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Updated: 6 October 2026

What is RECAM?

RECAM is an app that turns an iPhone, iPad, Android phone or Mac you already own into a private security camera, baby monitor or pet camera, and another device into the viewer. RECAM is the app’s name, short for “Recycle Camera”; it isn’t a camera you buy and it isn’t a photo or video editor. It is made by FRENCHMOB SAS, a French company.

Common uses:

• Baby monitoring.
• Pet watching.
• Home, flat, pool, car park, garden surveillance.

RECAM also includes AI-powered features such as:

• Human and animal detection
• Baby face monitoring (an alert when the camera can no longer see your baby’s nose and mouth)
• Sound analysis (e.g. baby crying)

RECAM is not a medical or certified safety device and should be used as a supplementary tool only.

YOUR DATA STAYS HOME.

All clips stay on the camera device that recorded them. Never on external servers.

SMART AI, RIGHT ON YOUR SPARE PHONE.

The entire engine runs locally — no cloud processing, no compromise.

CLIPS.

Every important moment, saved on the camera device — on motion or sound detection, or when you tap REC. With Pro, tap from the live view and it streams those clips back to you, newest first, at real speed, over the same end-to-end encrypted stream. We never see them.

PRIVACY FIRST.

Live streams are end-to-end encrypted — direct between your devices when your network allows, with an encrypted blind relay fallback that can never read them.

Guide: Privacy first: why RECAM doesn’t need the cloud

VIDEO & AUDIO ALERTS THAT ACTUALLY MEAN SOMETHING.

Notified the moment it matters — a person at the door, a baby crying, glass breaking. Not every leaf. Not every shadow.

Guide: Smart notifications explained

SAY IT OUT LOUD, FROM WHEREVER YOU ARE.

Push to talk turns the live view into a voice line. Tap the mic, say a few words, and your voice plays out loud on the phone or the Mac you left at home — to comfort the dog, tell the kids dinner’s ready, or answer whoever just walked through the door. RECAM Pro, £4.99/month or £44.99/year.

• Plays out loud the moment it arrives — the camera phone’s screen can be off, as long as RECAM is running on it as the camera.
• End-to-end encrypted with your camera’s own key; only scrambled audio ever leaves the phone.
• Unheard messages gather on one button and play back oldest to newest — and the camera can talk back to everyone watching, too.

Guide: How push to talk works

THE SIREN RECAM FIRES, NOT THE ONE IT HEARS.

Elsewhere on this page, Siren is a sound RECAM listens for. This is the one RECAM makes: from the live view, one tap sets the camera device wailing — loud, through a phone’s silent mode, until you tap again or five minutes pass. Never automatic, always your tap. RECAM Pro, £4.99/month or £44.99/year.

Guide: How the remote siren works

SHARE ACCESS IN SECONDS.

No sign-up — just scan a QR code. Revoke anytime.

BABY FACE MONITORING

RECAM alerts you when the camera can no longer see your baby’s nose and mouth, and again when the face is clear. It can’t tell why: a turned head, a baby out of frame or too little light all look the same to it. The alert means one thing: go and look.

RECAM is not a medical or certified safety device. It complements but does not replace direct supervision.

Baby monitor: face and cry alerts, lullaby and white noise

Guide: Baby monitor app for iPhone and Android: why privacy matters

NO SIGN-UP — JUST SCAN A QR CODE.

Revoke anytime.

AI ALERTS.

Instantly detects more than 40 sounds and uses intelligent vision to spot people, animals, or scene changes. Stay effortlessly in control, wherever you are!

VISUAL PATTERNS

RECAM detects when the camera can no longer see your baby’s nose and mouth, and when the face is clear again.

The main visual patterns for baby monitoring are:

• Baby Face: Nose and Mouth Not Visible
• Baby Face Visible

The main visual patterns for home security are:

• Person
• Animal
• Scene Change

SOUND PATTERNS

RECAM can detect more than 40 sounds. You can customise everything and enable or disable each sound in the settings.

The main sound patterns for baby monitoring are:

• Baby Crying
• Crying Sobbing
• Screaming
• Baby Laughter
• Giggling
• Laughter
• Speech
• Chatter
• Whispering

The main sound patterns for home security are:

• Glass Breaking
• Door Slam
• Knock
• Fire Crackle
• Siren
• Smoke Detector
• Alarm Clock
• Gunshot Gunfire
• Fireworks
• Emergency Vehicle
• Police Siren
• Ambulance Siren
• Fire Engine Siren
• Shout
• Yell
• Person Walking
• Person Running
• Drill
• Hammer
• Saw
• Power Tool
• Drill
• Hedge Trimmer
• Chopping Wood
• Wood Cracking

The main sound patterns for smart home triggers are:

• Door Bell
• Telephone Bell Ringing
• Ringtone
• Water Tap Faucet
• Person Running
• Person Walking

The main sound patterns for pet watchers are:

• Dog Whimper
• Dog Bark
• Dog Growl
• Cat Meow
• Cat Purr

Guides: How AI sound detection works · Pet camera app: turn a spare phone into a pet cam

HOW TO USE RECAM?

1. Download the RECAM app on both devices — from the App Store (iPhone/iPad) or Google Play (Android). Any mix works: an Android camera with an iPhone viewer, or the other way round.
2. Open the app on the one you want to use as a camera and follow the instructions as STREAMER / CAST mode.
3. Open the app on the one you want to use as a monitor and follow the instructions as PLAYER / WATCH mode.
4. The player app could scan the QR code from the streamer app.
5. 👌 Enjoy the live video stream.

