Home Security Camera WardenCam – reuse old phones - Interview with the developer of a fantastic app

Did you have any prior development or coding experience?

I am a professional software developer. WardenCam is my first mobile app launched on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store.

What was the most challenging aspect of developing mobile app?

WardenCam turns your spare Android or iOS devices into a home security camera. In other words, we have to provide home security camera solution on any hardware specs regardless of camera quality, CPU frequency, and so on. We have made the app smart enough to adapt to different runtime environments such as adjusting the motion detection algorithm to the physical camera hardware. In addition, we also provide many configurable options such as image resolution, image quality, image brightness and so on to suit user’s different needs.

Hongbin Li is a graduate of Stanford. He started mobile app development in 2012 and released WardenCam that 7+ million downloads on Google Play and App Store. This app is helping hundreds of thousands of families to have a full feature home security camera at 0 costs.

Name a few of your favorite apps and reason you love them.

TikTok. It provides content producers with a platform to be creative by making it really easy to produce short videos and comedy. For consumers, it becomes super fun to use the app that is smart enough to keep pushing interesting video based on watch history.

How long have you been working on this app?

WardenCam development started in 2013. I have been working on this app since then.

What need of the user did you have in mind when developing this app?

Cost efficiency
There are many home security solutions in the market such as NestCam, Ring, Ario. Not only do these solutions incur substantial hardware, but also a monthly subscription charge for basic cloud services.
Based on the average 2.5-years U.S. smartphone update cycle, there are hundreds of millions used devices collecting dust in a drawer. A major motivation to create WardenCam is for users to reuse their old devices and turning them to a full-featured home security camera with a few clicks. In addition, WardenCam does not charge a monthly subscription. It allows users to use their own cloud storage such as Google Drive (15 GB free) or Dropbox (Up to 18 GB free).

Privacy
WardenCam is developed with the concept that it shall possess no user data. The video data channel is encrypted and streamed directly between the camera and the viewer device in a peer-to-peer connection.
When a motion detection event triggers, a motion event recording is generated and uploaded to cloud storage. Different from many other home security services that host the cloud storage and store the recordings on their own servers. WardenCam does not possess any user-generated data. The recordings go directly to the user’s own private cloud space.

Piece of mind
In 2013, WardenCam was the first home security camera app that offers 24/7 surveillance and motion detection (since then this feature has been copied by similar apps). For users to enjoy peace of mind without keeping a constant eye on things, WardenCam provides an automated motion detection schedule. Once a motion is detected, it starts siren alarm to scare the intruder away and sends a push notification immediately when an intruder is detected, the kids arrive home from school, or your elderly relatives are moving about their day. WardenCam also offers in-app playback of the motion event recording from cloud.

In what way do you think your app is better than similar apps on the market? Please describe in detail what innovation you think you bring and what you are proud of in your app.

Because of our architecture and design, WardenCam, as a solution, requires minimum maintenance cost. With the WardenCam app, I am bringing a free home security camera solution to everyone. The app is free to download (with ads). Even the free version comes with full home security features. If users prefer, they can purchase the one time upgrade to remove the ads. The one-time upgrade fee is just a nominal $5.99 USD. Other similar apps not only charges a fee to remove the ads but also a monthly subscription for features such as HD recording and cloud storage.

What are your future plans and expected features of the coming new versions of this app?

We will keep adding more features to WardenCam. In addition to the Android and iOS apps, we also have a web viewer that allows remote monitoring from modern internet browsers such as Firefox and Chrome. The current web viewer is in beta testing. Soon we will create a full version with the ability to remotely turn on/off motion detection and playback of the motion event recordings.

Assuming new users of your app are reading this page. What do you want to ask them to do (contact you about X, Share the app, etc.)?

Most of our users (>95%) are Android users. If you happen to have a spare iPhone to be used as a home security camera or like to use your iPhone as a monitor, please make sure to check out WardenCam iOS app. We have recently repolished the iOS app and made it more reliable with a material UI look. I am sure you will like it!

Home Security Camera WardenCam – reuse old phones

About App:

If you happen to have an old smartphone or tablet collecting dust somewhere, now you have a better option. WardenCam turns your spare smartphones and tablets into home security cameras that you can watch while you’re away. It helps you find out if your package arrived, monitor your baby, if the kids are home from school, or find out what your dog and cat are up to.

WardenCam will take any Android phone or tablet running Gingerbread version 2.3 or greater and put its Internet connectivity and advanced video and audio sensors to good use. Install WardenCam on two phones. One is your Camera at your designated location and take the other one with you as a Viewer. Log in with the same Google account, and that’s it! You are now connected to your loved ones. With WardenCam's motion detection feature and Google Drive and Dropbox integration, you can enjoy peace of mind without keeping a constant eye on things.

FEATURES
- Works anywhere with WiFi, 3G, 4G, and LTE
- Motion detection & alerts (push notification and email)
- Free cloud storage (directly to your Google Drive or Dropbox)
- Review events, to see what you missed
- Setup multiple cameras all in one system
- Live streaming- All day and night
- Talk and listen from the viewer console to any of the cameras

VIDEO MONITORING 24/7: Install WardenCam on your spare devices and pocket phone. Sign in with any Gmail account as "camera" & "viewer". Place the spare device anywhere of interest at home, in the kitchen, the garage, your office. Monitor live on the pocket phone anywhere with the internet.

MOTION DETECTION: Enjoy peace of mind without keeping a constant eye on things. WardenCam provides an automated motion detection schedule. Once a motion is detected, it starts a siren alarm to scare the intruder away. Link your Google Drive and Dropbox on both the camera and viewer so that WardenCam can also upload the motion video to your cloud storage. You may even enable 24/7 recording to the cloud. Simple and secure!

RECEIVE ALERT: Receive a push notification immediately when an intruder is detected, the kids arrive home from school, or your elderly relatives are moving about their day. Play back event recordings from cloud storage.

TWO-WAY AUDIO: Talk while watching the live streaming. Send voice to the camera device. Prevent a negative action before it ever happens.

How to test:
Sign in with a google account that is already on your phone. Try with your own network first. If there is still logging issues, please contact us at [email protected]

Upgrade:
If you like to use the app for 24/7 video monitoring, please upgrade to the premium version with one single payment of USD $5.99. No monthly fee. Visit our website wardencam360.com for more details.

Follow us on Facebook to get more user tips from the developer! https://www.facebook.com/WardenCam360

Categories: House & Home

Date: January 16, 2020

Developer: Hongbin Li

About developer: Hongbin Li is a graduate of Stanford. He started mobile app development in 2 ... Read more

Website: http://www.wardencam360.com/

Download

App URL in iTunes
App URL in Google Play

RELATED APPS

OurFlat Household & Chores

OurFlat Household & Chores

December 18, 2022

NO SIGN-UP REQUIRED & SETUP IN SECONDS!

With this new shared living app, you c ...

Decorate your house or apartment and furnish it with the best floor plan creator and homestyl ...

Barfastic is an Android application created to help people feed their pets following the BARF ...

Poster Maker Want to create, carnival poster,festa junina posters, promotional posters, adverti ...

About

Every day we publish one great app and help 750,000 users discover new apps to add to their mobile device. Click here to add your app and let users discover it for free.

Social Links