Camera and Viewer modes
Camera: the old phone watches the room. Viewer: your own phone watches it.
Free · No cloud · No account
Your old phone, now a security camera.
Turn an old phone into a home security camera on your Wi-Fi. No cloud, no account.
Camera phone watches. Your phone views.
What Watchman does
One app, two modes. Put the spare phone in Camera mode and use your own phone as the Viewer.
Motion detection
Compares small grayscale copies of the picture. Sensitivity, "ignore small changes" and the cooldown between clips are adjustable.
Timestamped clips
On motion the camera records a short clip (5 to 60 s), with optional sound. Set a storage limit and the oldest clips are removed first.
Live view
Full-screen MJPEG stream over your Wi-Fi, protected by a 4 to 6 digit PIN shown on the camera phone.
Finds cameras itself
The viewer discovers cameras with mDNS, or you can add one by IP address.
Events and clips
See the motion list on the viewer, then play or download any clip.
Motion alerts
Turn on Monitor and the viewer notifies you when a camera sees motion, even with the app closed.
Runs with the screen off
A foreground service keeps the camera working. An optional dim screen can show it is watching.
Local only
Everything stays on your local network. No cloud, no account, no subscription.
How to use it
Install on both phones, then set up in a minute.
- Install on both phonesPut both on the same Wi-Fi network.
- Start Camera modeOn the old phone choose Camera, point it at the room and start. Note the PIN it shows.
- Open Viewer modeOn your phone choose Viewer. The camera appears by itself, or add its IP address. Enter the PIN.
- Watch and reviewOpen the live view, browse motion events and clips, and switch on Monitor for alerts.
Permissions and privacy
Your video never goes to a cloud server. The camera phone serves it to your own network and nowhere else. The only call to the internet is the update check in Settings.
What it asks for, and why
- Camera: to watch the room and record clips.
- Microphone: only for the optional sound in clips.
- Notifications: for the running notification and motion alerts.
- Local network and Wi-Fi state: to serve the stream and find cameras.
- Foreground service and wake lock: to keep working with the screen off.
- Internet: the update check only.
Honest limits
- Works on the local Wi-Fi only. There is no remote access from outside your home network.
- The stream is plain HTTP on the LAN, protected by a PIN. Use it on a network you trust.
- Five wrong PIN tries lock a device out for a minute.
- If a phone cannot record and analyse at once, motion events are still logged but no clips are saved.
Requirements and install
Requirements
- Android 8.0 (API 26) or newer, on both phones.
- Both phones on the same Wi-Fi network.
Install the APK
- Download the APK on your phone and open it.
- If Android asks, allow your browser to install unknown apps.
- Prefer updates in one place? Get it from Ash Store.
Give that old phone a job
Free to download. No account needed.