How To Use A Phone As A Security Camera

Old Android Phone As Security Camera Hero

Quondam Android Phone As Security Camera Hero (Paradigm credit: Joe Maring / Android Primal)

Buying a new Android telephone is an exciting matter. Especially if you're coming from a phone that's two (or more) years old, there are tons of new features to cheque out, increased performance to relish, and probable a new version of Android to familiarize yourself with.

That's all fine and peachy, only what are you supposed to exercise with your now-onetime handset? Yous could sell it or trade it in for some extra cash, only depending on its age and condition, the amount of money y'all'd get may not be the worth the hassle of going through all of that. In that location are stores and other establishments that allow y'all to recycle your phone, but y'all may non live well-nigh one or be ready to fully requite up your old friend only nevertheless.

If yous don't listen getting a piffling creative, there are other ways to repurpose an Android device then that you can keep getting apply out of it without further calculation to our planet'due south growing pile of e-waste matter. Today, I'll be teaching you how to turn an old Android phone into a security camera. Seriously!

A quick search on the Google Play Store will reveal several apps that allow you to do this. I'll be running through the setup process and my thoughts on 2 of the most pop ones so you tin get started for yourself and breathe new life into that old Milky way S9 or Pixel ii.

Alfred Camera

Start on the list, we have Alfred. Alfred is one of the most popular security photographic camera apps by a long shot, touting over ten 1000000 downloads and a solid 4.seven-star rating on the Google Play Shop.

This is the app a lot of people will likely default to when looking for a way to turn their Android phone into a makeshift camera, and in a lot of ways, Alfred earns that popularity. This is an immensely powerful app with reliable operation, but earlier we tin get any further into information technology, nosotros need to get information technology gear up up.

How to fix upward your camera and viewer

With any security photographic camera app that you download, you'll need two phones to complete the system — your old phone to human action as the camera and your current/new phone to serve equally the viewfinder and control panel.

That may sound a picayune intimidating, simply Alfred guides you through the setup procedure quite nicely. Here's a pace-by-stride guide yous can follow for both parts.

Alfred photographic camera

How to ready up your Alfred photographic camera

You can set up the camera or viewfinder in any order, but for Alfred, I decided to set the camera portion outset. Here'southward what information technology looks like:

Open the Alfred app on your phone.
Tap Skip in the upper-right corner.
Tap Photographic camera.
Tap Get Started!
Tap Sign in with Google. Source: Joe Maring / Android Primal

Choose the account you desire.
Tap Allow to confirm business relationship permissions. Source: Joe Maring / Android Fundamental

Tap Allow to let camera access.
Tap Allow to allow microphone access. Source: Joe Maring / Android Central

Alfred viewer

How to ready upwards your Alfred viewer

With your former phone ready with Alfred every bit the actual security photographic camera, it's time to get your current telephone configured to be the viewer. This process is pretty similar and goes every bit follows:

Open the Alfred app on your telephone.
Tap Skip in the upper-right corner.
Tap Viewer.
Tap Go started!
Tap Sign in with Google (since you already signed in on the photographic camera, yous don't have to re-let business relationship permissions). Source: Joe Maring / Android Central

Taking a closer look at the app

Source: Joe Maring / Android Central

Getting Alfred fix on your phones is extremely easy, but one time yous're all practiced to go, what's information technology like actually using the service?

Starting with the photographic camera interface, there are a few settings to play around with even though virtually of the controls are done from your viewer telephone. Y'all'll find 3 icons towards the bottom of the screen, including a shortcut for your settings, enabling/disabling motion detection, and turning on a power-saving mode.

Source: Joe Maring / Android Central

The settings allow you to configure dissimilar things for your phone's photographic camera, including which lens y'all desire to record from (rear camera or front camera), audio and continuous focus toggles, and if y'all want motility detection to automatically stop when the camera is being moved. The overall UI is dainty and clean, making information technology piece of cake to observe what y'all need without unnecessarily cluttering upward the screen.

Your old phone being used equally a camera basically turns into a set-and-forget-it device. You can change its placement in your home whenever you'd like, just when it comes to checking in on what it sees or managing nigh settings, you lot'll do that from the viewer device.

