Customer Ratings & Reviews

Great looking and tons of potential, but still a bit buggy, and their free storage plan is nearly useless. Generally, I like this device. It seems pretty equivalent to Piper (without the Z-Wave, about which I don't care), but the auto mode-switching and, truly, the esthetics of the physical design, steered me toward the Canary. That said, the device is still more what I'd call "late beta" than "full production": some features like geofencing are still a bit shaky; the learning mechanism to tag motion as ignorable isn't there yet. Finally, there's a lot of unhappiness, even anger, in the user community about the storage plans the company is offering: The basic, free plan only covers the previous 12 hours - that's right, if you don't check your alerts or check into Canary at least that often you might miss something, have an alert about motion but not be able to see it (as of this writing, Canary Support's solution is to empower a friend or neighbor to check in on your home twice a day. Seriously.). Also, the basic plan allows only 3 video clip downloads over the lifetime of the device, which seems downright miserly. I like this device enough that I plan to keep using it, and I could see it getting 5 stars -- but not until they fix some of the more glaring bugs, and take a hard look at their storage plans and how they're being received. After all, this is a crowd-funded project. It seems insensitive and short-sighted to ignore the crowd's feedback about things as important as ongoing usage plans.

Love this product! Love the design of the Canary and the app. Really beautiful all around! Fits seamlessly into my home and works flawlessly. I love that I can now watch my dog all day long!

I have been waiting for this to hit the shelves for months... in hopes it would preform as advertised. Despite of all of the not so great reviews around - not here though??? Some same reviews here as other places Hmmm...? I picked one up yesterday and returned it today - Beta product at best. I am a very techie guy - family/friends go to guy for tech problems etc... Setup through the app went smooth as silk - even with a few minute firmware upgrade. Did a login - set all settings as needed in app and on iPhone for notification and location services etc... Then I put the Canary where it had a sweet spot of viewing the main living area - OK lets try this beauty out. It is designed beautiful and to be discrete in any setting. UGH! I got one notification of motion and that was it - never would give a notification again without unplugging Canary or logging out of app. Tried Geo-fencing - that worked once than gave false aways while myself and phone were in the house and vise/versa. I tried everything - rebooting Canary - uninstalling app etc... with similar beta type results. I would try to move in front of camera to set it off, buy was very hit and miss results. Rarely sent a notification of motion alert to iPhone. Live video was clear when it was not freezing or going to a black screen. App would also freeze up and I would have to reboot my phone. And yes I have a fast cable internet speeds and I tried the Canary wireless and connected via lan cable. I think the motion detection is being done through the camera and not a motion sensor... Canary needs to reconsider using there cloud and let users record to their own storage or cloud device - on site or off. I have other HD cameras running off of my wifi network and record to a PC or other device and then it is sent immediately to a cloud service like DropBox. Works great with great video clips - Canary doesn't let you have any control of what it does record - not good. OK enough of the cons as this is getting too long - maybe second gen Canary...

What I love about the Canary, and I've had it for about 3-4 weeks now, is that it's packed with features that I didn't even know when I purchase it. The humidity and air quality gauges are so handy, and save me time and money from buying separate devices. I love the design, as well. It's so inconspicuous that I can put it in any room in the house, and it actually compliments the surrounding. I would highly recommend to any of my friends looking for a boost in their home security.

It is shockingly unreliable and the software is buggy and poorly designed. First, you can't watch live unless the device is set to "Disarmed". When it is disarmed, it still records events! That' really brain dead and unintuitive. The only difference here is that it won't alert you versus when it is armed. Dismissing a dialog requires that I swipe down on the dialog box, which almost no IOS app I've used does. It's annoying because that also has a tendency to trigger the notification screen that's built into IOS. Even when I am sitting at home with the camera on the same network as me, the "Live" view is choppy. Sometimes the device just goes offline for no apparent reason. Not sure if it is a fluke but not a good start for something I need to rely on to secure my home. The software is just terrible. It is currently 9:13 PM. I have an event recorded at 9:00 PM that it won't allow me to delete. It is also unclear at the time of purchase if a paid plan is needed for this device to work correctly. It still unclear after I purchased it and set it up. Update: I'm returning this thing. The auto mode switching frankly does not work at all. It worked a total of 2 times. All my other geofencing apps work fine be it IFTTT or Skylark. Somehow, Canary can't find an IOS developer who can make this feature work, which is crucial to the product. It's unnerving to know that my home is not being monitored while I'm away. Also, their support is terrible. Tried to contact them for help over the app. A day later, they reply with a template email asking me questions about my phone, IOS, etc. All of that is already included in the email generated by their own app. A day later, still no reply.

