For several years now, ecobee’s been trying real hard to expand beyond the smart thermostat with a video camera, contact sensors, and wall switches. And, as you can see above, a doorbell is up next.
As to why one might choose an ecobee video doorbell, over any of the numerous existing offerings, we’ll likely have to wait and see. But, from the imagery, ecobee’s chosen a derivative enclosure featuring yet another glowing blue ring, what’s likely a green activity indicator, and some holes – at least one likely being a mic.
As to the video approach, will the ecobee doorbell be more Ring, with its own pipeline, or Logitech, which leverages Apple HomeKit Secure Video? If I had to guess, we’re looking more Arlo here — I suspect ecobee’s new ownership is going to want the potential subscription revenue but would still likely interoperate with Apple, for broadest ecosystem halo and given their existing indoor video camera approach. And perhaps there will be some newly introduced video processing secret sauce, given this patent application. Regarding Matter, well I’m not sure there’s much to talk about here yet, as the 1.0 spec launches, but could imagine some doorbell tie-ins with other ecobee products, both new and upcoming. Plus the requisite Alexa and Google integrations. Reading the breadcrumbs, I can confirm that mobile alerts are a go but it’s not clear if the doorbell requires hardwiring or is battery-powered.
The whole reason I went with Ecobee for my smart thermostats is cloud independed. Cloud helps but not required for 95% of functions. No cloud subscription either.
I am in (lowkey) process of looking for smart similar doorbell, but choices are very limited as most of them are subscription based.