How to Turn Your Old iPhone into a Free Security Camera

So, you’ve just upgraded to a nice, shiny, new iPhone and you’re wondering what to do with your old iPhone? Well, we’ve got a suggestion that you might never have considered:

A budget Wi-Fi security camera.

You’re immediate thought might be that this sounds like a complicated thing to setup, but we’re going to show you in a few easy steps just how simple this can actually be – and how useful it could be for keeping an eye on things whilst you’re away – all for free.

Step 1 – Find the right app for your needs.

There are a few different apps that can help you turn your iPhone into a security camera, all with different features. Here are just a couple that we think are worth testing:

Presence – This free app (with premium upgrades) is great if you not only want to turn an old iPhone into a security camera, but also if you have a range of other ‘smart home’ devices that you want to control. Presence lets you manage all of that within one app letting you take full remote control of your home. Obviously, this depends on the exact devices you have, but for a security camera, it’s a perfectly good option.

Alfred – Another free app with premium features. Alfred is focused on providing a range of features to help bolster your home (or office) security with video. You can make use of features such as a 360° live view using both of the phone’s cameras (front and back), intercom, motion detection, night-vision, and can even backup to cloud. However a common criticism of Alfred is that there are too many ads. This can be solved by paying for the service at $3.99 USD per month, which will remove ads.

All you need to do is install either of these apps onto both your old iPhone and your current iPhone and setup following the on-screen instructions. Both are very straightforward to get started, and you can be up and running in as little as 5 minutes.

Step 2 – Decide where you want to put your new iPhone security camera.

Once you set up the app you’ve chosen, you then have to decide where you want to put the camera. Consider the following:

• What location do you want to keep an eye on? Maybe your garden, drive, or front door?
• Is there a power socket nearby? You will probably need to keep the security camera phone plugged into the wall, as the battery can tend wear down quickly on older devices.
• Internet connection. Is the device in range of a wi-fi network or if you’re planning to use 4g/3g/LTE then is there a good enough signal? Ideally Wi-Fi would be best, as this will allow you to easily and quickly back up any footage to the cloud if necessary, and if the app you choose allows for this.

Step 3 – Mounting the iPhone.

Are you looking to mount the phone up high? Maybe you could use something like a car mount screwed into the wall. Or you could simply place it on a shelf overlooking the front door. You need to make sure that the camera has a good view of the area you want to keep an eye on. Once you’ve chosen your spot, just set the phone up on it’s mount, keep it plugged in (you may need to buy an extra-long cable depending on where you choose to put it) and then fire up the app.

You should then be good to go. Now you can view your home camera from anywhere in the world, without having to purchase an expensive setup!

All in all, this is a very simple process and is a really cool option for using those old iPhones you may have lying around in a drawer somewhere. Whilst we’re on the topic of security, we think it’s really important to keep your devices safe and secure from spyware with Certo AntiSpy. Click here to learn more.