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How to install the app
Introduction
This app can make a home security camera from a spare Android smartphone and give him a second life. You can then easily watch this your camera on your regular phone. So, how to start? First of all, prepare some old or spare Android smartphone, this will be your CAMERA. You probably have your regular personal phone with you - this will be your MONITOR. After installation, you can put your camera anywhere where it has access to a power and internet. Camera instantly watches the scene, detects movements and records them. When a movement is detected, camera sends a notification to your personal phone (monitor). You can also connect to the camera to watch live, you can set up remotely from your monitor many features, change zoom, setup siren, set up recording as photos or videos and much more. Or let the camera as is, it works immediately without any setup. Camera has many functions and all of them are free to you. Nice? So lets start. All you need are two Android phones - one for the camera and one for the monitor.
Installation
Installation is very easy. On each phone, open Google Play Store, look for Security Camera CZ and install the app. If you cannot find the app in the Store, read the paragraph "App not found in Google Play Store" at the end of this article.
Starting the app for the first time
Then start the app, go through the welcome screens and hit the "Let's start" button. You will be asked for some login credentials. Why? Both the camera and the monitor needs some ID, so camera can send notifications to the monitor and monitor can show content of the camera. Without any ID, monitor wouldn't know which camera is yours. The sign in method also ensures that no one else can see your camera. Security is here very important.
Choosing the sign in method
It is very important to use the same sign in method and credentials on both phones! You can choose any sign in method you want. Google or Facebook are straightforward. If you hesitate to use them for any reason, you can create a password and use it with an email. Note that although the app accepts even non-existing email address, it wouldn't be later possible to reset the password. Using an existing email address is recommended.
Camera or Monitor?
On your old phone, select the CAMERA mode. On your regular phone, select the MONITOR mode. Each mode needs some permission (camera mode need access to mic, camera, storage etc.), so these permissions must be enabled. Please note, that the location permission is only OPTIONAL and you can skip it. If you skip, the camera will work with all functions except the function "Turn off motion detection when I am nearby my camera". Please note that on ancient phones with Android 4 only the CAMERA mode is supported. It is not expected that someone would use such an ancient phone as his personal phone, right?
Done
And that's it. You will immediately see a picture from your camera on your monitor.
Adding another phone
If you wish, you can add another phone that will work as another camera or another monitor and make a real home security system. Adding another phone is straightforward. Just follow the same steps above with another phone. When signing in, do not forget to use the same login as you used before, so the new device can be added to your account.
App not found in Google Play Store
If you cannot find the Security Camera CZ app in the Store, its probably because the phone is really ancient, typically this happens to phones with Android 4.1 - 4.4. For these phones, you can download the latest version as an APK file for Android 4 and install it manually. If you have a phone with Android 5.0 or newer, and still do not see the app in the Store, its probably because the phone is not up-to-date. Connect the phone to WiFi and update it or wait until it gets updated automatically by itself.
How to watch on PC, Mac or iPhone
On computers or iPhone, you can watch your camera live on website securitycamera.cz/monitor.html. The website is optimized for small screens of smartphones as well as for large computer screens. Also, it is important to use the Google Chrome browser, other browsers are not tested. At this moment, only live feed and previews from the camera is supported. There are even more ways how to watch your camera - see the camera settings menu Smarthome and IP camera.