I just switched from a Ring video doorbell to the Tapo D225 for the sole reason that I no longer want to pay Amazon 50 USD/year to store videos remotely.  Ring's annual fee is almost the entire cost of the D225.  It seemed like a no brainer.  I watched countless videos and read numerous reviews of the D225 and all of them made it clear that the D225 is the clear winner.  After removing the Ring and getting the D225 setup yesterday, I discovered that I can't get thumbnails in notifications without a subscription!  You have to be be kidding me.  

Now, every time I get a notification, I have to open the app, navigate to the stored videos and replay the video which takes forever because of it's remote location, just to see that it's either a false positive or a family member.  With a snapshot, I could easily and quickly dismiss the overwhelming majority of notifications.  The D225 has now become a royal P.I.T.A.  There is no justifiable reason for this other than pure greed.  The app can easily take the snapshot/thumbnail and include it in the notification without involving TP-Link's servers.  

I have to say, this essentially makes the D225 useless. Seriously.  So it's either pony up and pay them their subscription or put up with this.  Tapo/TP-Link is NOT a viable subscription free alternative to Ring or any other subscription based doorbell.  Now I'm right back where I was before I installed this thing.  It's a total bait-and-switch.    

Every accurate and polite word to describe this behavior is banned by TP-Link's AI and will not be posted.  You just can't make this stuff up.

To add insult to injury, I sent a message to TP-Link about this and their only reply was from an AI bot.  I think I'm going to be sick. Talk about buyer's remorse...