Customer Ratings & Reviews

Without knowing hurricane Irma was coming I bought Canary on the advice of a friend for my condo on Hollywood Beach. It turned out to be more than I expected. Canary is wonderful. As long as I had electricity and internet access, I could see in my condo that everything was safe as I listened to the winds and pounding rain outside. Canary let me see in realtime, live, the lightening as Irma came in. Canary is simple to set up. It is one of the best purchases yet!

I was excited to have such a sleek device set up for my smart home security system. Canary has let me down time and time again, they tout that you can add members so that your dog walker, family members, etc can come by and turn off Canary if they need to. What isnt mentioned is that they have full access to your camera at any time. There's no permission control for guests, they're basically seen as admins. They haven't added useful new features, HomeKit support has not been implemented even though it is now able to be added using software authentication. The other thing that they just did is took away most of the perks from free accounts. If you purchase this device, the only video you'll be able to replay is 10 second previews unless you fork over some cash. Would you like to set it up to switch to Night Mode every night at midnight? It used to be free but now that'll be $120/year. Just to have it switch from Home mode to Night mode on a schedule.

A really useful and innovative product - solves home security & monitoring in a simple-to-use device. Everything is controlled via smartphone. Very easy to set up. High quality device & very impressive app. I bought a Canary after seeing it in use in this reddit post which caught a live burglary: https://www.reddit.com/r/nyc/comments/3kyoev/caught_on_my_canary_camera_watch_these_two_guys/ Been using the device since the weekend and I am very impressed. Fits a huge hole for someone looking for some sort of home security device, but aren’t interested in the large traditional systems where you need to punch a code in or the alarm sounds. By far the smartphone integration is the best feature - the device is controlled exclusively through the app (I use an android) - you can log in to check out your timeline, take a look at the live camera from anywhere, and even sound the alarm remotely. The device is intelligent and notifies you of any activity when you’re not there through your cell phone, like a text message, delivering the video. Very responsive - I tested this out by arming the device and then entering the front door - I received an alert exactly 13 seconds later (!!!!). Huge plus is the lack of a monthly subscription fee. I am exhausted by subscriptions recently - Netflix, MLB, Google Apps, portfolio software - so this is a plus from the consumer standpoint. Back to why I didn’t want to sign up with traditional security. Set up was very easy - literally plug and play. Downloading the app leads you to a brief registration phase, and then connect the Canary device to your smartphone via cable. The phone updates the firmware for the Canary, connects the Canary to your wifi, and then links your account and you’re good to go. I found a spot in my living room where I could hide the Canary behind a few candles - a few moments later and you’re recording live video of the entire room. Video quality is bright & easy to see - looks like a high-quality Youtube video. Clicking on “live feed” brings up what the device is currently seeing - looks like there is about a 10-second lag between the Canary uploading the video and it relaying to your phone. There appear to be three modes - privacy, disarmed, and armed. Arming the device happens with a click on the app. I tested the device over the weekend - left my house to mow the lawn, then armed the device. “Broke” into the the house and 13 seconds later and I get a buzz - activity detected. I watch the video and of course it’s me. The response time - 13 seconds between opening the door and my phone buzzing - is very impressive. The video is stored online after recording, so if an intruder covers up or breaks the device, it’s too late - the image of them doing so is recorded off into the cloud for easy retrieval. I suppose the only thing that I’m worried about is that my pets (two cats) will set the device off early and often. Reading through the FAQs, there is a “learning” capability in the system, in that it recognizes routine behavior in time and adjusts for it. It’s not clear to me how long this takes. Overall, I like it a lot. Definitely a useful product. Fits a need for me - I’m not really interested in a large security system, and the costs/fees associated with it, and for basic entry detection the Canary device is really cool. In summary, the video monitoring is simple & doesn’t require a lot of setup or user input. High video quality. The motion sensor definitely picked me up easily when I entered the house, and I received a notice literally 13 seconds later. Connectivity to my phone is the most impressive part of the experience - if I have my cell phone on me 24/7 I can connect at any time to what is going on in my house.

I bought it about 2 years ago, it was sufficient at the beginning, then the company changed the features so it was worthless without paying for membership. Now, it does not even have the night feature, only home and away, so, unless you are willing to commit to the membership and its fees, it is a waste of money... Stay away...

