ButterflyMX

Review by eFreeware

If you live in an apartment building or gated community where the front door, garage or elevator is wired for app-based entry, ButterflyMX is the sort of app you end up opening several times a day. It is free, it carries no ads and no in-app purchases, and it has been on Google Play since September 2013. With more than 500,000 installs and a 4.8 average across 18,012 ratings, it clearly has a settled audience among people whose buildings already run on this system.

The pitch is simple: the app turns your phone, or a Wear OS watch, into the thing that opens the door. Instead of a key fob, a buzzer code or a landline handset in the hallway, you tap once and the entry point responds. For anyone who has juggled groceries while hunting for a fob, or missed a courier because they were not home, that is the appeal.

One tap for doors, gates, garages and elevators

The core of the app is remote entry. The developer says you can open any connected entry point on your property from your smartphone or smartwatch, and names doors, gates, elevators and garages as the kinds of hardware involved. A building with several of these gets them gathered in one place rather than split across a fob, a wall panel and a phone call to the front desk.

What I like about the framing is that access is not tied to being on site. The same tap that opens the lobby door should also work when you are still parking, or when you are nowhere near the building at all. That is the difference between this and a fob, and it is the reason the app is useful for more than just getting yourself inside.

The smartwatch support is a smaller point but a real one. A Wear OS watch on your wrist means you do not have to pull out a phone with your hands full, which is exactly the moment when a physical key becomes awkward. The developer lists the watch alongside the phone as a supported way in, so it reads as a genuine second option rather than an afterthought.

Visitor Passes, Delivery Passes and video calls

The second half of the app is about other people getting in. Friends, family and trusted service workers can be issued Visitor Passes that still work when you are away from home. That covers the plumber who arrives while you are at the office, the relative visiting for the weekend, or a cleaner with a regular slot. You send the pass, they use it, and you are not the bottleneck standing between them and the front door.

Delivery Passes do something similar for packages, with notifications when a delivery arrives so you can grant access from wherever you happen to be. If you have ever watched a tracking page say "attempted delivery" while you were twenty minutes away, the value here is obvious. The app is not trying to replace the mailroom; it is trying to remove the failed-delivery slip from your week.

The third piece is the one that matters most for peace of mind. The app supports video calls, so you can see and speak with a visitor before letting them in. Rather than buzzing someone through blind because the intercom is a crackly speaker in the kitchen, you get a look at who is at the entrance and a conversation before you decide. The decision stays with you, but you make it with more information.

What the app needs from your building

This is not an app you can install and use anywhere. ButterflyMX is the resident-facing half of a building access system, so it only does anything where the property already has compatible entry hardware installed and connected. If your building has not adopted it, the app has nothing to open. That is the single biggest thing to check before you bother: ask your property manager whether the building runs on this system, because the answer decides whether the app is useful to you at all.

The good news on cost is that the app itself is free, with no ads and no in-app purchases. The developer does not present the app as a paid tier of anything. If your building is equipped, the software side of access costs you nothing beyond the phone or watch you already own.

You will also want a phone or a Wear OS watch, since the whole point is reaching the building's entry points remotely. The app is rated for Everyone and sits in the Productivity category, which tells you how the developer thinks about it: a utility, not a social or smart-home hub. It is also worth noting that the most recent update is described only as bug fixes and improvements, so this is a mature app being kept in working order rather than one being reshaped with each release.

Getting the most out of it day to day

The habits that make this app pay off are mostly about setting things up before you need them. If you have regular visitors, such as a dog walker, a cleaner or a caregiver, issuing a Visitor Pass ahead of time means their arrival does not depend on you being reachable. The same logic applies to anyone who visits often enough that you would otherwise be sending a pass every week.

For deliveries, the notification is the part worth paying attention to. It is a small thing, but it is the kind of small thing that repeats every week.

Video calls reward a little patience as well. Answering and actually looking at the screen, rather than approving on reflex, is the whole reason the feature exists. Residents who treat the call as a formality get less from it than those who use it as the moment of decision. None of this requires learning a complicated system; the app is built around single actions, and the discipline is in using them deliberately.

A straightforward win for residents in equipped buildings

ButterflyMX does one job and does it in a way that removes friction from a routine you repeat constantly. Opening a door from your phone sounds trivial until you compare it with a fob you have to dig out, a buzzer you have to reach, or a delivery you have to be home for. The visitor and delivery passes and the video call before entry extend that convenience to the people and packages arriving at your building.

The catch is entirely about the building, not the app. If your property runs on ButterflyMX hardware, this is an easy recommendation: it is free, it is ad-free, and it has a long track record with a large and highly rated user base. If your building does not, there is nothing here for you to install it for, and no amount of reading reviews will change that. Check with your property manager first, then install it and set up your passes before the first delivery shows up.

What's new in version 1.67.0

ButterflyMX is always working to make our app better for you. This version contains bug fixes and improvements.