While the camera works great and records good quality video, the app used to control it is lackluster and problematic. I've had this unit for little over a month and have already had to delete and reload the app twice because it stopped working properly. I've had numerous instances where the app would not switch from away mode to home mode, so I had to unplug the camera to actually turn it off. You cannot control the camera via the website either which is a problem (especially since the app doesn't always work). There is no option to receive an audible notification or text that activity has been detected and videos will show up hours or sometimes days after the activity has been recorded.

We are 3 weeks into using this. This is a great gadget for simple home monitoring. It will not replace a more sophisticated system that does traditional home security monitoring. Your Wi-Fi connection must be secure and robust in order to get the most out of it. Yes, the app is buggy, however, if you do not rely on it as your primary or singular source for protection it's the perfect addition to an existing camera system. That said it "learns" your entry and exit patterns just fine and even has tags for you to tell it when the dog walks by or shadows fall, causing it to react. Neat to see how hot it gets in the house, not sure about how reliable the air-quality check is yet.

I'm not one to write a lot of reviews, but I really like the Canary. I'm not in a position to buy a big security so I thought I'd try this. It's simple to use, great quality. My husband travels from time to time and it makes me feel safer knowing I will get notified if there's movement in the house. The app also makes it easy to call the police or sound the siren if I need to. After using this for several weeks I don't see a need to get a big security system after all. Can't wait to get another one

Great value for what the security camera offers. Love the free trial of the Cloud recording. Works perfectly, easy set up, and very discreet design. People cannot tell that it's a camera system. Clear video and sound. Love the Temp and Air quality feature so that I know the temp and humidity in the house.

I have a "professional" security system. It cost several thousand dollars, needed professional installation, is difficult to operate, and requires a monthly fee. This little gem was less than $250, installed it in less than 10 minutes, it is a breeze to operate, and there is no monthly fee. Oh-- and the video quality is more than twice as clear as my expensive system.

My security needs are pretty simple: I live in New York City, and I want to be able to check on my apartment, especially when traveling, more for the peace of mind than out of true concern for safety. I want simple setup, easy access, and reliable service. After two weeks of using a Canary, I am more than satisfied. Out of the box, setup took about 10 minutes, including download time for the app to my iPhone. In fact, if you've ever set up an iPhone for the first time, you already have more than enough skill to set up a Canary; the app walks you through the steps clearly. Once set up, access was near instantaneous; I used the video feed sent to my phone to find the best position to place the Canary device (I have a railroad apartment, so I can get a clear line of sight of all three rooms from the kitchen). Ever since, I have had little if any challenge accessing the device when away from the apartment, whether using 4G or WIFI; naturally, the signal strength determines just how quickly Canary's video feed will load on my phone, but that's up to AT&T. I had solid WIFI signal at a friend's place in Montreal, and the feed loaded as quickly as if I was in my own apartment (it was a relief to see that I had, indeed, turned the stove burner off before I left!).

A perfect solution for my needs. I have been looking to find a low cost solution to monitor my house and also allow video footage incase there is a problem. This sleek looking product achieves all of this and more. Currently I only own one (trying I out) but I have just order 2 more (the app holds up to 4). Using these 3 will give me full video, audio and motion-sensing on all entrances to my home.

I bought this item a little over 6 months ago. Ever since having it, the app had difficulties and often would not pick up when I was home and when I left. But now, it has now been rendered useless as of this month. A few weeks ago, Canary decided to revoke all of it's previously free features. Now, you are only able to have video recorded while in away mode, and it will only be a 10 second clip. AKA, if someone would break into your house, you would only have a 10 second clip. They also removed night mode, which could previously be scheduled to kick on at night. I bought this with the understanding of what features came with the canary and what would be included if I paid for the subscription, and they did not honor what they originally stated. Now, I no longer care to have it, because I wanted something that would record both while away and at night. And even more, a video that would capture the entire event, not just walking past the camera once! I will be purchasing a different security camera now. I'm hoping that you will consider a different camera so that you don't have the same problems later.

I absolutely love my Canary. As a single woman in my early thirties, I can always check in on my house before going home. It makes me feel safe and secure. Overall adding an immeasurable amount of value to my life. I can also check in on my dog during the day which is an added awesome perk!