This canary was very simple to hook up. We’ve had it about a month now and use it to “look in” on elderly parent. We haven’t used the two way talk feature much but it seems to work. The 15$ monthly fee for two canaries seems high but I pay. I like having the ability to pull up on computer as the screen quality is usually better

This camera does everything I need it too. It captures high quality HD video and it allows a lot of customization. I still get some notifications when my cats walk through the area but it filters out most of them. Love the air quality monitoring and the wide angle viewing, covers front to back in my house. Would recommend for sure.

Very easy set up and operation. Bought several CANARY for my elderly mother who is in the process of selling her primary home. She previously had a potential home buyer whom left water running while looking, which damaged the home. We now have video evidentiary of whom was last and perusing through her home, if we have further future issues. This has added greatly to her piece of mind as well as a deterrent to unethical visitors to her home.

Somewhat of a delay in projecting but overall a great product and price is great too

It would receive 5 stars if it also had 2 way talking available. I am hoping my Home owners insurance will offer a discount.

My girlfriend got one of the first Canary systems and I've come to really like it. I studied electrical engineering, so I'm a little bit wary of early versions of a consumer electronics product, but the Canary has made a great impression on me so far. We live in an apartment building with a lot of other tenants in New York, so it's reassuring to know when we're not at home that we'll be notified should anyone ever try to enter the apartment. Whenever both of us have left home, it auto-arms, which means that it records any type of motion or unusual occurrence, and sends an alert to the app on our phones. Knowing that we'd be notified should anything be amiss at home was good when we traveled recently, along with the "Watch Live" feature that lets us check in at home at any time. I also rather like the design of it. It sits on a shelf close to the entrance which reflects the yellow glow when it's in disarmed mode. Once international shipping opens I want to get my sister in Spain one!

I am so happy to have the Canary in my home. I feel so much safer and I have found that it works extremely well. It learns over time how people in the house come and go and the movement in the house, so the many alerts in the beginning decrease as you interact with the app by flagging video's and alerting the app that everything is fine. The camera is very sensitive so at first my cat was setting off the alerts like CRAZY! I was very impressed that it picked up such small movement! Since working with the app though, those alerts have slowed and I don't get 10 alerts during the night from my cat running around like crazy. The set-up was very easy and quick. I had it set up in less than 5 minutes. Once I set my location it also set emergency numbers which were my local police department, emergency medical services and the fire department! I was very grateful for that! You can also add the members in your home by clicking the plus in the app next to your picture and sending them an invite. Another great feature is that you can watch live what's going on in your home. So say you do get an alert and want to know what is happening, click Watch Live and there it is. I noticed a slight time lag, but I expected that. It is only a few second lag as to what is happening at the moment. The camera is a 1080p HD camera with a 147° angle lens and has night vision and motion detection. The camera quality is quite impressive for the small device that it is (6 inches high, 3 inches around). Along with a great camera it has a high quality microphone and a built in speaker. There is a 90+ dB siren as well that you can set off from the app. The Canary also tells you the temperature, humidity and air quality of your home, which I find pretty useful. I am glad to know the air quality in my home is very good and know when to turn on my AC because it is getting humid in the house. I am so happy they have come up with a security system for those of us who live in apartments! I am a worrier and this has helped give me peace of mind with no monthly fee's! It is very affordable and so worth my family's safety. *I received this product free for testing and review purposes. All opinions are 100% my own.

This is essentially a fancy webcam like other reviews have stated. The camera operates on WiFi and it absolutely needs to stay plugged in. It uses a motion sensor to tell itself to start recording, which so far (1 month) seems like it works well. I haven’t experienced over sensitivity like some others have, and notifications aren’t overwhelming, in fact I’ve received zero notifations of motion and nothing was there. My ONLY complaint about the system is that the notifications are delayed maybe a minute or so. So if someone were breaking in, you’d know about it a little bit after the incident.

So far I've been very happy with the Canary. We got it to keep an eye on the beach house and it does exactly that. It's easy to set up and use. I like the night vision and air temperature features. It gives a pretty good wide angle view of the room and so far I have not had a problem with false alarms others seem to complain about. It did alert me when my wife and daughter arrived without me and let me view them entering the front door. It would be nice to be able to rotate, angle, and zoom the camera but I knew these were not features when I bought the unit. Other brands with those features were much more expensive. In short, it performs as advertised, we feel better knowing the place is being watched over, and we enJoy "checking in" from time to time.

