There are a few basic requirements to make this happen. First, you’ll obviously need a spare iOS device. As previously mentioned, it can be an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. As long as it features a camera, you can use that device as the main recording camera. You will end up with two devices. One will be the Camera (your old iOS device), and the other will be the Viewer (your main iPhone, for example). In this post, we will refer to the spare iOS device (the one recording) as the Camera. Then you need to download the free Manything application from the App Store on both devices you plan on using (the Camera, and the Viewer). You will have to create a free account directly from within the application, or from Manything’s website. Finally, as obvious as it may sound, you will need an active internet connection at all time.
This is needed so the Camera can stream what’s in front of it, and of course, it’s needed so you can view what the camera is streaming, as well as receive notifications. Setting up the monitoring Camera couldn’t be any simpler. After downloading the Manything app and logging in, select the Camera option at the top of the screen. This will effectively turn your iPhone into the home monitoring device. Place the Camera in a convenient location where it can have an unobstructed view of what you are trying to monitor. Because it is constantly connected to the web, I’d highly suggest plugging in the device so it doesn’t run out of battery too quickly. If it is plugged in, you will be able to use that device to monitor activity 24/7 without having to worry about running out of battery. Tap on the big red recording button, and you’re all set! This Camera is ready to stream what’s in front of it and alert you should it detect any activity.
There are some settings you can tweak of course, but we’ll get to these later. Now here is the fun part. If you want to keep an eye on your kids or pets while you’re away for example, you can easily see what’s going on in your house, directly from your iPhone. On your iPhone, open the Manything app and make sure you are logged in. On the main screen, select the Viewer option, and select the Live feed. You will then see and hear in almost real time what is happening in your house. I say “almost real time” because there is a very slight delay, usually a second or two. If the Camera detects activity, and assuming you have set it up this way, you will receive a notification on your iPhone telling you that motion was detected. From there you can easily watch a replay of what was detected.
Note that motion alert recordings are only available to paid users, but are also free for one month when setting up a new account. Tap on the notification you received, or open up the Manything application to connect as a viewer. Below the Live feed, you will see a list of events. Each event shows when it was recorded, the duration, as well the motion score. Tap on an event to watch it again. After watching the event, you can share it, or download it to your Camera roll. You don’t really need to adjust any settings in order to get going, but if you want to have finer control over what is recorded, you can tweak some of the Camera settings. Note that all of these settings can be controlled from the Camera itself, or remotely from the Viewer. To access the Settings, simply tap on the gear icon, either on the Camera or the Viewer.
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