Setup the notifications you want from the camera one.

You can also use the app to monitor your home, office, or any other space.

You’ll notice: no sign-up, no email, no password. You can start using the app right away.

All shared access is revokable at any time, by the owner of the camera device.

The camera owner can revoke all shared access at any time by opening Settings and tapping Revoke All Shared Access.

You can also revoke access for a specific player by tapping on the player name in the settings.

Guides: Old iPhone as a security camera in 3 minutes · Old Android phone as a security camera

PRE-REQUISITES (TECHNICAL)

Camera device needs an internet connection — Wi-Fi or mobile data (Wi-Fi recommended for stability and battery)

No router setup required. RECAM works on any network: it connects your devices directly when possible, and when it can’t (mobile data, CGNAT, or a router without UPnP) an encrypted blind relay forwards your stream. Port forwarding and a public IP are optional — they only help RECAM favour a fully-direct path.

Apple devices must be on iOS 16.3 or higher (please check the system version of your devices and update them if needed). Apple list all compatible devices iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 here.

Macs must be on macOS 13 Ventura or later, Apple silicon or Intel. A Mac can be the camera (built-in camera, USB webcam, or your iPhone through Continuity Camera on macOS 14 or later) or the viewer, one role at a time. As the camera, a MacBook keeps its lid open: a sleeping Mac films nothing. Both jobs in detail: RECAM for Mac.

Android devices must be on Android 7.0 or higher. You can mix platforms freely — an iPhone camera with an Android viewer, or the other way round.

Guide: Technical prerequisites and setup: network, router, iOS and Android

OPTIONAL: OPTIMISE FOR A DIRECT CONNECTION

Remote viewing works out of the box — these steps are optional. They only help RECAM favour a fully-direct path for the lowest latency. Skip them and the encrypted blind relay handles remote viewing automatically.

Once configured, RECAM will prefer a direct route between your streamer device and the first player when the network allows it.

1. Access the web configuration interface of your Internet box or router.
2. 👉 Optional: enable UPnP IGD port mapping on your router or Internet gateway.
3. 👉 Optional: request a fixed (static) IP address from your internet service provider (ISP), assigned specifically to your router.

DATA STORAGE

• All live video in RECAM is end-to-end encrypted the whole way — direct peer-to-peer when your network allows, with an encrypted blind relay fallback that can never read your stream. No live video is ever stored on a server.
• Video clips are only created when an event is detected (e.g., motion, AI-based trigger) and are always stored locally on the camera device.
• With RECAM Pro, you can replay those clips from a paired phone — the camera streams them back over the same end-to-end encrypted channel as the live view. They never leave the camera device otherwise, and we never see them.
• RECAM servers do not access, view, or store any private content such as video, audio, or user recordings.
• The only data stored by RECAM servers is limited to operational metadata necessary to enable core app functions (e.g., device association, user labels).

NO HARDWARE, NO SIGN-UP, NO CLOUD COPY.

RECAM is a free download, and there is nothing else to buy: the phones, iPads and Macs you already own do the job. With or without Pro, you keep:

• As many cameras as you own, each paired with one QR scan — no email, no password
• On-device detection that keeps running on the camera device
• Clips saved on the camera device itself — up to a set limit, oldest deleted first
• End-to-end encryption, with no copy of your video in anyone’s cloud
• A notification whenever something is detected — with Pro, it tells you what

LIVE VIEW AND ALERTS THAT SAY WHAT HAPPENED: THAT’S RECAM PRO.

Free to start, two ways. With no plan at all, live video and AI detection alerts are free for your first 3 days, with no payment details. Or, as a new subscriber, start the yearly plan’s free trial: every Pro feature for 3 days, including the remote siren, push to talk and clip replay, then £44.99/year unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the trial ends. Prefer monthly? £4.99/month, no trial, cancel anytime. Same privacy, more power.

The 3 days with no plan count from when your RECAM profile is created. After that, live video and alerts both need Pro: without it, the viewer shows no live video, and a detection notification says that something was detected, not what. Those 3 days don’t cover the rest of Pro: the siren, push to talk, clip replay and extra viewers need Pro from day one. No card friction inside the app — just the App Store or Google Play flow you already know.

What Pro unlocks:

• Live video from anywhere — open any of your cameras and watch, end-to-end encrypted.
• Alerts that say what happened — a person, an animal, a baby crying, glass breaking — not just that something was detected.
• Share your camera with the people you trust — more than one viewer per camera: your partner, your team, your family.
• Clip replay from anywhere. Tap from the live view and the camera device streams its saved clips back — newest first, at real speed, over the same end-to-end encrypted stream. We never see them.
• A siren you can fire from anywhere — one tap in the live view and the camera device wails, straight through a phone’s silent mode, for up to five minutes per trigger.
• Push to talk to the room — record up to 30 seconds in the live view and your voice plays out loud on the camera phone, even with its screen off; the camera can talk back to everyone watching, too.

Pro comes from the camera owner’s account (Apple ID or Google account): the owner’s one subscription covers every camera they own, and everyone who watches those cameras gets their live video and alerts. The remote siren, push to talk and clip replay need Pro on the viewer’s own account; on iPhone, iPad and Mac, a Pro subscription can be shared with up to five family members through Family Sharing. A viewer’s own subscription doesn’t unlock live video on someone else’s camera.

FAQ