tinyCam Monitor PRO for IP Cam

Review by eFreeware

Most camera apps tie you to one brand. tinyCam Monitor PRO takes the opposite approach: it is a single Android viewer built to pull together IP cameras, video encoders and DVRs from many manufacturers, and it has been doing that since December 2010. The developer puts the app's reach at more than 10 million downloads across its versions, while the paid PRO listing shows over 500,000 installs and a 3.9 average from 36,602 ratings.

That breadth is the reason to consider it. If your cameras come from different makers, or you have an older DVR that no current app wants to talk to, one place to watch and record all of them has obvious appeal. It is a paid app at $3.99, with no ads and no in-app purchases, so the cost is settled up front.

I would frame it as a tool for people who are comfortable with the vocabulary of network cameras: IP addresses, ONVIF, RTSP, ports. The developer lists support for ONVIF Profile S across more than 12,000 camera models, alongside MJPEG, H264, H265 and RTSP streams, and names brands such as Foscam and Amcrest as examples. That is a technical audience, and the app is priced and shaped for it.

One dashboard for a mixed set of cameras

The core job here is watching several feeds at once without hopping between apps. The developer offers 19 different layouts and no stated cap on the number of cameras, so a wall of feeds can be arranged to taste. Cameras can be sorted into groups using tags, and a sequence mode cycles through them automatically when you would rather not watch everything simultaneously.

Control goes beyond viewing. Pan, tilt and zoom work on cameras that support it, and there is relay and LED control for hardware that exposes those functions. For cameras with speakers and microphones, two-way audio lets you listen and talk back, and audio from several cameras can be monitored at the same time, with squelch and alarm processing that the developer pitches for using a camera as a baby monitor. A melody can be sent through a camera's speaker.

Streams can be secured with SSL, which matters if you are checking on a property over a network you do not control. A LAN scanner is included to find cameras on the local network automatically, and port forwarding can be handled through UPnP. The practical benefit of all this is that a mixed collection of hardware behaves like one system rather than six separate ones.

Recording, alerts and the do-it-yourself DVR

Recording is where the app does its heaviest lifting. It can capture MP4 video continuously to a local SD card, to cloud storage services including Dropbox, Google Drive, ownCloud, Nextcloud and Telegram, or to an FTP/FTPS server. Background recording with automatic deletion of old files is described as a way to build your own DVR, which is the sort of arrangement that appeals to someone who wants a rolling archive without buying a dedicated recorder.

Motion handling is similarly flexible. Detection can run inside the app or on the camera itself, and a trigger can start a recording or send an email. Webhooks on motion open the door to home automation, and the app also offers object detection for people, pets and vehicles, plus face detection. Time-lapse recording is available for scenes where a slow summary is more useful than a full archive, and a built-in video player handles archive playback at faster or slower speeds.

A built-in server lets you reach recordings and live feeds from elsewhere, which suits dashboard tools. The tinyCam Cloud service is supported for continuous recording with seven days of history. Between local cards, cloud drives and FTP, the app gives you choices about where footage lives, though each of those routes depends on services and hardware you supply yourself.

Turning the phone itself into a camera

One feature that stands apart from the surveillance side is the ability to use the Android device's own front or rear camera as an IP camera or a dashcam. That means an old phone can become an extra pair of eyes on a room, a workshop or a driveway, feeding into the same app that watches your other cameras.

Output options are broad. The app can cast to Wear OS, work with Google Cast devices such as Chromecast for video, and stream over RTMP for video. Telegram is supported, and there is a Tasker plugin for automation, so camera events can be folded into routines you already run. Home screen widgets, floating windows and a TV interface with picture-in-picture give several ways to keep a feed visible while you do something else.

Recent changes cover picture-in-picture, sharper resolution for the Wyze Pan v4, and H.265 in the proprietary Foscam protocol. That pattern suggests ongoing attention to specific hardware rather than a single broad change.

What it takes to get running

This is not a plug-and-play app. Cameras have to be added and configured, and the app leans on protocols and standards rather than a guided setup. The LAN scanner can find cameras on your network automatically, and UPnP can handle port forwarding, which removes some of the manual work. Beyond that, setup involves more than tapping a button.

A support page lists which cameras and features are covered. That page is the sensible first stop if you own an unusual model, because compatibility here is model by model rather than universal. ONVIF Profile S is the broadest safety net, with more than 12,000 cameras covered, while P2P support is narrower and applies to specific families such as HiChip/CamHi and TUTK/Kalay.

Licensing is friendlier than the setup. One purchase covers installation on multiple devices as long as they use the same account, so a phone and a tablet can both run the app without paying twice.

The audience this fits

The clearest fit is someone running several cameras of different makes who wants a single Android view of all of them. A small business watching a shop floor, a yard and a back office, or a homeowner with a Wyze camera at the front door, an older DVR in a closet and a spare phone pointed at a garage, are the kinds of setups this app is built to hold together. The recording destinations and automation hooks suit people who like to decide where footage goes.

It also suits tinkerers. The Tasker plugin, webhooks, RTMP streaming, the internal web server and the ability to cast to a watch or a TV all point to an app meant to be wired into a larger setup rather than used in isolation. If you enjoy that kind of configuration, the range of options is the attraction.

The 3.9 average from tens of thousands of ratings is worth reading as a signal about that. An app this configurable tends to divide people: those whose hardware works as expected get a great deal for $3.99, and those whose specific model misbehaves have more to complain about. Checking the supported camera list against your own hardware before buying is the sensible move.

A capable hub for a mixed camera setup

tinyCam Monitor PRO earns its $3.99 by covering ground that brand-specific apps do not. It watches a wide range of cameras, records to local storage, cloud drives or FTP, reacts to motion with recordings, emails and webhooks, and can turn the phone in your hand into another camera. One license covers multiple devices on the same account.

The trade-off is that it asks something of you. If you want a viewer that finds your camera and just works, this may not be the one. If you have a drawer of mismatched cameras and want them on one screen with recording you control, it is a strong candidate, and the support list is where to confirm your models first.

What's new

- Fixed Picture-In-Picture. - Improved resolution for Wyze Pan v4. - Added support for H.265 codec in Proprietary protocol for Foscam cameras.