You might be upgrading to the new iPhone 15, Google Pixel 8 or Galaxy S24, but chances are, your old phone is far from useless. You can always recycle or sell it, or give it to a family member who doesn’t need the latest and greatest. You can also set it up as a free baby cam or use it to keep an eye on your back porch.
One of the coolest ways to repurpose an old phone is to convert it into a home security camera. It’s an excellent cost-effective trick to keeping an eye on your home when you’re not there. It’s also a free (or very cheap, if you need to buy a phone stand) way to keep an eye on elder relatives, anxious pets or parts of your business that you can’t always watch over directly.
Making this phone-to-home-cam conversion isn’t difficult at all. In fact, you can start using that time-worn phone to keep your home safe in just three steps. For more home tips, check out why your internet router is probably in the wrong spot and six places to put home security cameras on your property.
Step 1: Install a security camera app on your old smartphone
To begin, you will need to choose a security camera app. Most apps offer many of the same features, such as local streaming, cloud streaming, recording and storing footage locally or remotely, and motion detection and alerts. Once you’re set up, you will be able to monitor your living space and control your security camera from anywhere, straight from your new phone.
One of the best app options for setting up your phone as a security camera is Alfred. It’s cross-platform, so it doesn’t matter if your old phone was an Android phone or iPhone. And the same goes for your new phone.
Alfred is free to use and gives you a remote view of your live feed, motion detection with alerts, free cloud storage, a two-way audio feed and use of both the front and rear cameras. To unlock additional features, like higher-resolution viewing and recording, zoom capabilities, ad removal and 30-day cloud storage, you can upgrade to Alfred Premium.
1. Download Alfred (Android, iOS) on both your old and new phones. You don’t have to use a phone as a monitoring tool — you can also download Alfred to your tablet or PC if you prefer to keep watch from there. Just make sure the app is on both devices.
2. On the new phone, swipe through the introduction and tap Start. Select Viewer and tap Next.
3. Once you get to the sign-in page, click Sign in with Google (a Google account is required) and sign in with your Google account credentials.
4. On the old phone, repeat the same steps, but instead of selecting Viewer, select Camera. And make sure to sign in to the same Google account.
