Report updated May 19, 2026
Seeing
For homeowners and renters using LONSEN ELECTRONICS hardware who require remote monitoring and visitor communication.
Seeing is a challenged utilities app that is available. With a 4.6/5 rating from 77K reviews, it faces significant user friction. Users particularly appreciate high-quality camera optics provide clear visual identification of visitors at the front door, though mandatory subscription paywalls block access to basic live feed and camera viewing functionality remains a common concern.
What is Seeing?
Seeing is a home utility app for doorbell and motion sensor monitoring on iOS and Android.
Users hire the app to secure their homes and communicate with visitors, but the current subscription-gated live feed forces a trade-off between hardware utility and recurring costs.
Current Momentum
v2.0 · 2w ago
Maintenance- Ships stability and bug fix updates.
- Maintains aggressive subscription-gated monetization model.
What makes this app unique?
What Does It Look Like?
What Are The Key Features?
Remote video recording and storage for doorbell and motion sensor events
Real-time alerts triggered by doorbell presses or PIR motion sensors
Real-time voice communication with visitors via the smartphone interface
High-definition live video streaming from connected doorbell hardware
How much does it cost?
- Free app access
- 6-month cloud storage plan at $28.99
- 1-year cloud storage plan at $29.99
Subscription model anchored at $29.99 per year, utilizing recurring billing cycles to monetize cloud storage services.
Who Built It?
Providing homeowners with accessible DIY security monitoring through integrated hardware-companion software.
Portfolio
1
Apps
Explore the full LONSEN ELECTRONICS report
Portfolio breakdown, audience, momentum, and every app published by LONSEN ELECTRONICS.
What do users think recently?
High confidence · Latest 120 of 198 total reviews analyzed · Based on 198 reviews. Signal may be noisy.
How did the latest release land?
What is the recent mood?
Recent user voice shows a frustrated sentiment. Users appreciate high-quality camera optics provide clear visual identification of visitors at the front door, but report mandatory subscription paywalls block access to basic live feed and camera viewing functionality and unreliable motion and human detection settings toggle off automatically without user intervention.
What Users Love
What Frustrates Users
What Users Want
How have ratings & review volume moved?
Rating, review sentiment, and total reviews over time, with release markers showing the post-launch impact.
Vertical markers = app releases. Hover any release for the post-release impact delta.
View the full user-sentiment analysis
Mood gauge, ratings & review-volume history, every praise / complaint / request, and sentiment over time.
What is the competitive landscape for Seeing?
How's The Utilities Market?
How does it evolve in the Utilities market?
Seeing holds a #20 Grossing position in the US Tools category, but its monetization friction relative to its utility creates a significant churn risk. The high subscription barrier for basic camera access contrasts with the free-tier expectations of the broader smart home market.
Rank progression
84 active rankings tracked — 30-day window
The rivals identified
Nemeses(1)
DMSS is a direct competitor in the smart home surveillance space, targeting the same user base looking for real-time video monitoring and intercom functionality.
Contenders(4)
YI Home is a major player in the home security space, offering AI-driven alerts and cloud storage that compete with our core value proposition.
Camy competes by turning smartphones into security cameras, directly challenging our app's utility for remote home surveillance.
This app targets users who need to manage multiple IP cameras, overlapping with our goal of providing remote home monitoring.
Kemo Pro competes directly by offering similar high-definition video monitoring and PIR motion alert features for home security.
Same space(3)
Zero-z1 provides automation tools for home security, overlapping with our goal of simplifying home monitoring through technology.
Porter serves the residential access control market, competing for the same users who prioritize secure home entry and monitoring.
This app focuses on remote access control and gate management, sharing the same utility-based market for home entry security.
Compare Seeing against every rival
All rivals in one side-by-side table — identity, store metrics, ratings & sentiment, and strategic intel — plus a head-to-head page for each.
The outtake for Seeing
Strengths to defend, gaps to attack
Core Strengths
- High-quality camera optics provide clear visual identification
- Hardware-integrated push notifications enable real-time visitor alerts
Critical Frictions
- Mandatory subscription paywalls block basic live-viewing
- Unreliable motion detection settings require daily manual intervention
- Inaccessible customer support prevents resolution of billing disputes
Growth Levers
- Decoupling live-viewing from cloud storage could restore user trust
- Implementing local storage support aligns with privacy-first market trends
Market Threats
- Rising competition from local-storage-first rivals like Reolink
- Deceptive practice accusations from subscription gating
What are the next best moves?
Restore free live-viewing access because paywalls block basic hardware utility → reduce churn risk
Live-viewing paywalls are the #1 complaint theme in user sentiment data.
Trade-off: Pause the cloud-storage feature expansion — restoring trust is the immediate retention priority.
Audit motion detection logic because settings toggle off automatically → improve reliability
Unreliable detection is the second most cited frustration in user reviews.
Trade-off: Delay the UI redesign for the subscription dashboard — core hardware reliability is the priority.
A counter-intuitive read
The aggressive subscription gating is not a monetization strategy, but a liability that accelerates the migration of the user base to local-storage-first competitors like Reolink.
Feature Gaps vs Competitors
- Local NVR support (available in Reolink but absent here)
- On-device AI detection (available in eufy but absent here)
- System-level OS integration (available in Google Home but absent here)
Key Takeaways
Seeing defends its hardware utility through clear optics, but the mandatory subscription paywall for live-viewing drives high churn, so the PM must prioritize restoring free access to basic camera functions to stabilize the user base.
Where Is It Heading?
Declining
The smart home utility market is shifting toward local-storage and privacy-first models, leaving Seeing's cloud-only subscription strategy increasingly exposed. Without a pivot to decouple basic hardware access from recurring fees, the app will continue to lose market share to competitors that offer higher reliability and lower long-term costs.
The latest update failed to address the subscription-gated live viewing, which continues to drive negative sentiment and churn.
Unreliable detection features persist post-update, which erodes the core security value proposition and increases support ticket volume.