Description: AtHome Video Streamer is one part of two halves, the Athome Camera app and the Video Streamer app. The AtHome Camera app allows you to set up your account and to add cameras to your profile. These ‘cameras’ are really any Android or iOS device that have you have lying around the house and you can use these instead of having to purchase another IP camera or something similar. The idea is that you can simply repurprose an already existing piece of hardware, a smartphone that you just upgraded, for instance. You need both of these apps, but they’re simple and easy to set up, with the idea being that you can use these services to monitor your children when in bed or create a makeshift security camera with motion detection and the ability to record footage. Let’s take a closer look, shall we?
How it Works: You’ll need to download two apps, the AtHome Camera app and the AtHome Video Streamer. You need to set up an account with the AtHome Camera app before you can really use this to keep an eye on parts of your home.
Once you’ve set up an account, which is really nice and quick, you’ll be given a look at what the app and service has to offer.
You’ll need to download the AtHome Video Streamer, on another device of course, in order to capture video to be viewed on other devices.
I scanned a QR code to add the G Pad to my camera list, and once I had, I could see that it was connected online.
So now that I have my G Pad in the camera list, I can view what’s being sent from the AtHome Video Streamer app currently running on my G Pad.
There’s even two-way talk supported by AtHome and you can switch between the front and rear cameras on the device that’s streaming video. I was surprised by how detailed the video was while streaming over the web. This is what makes AtHome such a good choice for keeping an eye on your sleeping children or even a makeshift security camera, especially when you consider that you can schedule recording for two different times of day. You can use AtHome on much more than just Android though, including dedicated cameras on a Windows PC or Smart TV, too.
Opinion: AtHome Camera and AtHome Streamer are excellent uses of existing hardware, especially for repurposing old iPhones or old Android devices that you’ve upgraded to over the years. It’s altogether an excellent experience that can really help you keep an eye on what’s important to you. You can use AtHome Video Streamer to take a look at what a camera, or smartphone, you set up earlier is looking at, which makes it easy to keep an eye on your home maybe while you’re away or while you’re just looking for a quick way to monitor the kids without needing to go out and spend a lot of money on an expensive internet camera system. By using existing hardware, everything is more versatile than it’d normally be and you’ll also save a decent amount of money, too. If you’re looking to set up something more substantial using a Windows PC, you can even use as many as 4 different cameras connected by USB.
Ratings
- Speed (4/5) – AtHome works really quickly and the quality is pretty decent, too.
- Features (5/5) – What’s so good about AtHome is that it just works and you can use smartphones and tablets that you already have in order to keep an eye on your kids, your pets or even use an old phone as a discrete security camera. You can even be notified by push notifications (or email) when there’s motion detected.
- Theme (4/5) – AtHome looks good, and the UI is really easy to use, I would have liked for things to be a little better explained to users, but once you figure out what’s what, it’s plain sailing from there.
- Overall (4.5/5) – A good application and service that works nice and simply, there’s no need for extra hardware, it’s not expensive and thanks to motion detection it can be used as a security camera or a baby monitor or whatever you need a remote camera for.
Pros
- Works without the need for additional hardware, or pricey service charges.
- It’s really easy to connect a new camera to your AtHome account.
- Motion detection and automatic alerts as well as video recording make it a nice alternative to IP security cameras as well as baby monitors.
- Works well on Android, iOS as well as on Windows with a browser version coming soon.
Cons
- Two apps could be confusing for some users.
- Interactive tutorial would be a nice feature for a lot of users.
Conclusion: AtHome is a great app and service and while having two apps needed to make it work is a little confusing, it’s still perfectly usable and it makes great use of existing hardware. For those times when you need a baby monitor at last moment or to keep an eye on your house when you’re away for the weekend AtHome works great with motion detection and video recording. It works well, isn’t expensive and doesn’t need any new hardware or anything like that. One of the best options out there, AtHome works well and is definitely worth taking a look at if you need a camera system at short notice or just for every now and then.