You might be upgrading to the New iPhone 15, Google Pixel 8, or Galaxy S24, but chances are your old phone is far from useless. You can always recycle it, sell it, or give it to a family member who doesn’t need the latest and greatest. You can also set it up as a free baby camera or use it to monitor your back porch.
One of the best ways to repurpose an old iphone is to turn it into a home security camera. It’s a great and cost-effective trick to keep an eye on your home when you’re not there.
It’s also a free (or very inexpensive, if you need to buy a phone holder) way to keep an eye on elderly relatives, anxious pets, or parts of your business that you can’t always keep an eye on directly.
Making this conversion from phone to home camera is not difficult at all. You can start using that time-worn phone to keep your home safe in just three steps.
For more home tips, check out Why Your Internet Router is Probably in the Wrong Place and Six Places to Place Security Cameras on Your Property.
Step 1 – Install a security camera app on your old smartphone
To get started, you’ll need to choose a security camera app. Most apps offer many of the same features, such as local streaming, cloud streaming, image recording and storage locally or remotely, and motion detection and alerts. Once it’s set up, you’ll be able to monitor your living space and control your security camera from anywhere, right from your new phone.
One of the best app options to set your phone as a security camera is Alfred. It’s cross-platform, so it doesn’t matter if your previous phone was an Android phone or an iPhone. And the same goes for your new phone.
Alfred is free to use and gives you a remote view of your live stream, motion detection with alerts, free cloud storage, two-way audio streaming, and use of the front and rear cameras. To unlock additional features such as higher resolution viewing and recording, zoom capabilities, ad removal, and 30-day cloud storage, you can upgrade to Alfred Premium.
1. Download Alfred (Android, iOS) on your new and old phones. You don’t have to use a phone as a tracking tool; You can also download Alfred to your tablet or PC if you prefer to keep an eye on it from there. Just make sure the app is on both devices.
2. On your new phone, scroll through the introduction and tap Begin. Select Viewer and touch Next.
3. Once you get to the login page, click Sign in with Google (Google account required) and sign in with your Google account credentials.
4. On the old phone, repeat the same steps, but instead of selecting Viewerselect Camera. And make sure you sign in to the same Google account.
Once both phones are logged into Alfred, you’re pretty much done with the setup. Alfred has simplified the camera options to include only a few settings. On iOS, you can only enable motion detection, choose between front and rear cameras, and enable or disable audio. If you’re using an Android device, you have those options and you can also enable continuous focus, have Alfred automatically reopen if the phone restarts, set a resolution, and enable a password lock.
From your new phone, you can change a few more settings, such as turning notifications on or off, setting a camera or viewer name, adding other people to your circle of trust (granting other people access to your video streams), removing a camera, check how many times a camera has been disconnected, set motion detection sensitivity, and enable a low light filter on cameras.
Do you feel like exploring more options? That’s always a good idea. Other apps that can upgrade your old phone with a security camera include:
Faceter – Faceter is a surveillance app that offers quick setup and cloud storage for Apple and Android phones.
Epoccam – EpocCam is a very fast camera app designed for content creators but can serve a wide variety of purposes. It is currently made only for iPhones.
iVCam by E2ESoft – iVCam is an open-source camera solution that is best for those who want to tinker with camera settings and customize them, although, like EpocCam, it focuses a bit more on webcam-related activities than on security.
Step 2: Choose a location for your new smartphone’s security camera
Once the stream is up and running, you’ll need to set up and place the camera. You may want to focus on the main entry point to your home, your backyard, the place where you keep your valuables or a spot that you think might be particularly vulnerable. You can also set up an IP camera as a baby monitor.
If you have several older phones lying around, you can set up multiple cameras to get pretty solid video coverage.
Step 3: Mount and power on your security camera smartphone
For mounting or positioning the camera, a small smartphone tripod or suction cup car mount can work wonders and help you place the camera in an inconspicuous location. To expand the field of view, consider purchasing a wide-angle lens for your phone, something that can be purchased online for between $5 and $20.
Streaming video consumes a lot of power and the phone will be on 24/7. To prevent the phone from turning off in the first few hours, you should place it near a power source. A 10-foot Micro-USB or Lightning cable will give you more flexibility in placement.
And that is! Now you can use the security camera app on your new phone to view the camera feed from your old phone and you’ve made your home safer without spending a lot.
Finally, if we get you excited about using your smartphone for home security purposes, don’t forget that you can also download an app like Hidden Camera Detector to automatically look for telltale signs that there’s a camera watching in the room. Airbnb may have banned indoor security cameras, but we don’t blame you if you still want to check them when you travel.
For more information, check out six quick tips to get the most out of your home security camera and the best DIY home security systems.
Keynote USA
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