Free Home Security using iOS "Presence" App

[RJ]

I've been playing around with a couple old unused iPhones and the "Presence" app on iOS to create a free in-home internet based audio / video security alarm system.

http://www.presencepro.com/

So far, I like it a lot.

I have been wanting some kind of camera setup at my place, but I didn't want to deal with Cat 6 cables or buy cameras, so using existing stuff I had is very appealing. After creating a Presence account and password, I downloaded the App onto my current iPhone 12, as well as a couple older iPhone 6s we are no longer using actively. Both iPhone 6s's were renamed "Camera_1" and "Camera_2". I put them both on a charger, made sure the app was running, and pointed them at my entryway door, and in the garage toward my car.



In practice, this seems to work pretty well so far. Yesterday, I activated both cameras before going on a trip. Once we returned, and I walked in the house, the movement detection algorithm went off, and each camera reported notification to my phone, as well as emailed me, a link to a video clip. Here's the picture I got:



If you click on the video, you get 30seconds of me entering my apartment, complete with audio. Granted, the resolution is not super terrific, and it's only 30 seconds, but the alert happens in real time, and you can definitely tell what's going on. It's also possible to just "switch on" the camera, and have a realtime connection of both audio and video, direct to the remote camera, kinda like a zoom call. You can also "star" videos, to save them for later review.

The basic service is free. Upgrades to more video storage capacity as well as better quality video costs somewhere around $50 a year. Here's a Cnet review:

https://www.cnet.com/reviews/presence-ios-review/

The ability to re-use old phones you might have laying around, to create a free security camera system using your existing wireless network is pretty cool.

I can also see how having a remote camera could be used in other ways; say you were at a range near a WiFi network. You could place the old phone neat the target, and watch the fall of shot on your phone set up at your shooting station, without walking down to see each time. Or if you needed to do inspection on an area of your car inside a wheel well for brakes or something; you could hold the camera into the area and watch the video on an iPad logged into the same presence app.

Presence seems to be in the same vein as other, low-cost or free video-based apps that repurpose and give new life to older devices. It is a fun way to play around with home security, at zero cost, with equipment you might already have.