Blue Iris

Review by eFreeware

Blue Iris is an Android client from Perspective Software, built to pair with the Blue Iris Windows software. It is not a camera app on its own. The app only works as a remote window into a system where Blue Iris 5.x is already set up and running on a Windows PC.

That single detail shapes everything else. If you already run Blue Iris at home, this is the piece that puts your camera network in your pocket without opening each camera to the internet. If you do not, there is nothing here to install it for. The app is free, carries no ads and offers no in-app purchases.

The reason to consider it is straightforward: one connection to your whole setup rather than a pile of separate camera links.

Who this client is built for

This app is for the household or small site already running Blue Iris on a Windows machine. You have cameras feeding that PC, you have configured the software, and now you want to check in from a phone without sitting at the desk. The app manages multiple Blue Iris installations, which suggests it also fits someone looking after more than one location, such as a home and a separate property.

It is also for people who care about how the connection is made. Sessions are secure, and passwords are not sent in plain text. Rather than exposing individual cameras to the internet, you keep one point of contact and let the app talk to the PC.

It is not a general-purpose viewer for any camera you happen to own. The cameras, recording and control all live in the Windows software, and the app reaches into that. Anyone without a Blue Iris PC installation has no use for it, and that is worth understanding before you install.

Live viewing, alerts and camera control

The core of the app is live viewing. It streams H.264 video from the PC, and you move between cameras by tapping and swiping. The developer calls the streaming fast, which is the sort of claim only your own network can confirm, but the format is a sensible choice for keeping bandwidth manageable across several feeds.

Alerts are the other half of the daily experience. Push notifications arrive on Android when a camera is triggered, along with critical status messages. That means you do not have to keep the app open to know something happened; the phone tells you.

Control goes further than watching. For any camera that is also controllable at the Blue Iris PC, the app lets you operate PTZ movement and infrared, and on compatible devices it can trigger DIO output signals remotely. Two-way audio is supported too, so you can listen to and speak through cameras that the PC software already supports. The pattern is consistent: whatever the PC can do with a given camera, the app mirrors.

Recordings, playback and housekeeping

Recordings stay on the Blue Iris PC, and the app is a way to review them rather than a place they are stored. You can scrub through footage at up to 64x speed, which is the kind of range that makes a long overnight stretch manageable when you are looking for one event. Playback is drawn from the PC, so what you see depends on what that machine has recorded.

The app also lets you delete recordings selectively from the PC. That is a small feature with real consequences: you can clear out footage you no longer need without walking over to the machine. It is worth treating that control with the same care you would at the desktop.

Alongside the cameras themselves, the app handles some of the software's operational side. You can control the traffic signal icon, the schedule and profile selection, which is how Blue Iris users switch between sets of rules for different times or situations. Having those toggles on the phone saves a trip to the PC when your plans change.

What it costs and what it asks of you

The app is free to download. There are no ads in it and no in-app purchases, so nothing inside the app is gated behind a payment or interrupted by advertising. The developer has kept the client clean on that front, which is unusual and welcome for a companion app of this type.

That is a configuration step, not a one-tap pairing, and it assumes some willingness to work through network settings.

The app has been available since April 2013 and has passed 100,000 installs, yet its average sits at 2.4 from 2,789 ratings. That combination, a long-lived client with a modest score, fits a tool whose usefulness depends entirely on the setup behind it. The most recent update, in September 2024, addressed background audio.

Alternatives worth weighing

If you are not already committed to Blue Iris on a PC, the alternatives are different in kind rather than just in name. A camera maker's own app usually pairs with that brand's hardware. This app concentrates on serving people who already run Blue Iris. Neither requires a Windows machine running in the background.

A self-hosted setup of the Blue Iris kind trades that convenience for control. The app connects to one system instead of many, and the feature set, from PTZ to two-way audio to DIO signals, follows what the PC software supports. The trade is a PC that must be running and a network configuration you have to get right.

So the honest comparison is not this app against another Android app. It is this app against changing how your cameras are managed altogether. For anyone staying with Blue Iris, the client is the natural extension of it.

A companion worth having if you already run Blue Iris

Blue Iris does one job and does it without charging you: it turns a phone into a remote control and monitor for a Blue Iris PC installation. Live H.264 streams, push alerts, PTZ and IR control, two-way audio, 64x playback and selective deletion cover the tasks most people actually want from a phone. The absence of ads and purchases keeps it out of the way.

The conditions are firm. You need Blue Iris 5.x on a Windows PC, and you need to work through the connection instructions in the software's Help file. The 2.4 average from 2,789 ratings suggests plenty of users have found that path less than smooth, and the app's usefulness rises and falls with the health of the PC setup behind it.

If you already run Blue Iris, this is the sensible way to carry it with you, and there is no reason not to install it. If you do not, the app has nothing to connect to, and your decision lies with the camera system itself rather than with this client.

What's new in version 3.0.46

Background audio fix