From the Alfred home screen on your viewer, you'll see your active cameras listed (mine is moto-g-ability) at the very top. Tapping on this takes you to a live feed of that camera, along with some helpful remote controls.

Source: Joe Maring / Android Central

You lot can tap-and-concord on the microphone button as a sort of walkie-talkie with the photographic camera, assuasive yous to speak to whoever is on the other end. The video push button next to that begins recording if something is going on that y'all want to capture and salvage.

Tap the pointer icon side by side to those controls, and you'll find even more features at your disposal. In order from left-to-right, these include:

Switch the orientation of the photographic camera on your phone.
Switch between the back and rear photographic camera.
Enable the flashlight on your camera phone.
Plow on a night vision mode for enhanced visibility at night.
Play a siren sound at maximum volume from the photographic camera phone.

If you tap the gear icon towards the top-left of your viewer habitation screen (right beneath the Alfred logo), y'all'll be taken to the full settings for your new security photographic camera. Here you can change the photographic camera'southward name, add other people that can manage/view it, configure motion detection settings, fix up a schedule for when move detection goes into effect, and a bunch more.

Source: Joe Maring / Android Central

Free users have admission to a lot of Alfred's settings and features, but if y'all want the best feel possible, there is an optional Alfred Premium subscription y'all tin sign upwards for. Yous can pay either $4.99/month or $29.99/year for the service, giving y'all access to:

HD recording
Photographic camera zoom
Record movement events up to 120 seconds
Motion detection schedule
Cloud storage for recorded events upward to 30-days old
No ads

I'd contend that's a off-white price considering everything that comes with Alfred Premium, and if you plan on seriously using the service, I'd recommend cough upwardly the cash. The complimentary version of Alfred is fine and gives you lot a good gustation of what to wait, but without spending any money, video quality is laughably bad, and the advertisements can exist a bit much at times.

Outside of that, Alfred has been incredibly reliable during my testing, offers timely notifications when move is detected on your camera and provides you lot with a simple and like shooting fish in a barrel-to-use app for managing everything.

I do wish the free version wasn't so limited on the video quality side of things, but based on my experience, I'd happily pay $thirty every year to take total advantage of everything that'southward offered here.

Everything's here

Alfred Camera

The gilded standard of security camera apps
When it comes to apps that allow you to plough an quondam phone into a security photographic camera, Alfred is one of the best in the business organization. It has millions of users, an insane set of features, and a well-designed mobile app. If you want to become the most out of information technology, yet, you'll need to pay.

Security Camera CZ

While Alfred may be the go-to for most people, I wanted to run across how the app compares to something that's a trivial lesser-known. Security Photographic camera CZ is another option that I found, coming in with over 100,000 installs and a iv.two-star rating.

It does the aforementioned general matter as Alfred, albeit with fewer restrictions and a more than affordable premium subscription.

How to prepare your camera and viewer

Simply like Alfred, Security Camera CZ requires you to have two devices for it to work — ane that's the security camera and another that's the viewer. The setup is mostly the same, but just to make sure we're all on the same page, here's how to get everything up and running.

Security Camera CZ photographic camera

How to set up your Security Photographic camera CZ photographic camera

Just like with Alfred, we'll get started with Security Photographic camera CZ by setting up the phone we use every bit the security camera. Let's dive in!

Open up the Security Camera CZ app on your phone.
Tap Start.
Tap Sign in with Google.
Choose the account you want to log in with. Source: Joe Maring / Android Primal

Tap Camera.
Tap Allow to let access to your phone's photographic camera.
Tap Allow to allow access to your phone'due south location. Source: Joe Maring / Android Central

Tap Allow to allow admission to your phone'due south microphone.
Tap the toggle to permit CZ Camera to display over other apps. Source: Joe Maring / Android Central

Security Camera CZ viewer

How to ready your Security Camera CZ viewer

Now that your security camera is ready to go, it's time to finish this equation by getting Security Camera CZ configured on your phone that acts as the viewer. Once once more, the process is pretty straightforward.