I purchased 2 devices and neither worked as advertised. I purchased the first one and set up. Installation went fairly well, it updated its firmware successfully, but the Live Video never worked. I tried adding it to two different WiFi networks, moved it to several rooms (even in the same rooms as the routers), and even hooked it up via an Ethernet cable. The device simply would not stream video. The app showed nothing but an endless spinning wheel whenever I tried to look at video. Even when the device triggered an event (motion sensor), the stored video never played. I could see a still shot from the video, but no video. My network is solid. My internet connection is 25/25 or better. Another problem is the app (iOS). Several areas are simply not thought through well, or they made very poor decisions. Simply put, Canary is not Apple. Apple knows how to make a good user experience. Canary falls way short. When setting up the device, the only WiFi choice you have is the network your phone is connected to. You cannot choose any other network. You have to connect your phone to whatever network you want the Canary on first, and then setup the Canary. When the device was installed and working (partially), I noticed I could not turn off the light on the bottom of the unit. Why can't I turn the light off? Why do I want to guide a burger to the security device? When I ultimately could not get Live Video working I attempted to factory reset the device and start again. Guess what? No way to factory reset the device. There's a small reset button on the bottom of the device that does absolutely nothing. You cannot reset the device in the app either. You can look at your device in the app (which means you can see its name (that they give it), serial number, and firmware version number), but you cannot do anything with the device except change its network connection. Out of frustration I decided I would return this one and exchange it for another. I wanted to remove the device from my account, but guess what? You can't do that either. Now I have a device named "Canary 1" (because that's what they name it and you can't change that) in my app even though it doesn't exist on my network. I thought if I setup a second one I would get an option to delete the first. So I exchanged the device for a second one and set that one up - or I tried to. When I went through the installation steps it started its firmware update and then simply stopped. It sat there for hours and the app said nothing but "Step 3 of 5: Verifying." You can't do anything else. Now I have a device named "Canary 2" in my app that is completely useless. Can't remove either device from the account. The entire experience of setting the device up and then attempting to use it in the app felt very poor - like it was made by a group of developers trying to create an Apple experience but fell utterly short. Another major problem: no support community. Look at TiVo. Look at Nest. You will find huge numbers of users contributing to the support forums on those companies' websites. No such luck with Canary. You're on your own with this, and it doesn't work.

This device is very cool and innovative. It gives you the safety and security you desire in the palm of your hand. I love being able to check in on the live feed. I can't wait to see how this device progresses moving forward. Only suggestion I would make is to make a battery operated and/or chargeable version so that you don't have to put it near an outlet. I love my canary.

Great for your home or work. Set up couldn't be easier. The app is 100% straight forward and very well designed. I have not been disappointed yet. It's simply works as advertised. I've reconended Canary to friends and I have yet to hear a bad word about their experience. You can tell a great deal of thought and design went into this product.

i originally saw this at bestbuy and bought it from bestbuy too. i like the idea and concept to this camera. its definitely different from the nest cam/dropcam(i already own 5) and i really like the alert notifications and the siren is a plus. it was the selling point to me. the first purchase i couldnt get it connected with my iphone 6plus ios9.1. i called their tech support and they told me to return it because it was defective if it boots up with the yellow ring on the bottom. picked up another replacement and it was the same problem(yellow ring) but this time i grabbed my ipad mini running ios9.0. the older ios ipad worked and got it finally up and running. i really like the canary alot because it doesnt stand out looking like a camera and blends in with the surrounding. its good that my housekeeper doesnt know its a camera. i am able to download videos and its just like the nest camera with the subscription cloud video recording. i brought the yearly because i believe in canary. it was a rough start but i hear things are getting polished up now. i was going to get the flir fx but the canary had a wider lens and the guardzilla looks hideous.

This camera is great! I was skeptical about it as first but I have come to love it! I can quickly access the app from my phone and see a live feed of my home as well as having the easy access of being able to turn on a siren if something sketchy were to happen! I receive a notification if the camera senses any sort of moment when I'm home or away from home, and records that instance so I can go back to it. Also, there is no membership charge unless you want to increase the amount of time that you're able to go back in your timeline and see any activity that happened more than 24 hrs ago. IT'S GREAT!

I chose the canary b/c compared to all the others, this one was the sleekest and had the best design. App is easy to use and is perfect for renters. Really cool to see air quality and temp as well. Haven't used the siren yet, but I read its pretty loud. Lens has wide angle too.