KNOW YOUR SECURITY CAMERA APPS

Your chosen hardware will also come with a mobile app that you’ll need to install

What can easily get lost when it comes to choosing a security camera is that it’s also going to have a companion app for your smartphone. While the quality of the app might not be vitally important, it’s still worth thinking about – and you can usually check these apps out in advance on app stores.

It’s in the app that you’ll be able to configure features like the sensitivity of the motion alerts, and whether or not you want to set up particular ‘zones’ in the camera’s field of view where motion is ignored (this can save you from getting alerts every two minutes). Some apps will let you enable motion alerts when you leave your home, and disable them again when you come back, using location data sent from your phone.

Once you’ve got your new camera safely home and set up, it’s worth spending some time digging into the options that your app has. You’ll be able to check the live feed coming from your camera, and test out features like the two-way audio and the night vision, if they’re included (it’s a good idea to do this before going on holiday or heading to bed for the night). If your camera is capable of telling the difference between actual people moving and other types of motion, this setting will be in the app too.

You should also be able to get to an overview of motion alert events from the app on your phone, though how big the archive is will depend on the camera and possibly which subscription service you’ve signed up for. If there were several incidents while you were on holiday, for example, you’ll be able to tap through to see them in turn.

In the Ring app, for instance, you can tap Motion Settings from the opening screen and then Motion Sensitivity: if you’re getting too many motion alerts (from waving trees and the like), then move the slider to the left. Back on the front screen, you can select Event History to check back on previous alerts and see exactly what happened. Apps for other security cameras will be laid out in similar ways.

If you get a camera that works with a larger smart home system – Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple HomeKit – then you’ll also be able to use that app on your phone to control your camera as well. You might not get exactly the same set of options, but you should be able to manage the basics, and better integrate the device with the rest of your smart home.