Open up the Security Photographic camera CZ app on your phone.
Tap Beginning.
Tap Sign in with Google (your account should already be remembered)
Tap Monitor. Source: Joe Maring / Android Cardinal

Tap Allow to allow access to your phone's storage.
Tap Let to allow admission to your phone's microphone. Source: Joe Maring / Android Key

Taking a closer await at the app

Now that yous have Security Camera CZ set up on both of your phones, it'south time to get familiar with how each component works!

Compared to Alfred, the user interface for the photographic camera portion of the app is very basic. All you'll see is a toggle for turning the camera on/off, and if y'all tap the Preview button, you can meet what the electric current view of the camera looks like and get options to modify the resolution.

Source: Joe Maring / Android Key

Annnndddd, that's it. You tin can't alter whatsoever additional settings from the phone that'due south acting as the camera, meaning y'all'll need to handle everything from your viewer/monitor app. While that does make this side of Security Camera CZ more limited compared to Alfred, it's not that large of a deal considering the nature both of your phones play in this setup.

Moving over to the viewer/monitor telephone, this is where Security Camera CZ shines. The home screen is almost identical to Alfred, showing a list of whatever active cameras that you have. Tap the video icon to sentry a live feed of the camera, or tap the gallery icon to see a listing of detected motions from your photographic camera.

Source: Joe Maring / Android Fundamental

If you tap on the gear icon to the correct of those two buttons, y'all'll be taken to all of your photographic camera settings. There'southward a lot to mess with here, with some of the highlights existence:

Camera resolution
Zoom
HD video
Night vision
Torch/flashlight
Motility detection
Camera name
Siren

Every bit you can see, a lot of the same features from Alfred are found here as well. While Security Photographic camera CZ doesn't have an choice for only alerting you if information technology detects people, it does permit you lot to customize the motion detection sensitivity, set it up on a schedule, and fifty-fifty exclude certain areas of the video from triggering the detection alert.

Security Camera CZ also has its ain paid subscription you can sign up for, which costs $6.49/year and allows you to keep video history for up to thirty days, supports video without any interruptions for 30 minutes, and gets rid of in-app ads.

This is pretty similar to Alfred Premium, with the exceptions that Security Camera CZ is much more affordable and doesn't completely cripple the video resolution for complimentary users.

Best for less

Security Photographic camera CZ

Then expert, and then free
If you're put off by the cost of Alfred, Security Camera CZ is absolutely worth a look. It has many of the same features equally Alfred, with its most pregnant benefit being the improved video quality for users of the free version. You can pay to remove ads and get extended video history, though.

Which one should you use?

Alfred And Security Camera CZ Hero — Source: Joe Maring / Android Key (Prototype credit: Source: Joe Maring / Android Central)

All-in-all, both Alfred and Security Camera CZ are solid applications that legitimately turn your old Android phone into a security camera. The feature set is also pretty similar beyond each service, making it a little catchy to decide which one you should use.

Alfred is the more expensive of the agglomeration, and video quality with the free version is pretty disappointing. Still, when dealing with something as sensitive equally security cameras for your abode, I take to give Alfred the upper-hand here. Information technology boasts substantially more users, and the company has received a fair amount of media attention over the years. Comparatively, Security Photographic camera CZ is used by far fewer people and being run by a developer out of the Czechia. There's cypher inherently incorrect with that, but if you'd rather rely on a more publicly-facing company for your security needs, Alfred takes the lead here (not to mention it has a fairly active forum with Alfred employees active in information technology).

I've been pleased with the performance and functionality of both apps, so if you're on a tight budget and only want something for bones monitoring of your habitation, Security Photographic camera CZ is a great choice. The app isn't quite as pretty, and information technology's missing a couple of features compared to Alfred, but considering simply how good information technology works without spending a dime, it's darn impressive.

I'd recommend giving both apps a shot and seeing which one is the best fit for you and your needs. There's nothing to lose, and by trying them for yourself, you tin can go a better feel for how they work in real use.

Either style, you can rest bodacious that you're putting your old Android phones to practiced employ and making your home more than secure at the same time.

Joe Maring was a Senior Editor for Android Central between 2017 and 2021. You tin reach him on Twitter at [@JoeMaring1](http://world wide web.twitter.com/joemaring1).