I'm going to say up front, I really like this product and have no regrets purchasing it. That being said, as with any product, there are start-up blips and things that could be better. The unit was easy to install - just follow the directions and you should be up and running in less than 20 minutes, assuming you have a good strong WiFi signal or can link the unit to your router by Ethernet cable. The functionality of Canary is almost excellent - high quality video image (but see below), simple operation that works pretty much as advertised. The unit also monitors and records the last ~24 hours of temperature, humidity, and air quality at the location of the unit. This could be useful means of detecting a problem with your HVAC/air handling system when you're away. The air quality function is interesting, but they need more info on how to interpret it. Activation of the different modes (see below) is based on detection or absence of occupants (really, their cell phones) who have been registered and paired with the Canary unit. These operations are controlled via a cell phone App that has been somewhat less than excellent (mine is the iPhone version). The App has not always automatically updated the presence of all registered occupants (I will refer to "all registered occupants" simply as "occupants" from here on) when one or more has been away and comes home. Eventually it does, usually once I do something in the App, like open the icon for that person, or just touch the Mode setting button. Sometimes there's a delay in seeing a list of detected events for the current day. This hasn't been a big problem, but it should be able to update itself without me having to do anything. Another problem that doesn't occur often, but does occur, is the unit sometimes has frozen and had to be rebooted to function or communicate properly (such as detecting the presence of occupants) and update associated event records. The couple of times I've activated a "help ticket" for a problem or question, I've gotten responses within 24 hours. There is an FAQ section that seems to be expanding, and thus improving with time. But don't try to phone - no phone # provided. There are three mode settings: privacy (camera and mic are off, no watch-live function); disarmed (camera & mic are active and will record if and when motion is detected, but will not send alerts, watch-live enabled), and armed (motion activates recording, sends an alert, watch-live enabled, you can also activate the siren through the App &/or call the police). To avoid a lot of unnecessary recording activity, the unit can be set to automatically switch to a selected default mode, such as privacy, when at least one occupant is home and automatically switch to the armed mode when none of the occupants are detected. You can also set this to manual, so the system will not activate when no occupants are present unless you activate it through the App. This is useful if you have visitors staying who are not registered to the system, but whom may be present when all (registered) occupants are out, so it doesn't send you alerts and record what they're doing. Motion detection is a bit sensitive - it definitely detects when people enter the frame, but it also detects "activity" when there in no obvious motion in the resulting video record. There is a learning function that allows you to enter the types of things that were present in the video, e.g., shadows, sunlight, reflections, computer & TV screens, pets, people, etc. I don't know how long it takes to desensitize itself or how it works to filter these none-threat things, such as pets. Video quality is excellent in daylight or under reasonable room-lighting conditions at night. The quality seems to deteriorate slightly under low-light/dark-of-night/night-vision conditions. Deterioration is not bad, but distant objects (more than ~10-12 feet) are grainy; I'm not sure how clearly recognizable a distant person would be under those conditions, but if they came close enough to the Canary unit they would be pretty clear, even at low light. This is not unusual - same deterioration happens with most digital cameras under the same type of conditions. There is also a light ring at the bottom that activates when in the disarmed or armed mode, which tells you (and anyone else who notices) that the unit is in a recording mode. It changes color and/or blinks to alert you to connection problems. One problem associated with this light ring is that if the Canary unit is on a shiny surface (such as on top of a refrigerator) I think the light reduces the night-vision of the unit under dark-room conditions. Light from the ring reflects off nearby surfaces and (in my opinion) reduces the low-light sensitivity of the camera, albeit slightly. This mainly affects the ability to see movements and objects in darker areas furthest from the unit (>15-20 feet away, depending on actual low-light conditions). When you first activate your account, you're automatically placed in a trial service plan that would normally cost ~$10 per month, but is initially free. I don't know how long the free trial lasts, but I'm guessing 30 days. There are also more expensive fee plans. The free trial plan saves up to 7 days of records and allows you to store up to 50 selected video clips. The standard always-free plan only saves the last 12 hours of records and store only up to 5 clips. All records and video clips are saved on a Canary-provided Internet website, not locally, and not on your cell phone. I wish the free plan would keep 24 hours of records - 12 hours seems a bit short and makes it much easier to miss and lose a detection event, especially if you're out of WiFi and cell data range for a while (my guess is this is designed to push you towards a monthly fee plan). Assuming you've got one or the other, you should receive an alert by email or text as soon as an alarmed activation occurs and thus, the record will be available. However, say you get an alert, check the record, and discover someone who shouldn't be there. You can phone the police (Emergency #'s for your Canary location are automatically listed) and save the video to your Canary account so it doesn't get removed after 12 hours, but you have no way to send it to the police. And you can't save it to your cell phone. That doesn't help if you're on a trip, days to weeks from coming home. My understanding is that the Canary team is constantly working to improve the product, so I assume it will get even better with time. For the most part issues have been minor and overall, the product may be an excellent alternative to expensive home security monitoring services. I'd suggest anyone interested in this device check the website and read through their FAQs and also the trouble-shooting documents, as they provide a lot of insight.

