of pop-ups and is pushing so hard for me to take on subscriptions. I can barely use the cameras because of the hard sell app approach. They even time how long you can view live feed, and then cut you off. This wasn't the case when I bought the system, but introduced over the last year.
Absolutely atrocious from beginning to end and this from a long-time user, however reluctantly so. They are combined with Kami - with no support contact provision that's not AI period! That certainly so as of January '26.
Search for and try for an e-mail address? Good luck as if you do e-mail, you'll get a returned (generated) message only. That's because it's full with 10s of 1000s unadressed, it details. Any e-mails that do come to youfrom Kami/Yi? Without exception they start with,"no reply..."
With some tenacity I managed to locate on their app, how to get an actual human response. Even that is buried right at the bottom of a page and you have to check it every time yourself. There's no e-mail message coming your way, to tell you there's something to see.
If you fail to check within 5 days with your query / contact message? It automatically closes, as 'Complete'!
I have been dealing with them for about a 1 1/2 weeks and they go out of their way to be uncooperative, with no names given, merely a generic customer service tag. Their very brief almost always unhelpful, company not customer focused replies are a frustration. In short, I detest the way they advertise endlessly, prodding you to buy premium, otherwise the app? It's unworkable almost.
I find their AI only model customer contact wilfully complex - minimal and you are left knowing that customers are an awkward inconvenience at best! That's once they've grabbed your money of course.
Takes many minutes to get thru new ads added everyday it seems. You cant even click an x to bypass. So many it's not even worth it and now seems like a scam. Unfortunately we bought 3 and now they are garbage!!!!!!!
The Camera was ok for the price at the beginning ($45 and free app with no ads) but it's useless now unless you buy a subscription because the banner is Go Add Free on all the pop ups. Camera is not quality enough for a subscription.
With questionable subscription model and no humans to respond to your queries, this app and cloud storage subscription is just fraud.
I subscribed to 7 day cloud storage option only to have videos for 2-3 days maximum.
A complaint made on the 24th of December 2025. with the promise of response within 2-3 days hasn't still been dealt with as of 10th Jan 2026.
Ended up cancelling the renewal on the website,
Poor customer service. Refusing to refund full amount. Bad quality cameras, the video play back is crap and they never alert to motion correctly. Don’t waste your money.
Had this camera for a couple of years. Kept pushing me for cloud subscription. Now will only let you view a few seconds on your sd card. Do not buy from this greedy company.
Even with a memory card installed this camera is useless.
Almost impossible to get past the adverts andpop ups which even include scam virus warnings.
Do not waste your money on this piece of rubbish.
Stupid brand they should decide to sell software or hardware. I bought a camera and the app was so slow and full of ads each timenal I got a motion detected alert it takes me more than 30 sec to avoid ads and get to the screen. This was not enough now they are asking to buy.
Guys I bought the cam from you, you got your money and I have the right to use now you are trying to oblige me to buy the software to use the cam. This is unethical more over I will choose 1000 times to buy a new cam from other brand than to buy your stupid software. If you think this is clever marketing this is stupid and you are losing the clients
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