Great camera, you can see everything crystal clear. I love the option to view live. We got this so we could check in on our animals while out of the country. It was great to see our pets from so far away. Main drawback to this is the constant alerts. It is supposed to learn animal behavior with tagging but after a month we still get constant alerts from pet movement. Still great system but I'm considering turning off alerts. This of course means not really a full security system but at least it records to cloud so anyone in house can't destroy video. Also note there is no battery backup so you need to plan for this since will not work if power cut to home. Battery backup surge protector can fix this. Also note you only get 12 hours of free cloud storage. You have to pay for more.

This thing does exactly what it needs to do. The video quality is really good. The night vision is exceptionally good. My only complaint is the setup process was horrible. You have to plug in some audio cable into your phone to set the thing up. And it just wasn't working with my phone. I tried a different phone and it also wasn't working. Eventually I dug out my phone from about 4 years ago and try that and eventually I got it to work. I really think they should work on this issue because pretty much thats the only problem. But once you get it up and running it's a really great product.

I've used other IP cameras for my business. But canary has a cleaner ui. Faster response time and better quality than all of them. This is a easy to setup system and works well. I've only had a few small issues like sometimes the live recording will loop playback and get stuck, which required a app reset on my phone to restart live viewing. Otherwise it's great.

I really want to like this purchase. But for a "security system", this is nothing but a very expensive camera with a lot of defects. PRO: - Simple to set up. The setup steps is a little strange as you need to initialize the unit using a provided audible cable connect to your smart phone. - Very good camera. Excellence picture quality. CON: Almost everything else. Here are some highlights: - Price: expensive . $2xx plus is too much for what offer. - Security Holes: 1. If you simply disconnect the power to an armed canary, no siren will sound. 2. Signal False alarms: camera is sensitive to light. As the day change to night and vice versa, an armed unit would send out false alarms as motion detected. 3. You have to manually set-off the siren . This probably because the unit usually send out false alarm. - Live pictures display sometime very slow - Unreliable: Sometime the unit simply stops working and you have to go over the setup process again. - The unit is advertised as a smart system which would "learn" along the way. It did not (or may be I am not aware of its learning process !!!) For example: if you tag for the false alarms, the system did not learn that and still send out the same false alarms .

The camera has good quality during the day or night. It has a wider angle lens versus the competitors, so expect a bit of a fish-eye look to the camera footage. Item works as advertised, but it has very basic functions at the moment. For example there is no way to view the recorded video on a computer browser, you must view the footage from your phone only. They did state an update is coming where you can view the imagine on a computer. Its great that is has temp, VOC and humidity reader, but you can only view the last 24 hours. So it wont be replacing my Netmo anytime soon. Also it would be great if it had a notification function if the temp hits a certain degree. Missing functions as being able to set notification options is also lacking. Auto disarm, and rearm functions well for me. Nice to be able to use fingerprint sensor on my iPhone to access the app was a nice touch. As it stands today, it has a lot of potential, but in its current state it can definitely use a new features.

It was easy to set up and use. It has great picture quality and picks up movement. It even picked up a fly.