FAQs - ‎AiCam AI Smart Security Camera App

What can AiCam do?

AiCam is a mobile app. It turns your phone into a smart security camera. It detects human, animal and face (and more) based on AI event detection and sends push notifications to your phone. You can then watch video footage saved in device local storage or optionally in iCloud. It has integration with Apple Shortcuts app to start recording based on time or location. It can also send webhook request on event detected to any automation service like IFTTT or Zapier.

With a focus on privacy, the app does all the video processing work offline without Internet connection. It does not collect any data from users. Internet connection is only required if you want to receive notification, streaming over the Internet ( securely ) or save video to iCloud.

With this app, you have a mobile security camera that you could bring to remote sites or for short trips.

Why live video streaming works with Wi-Fi but not with 3G/4G/LTE

There could be various reasons why live video streaming works with Wi-Fi but not with 3G/4G/5G while using the AiCam app (which uses WebRTC for live video streaming). Some possible reasons are:

1. Network speed and stability: Wi-Fi usually offers higher network speeds and greater stability compared to cellular networks like 3G/4G, which can result in a better video connection. It's possible that the user's cellular data connection is not strong enough to support WebRTC video.

2. Firewall restrictions: Sometimes cellular network providers block certain ports or protocols used by WebRTC, which can hinder proper connectivity. On the other hand, Wi-Fi may not have such restrictions.

3. Quality of Service (QoS) settings: Cellular networks may have stricter QoS settings applied to data traffic compared to Wi-Fi, which can lead to delays and packet loss in video transmission. This can adversely affect the quality of the video stream.

4. Device compatibility: Another possibility is that the user's device might not be compatible with the specific combination of WebRTC implementation being used along with the cellular network provider's configuration.

To resolve this issue, you can try the following steps:

- Check if the cellular network signal strength is sufficient for video calling.
- Try using a different 3G/4G/LTE to see if that solves the problem.
- Ensure that there are no firewall/port restrictions from the cellular network service provider.
- Test video streaming with another device on the same cellular network to see if the issue persists.

Error: "Deny streaming request because of mismatched secret token" or "Deny streaming request from unknown device"

If you receive these errors displayed on the camera screen of the streaming device, that means another device is trying to view the camera livestream of this device but cannot because the access is denied. Each device has a unique password / secret token, which is random generated on-device and is used to authenticate the streaming request. Only registered devices listed in the Devices screen can view the camera livestream. All devices signed in with the same iCloud account will automatically be registered and listed in the Devices screen.

You may have a same device listed twice in the Devices screen. This can happen if you delete the AiCam app and reinstall it. Then the old duplicated entry (device) will not be able to view the streaming. Please go to Devices screen and delete the duplicated device.

You may want to compare the device ID (after the # icon in the Devices screen) on both the viewer and camera devices. A same physical device should have the same ID.

‍

See this FAQ to learn more how secure is livestreaming.

AiCam shows an error message "Unable to connect to device ..." or you cannot view the camera live feed

Check the setting:

First, make sure that:

You have the same setting for "Local Network Mode" on both streaming and viewing devices (AiCam app > Settings > Streaming). If you want to view the live feed over 4G/LTE or internet, ensure that you have "Local Network Mode" turned OFF.
Access to Local Network is allowed for AiCam (Settings app > Privacy > Local Network)

Then force quit the app on both devices and retry again.

‍

Check the network:

AiCam uses a direct peer-to-peer connection for video streaming to ensure data privacy. The limitation is that it may not work, whether your device is behind a firewall or connected to a limited network, like a corporate network. Some cellular network providers may limit P2P connection. In this case, please retry with another network provider. Please see this FAQ for more detail.

You can check your network connection by opening this URL on both streaming and viewing devices:

https://networktest.twilio.com/

Note: We do not use Twilio, but their network testing website is helpful to see if the current network connection is limited since we use the same WebRTC technology.

Sometimes just disconnecting then reconnecting your devices with the Wi-Fi or 3G/4G/LTE will resolve the issue.

How secure is the video livestream feature of AiCam?

AiCam is a video camera app that offers video streaming via WebRTC technology [1]. With this technology, the video stream is end-to-end encrypted on a peer-to-peer connection.
If both devices are on the same Wi-Fi network, the video stream is transmitted securely through the local network. The video stream is only transmitted through the internet if your devices are on different networks.

However, there are instances where users may prefer not to connect to the internet. Good news because we have Local Network Mode! This feature allows you to stream video via your local Wi-Fi network only. This feature is also helpful when both devices are connected to the same Wi-Fi network but have no internet connection.
‍

How to enable Local Network Mode ‍

Follow these steps to enable Local Network Mode:
- Step 1: Open AiCam
- Step 2: Go to Settings > Streaming
- Step 3: Enable Local Network Mode on both streaming and viewing devices

‍

What is WebRTC?

[1] WebRTC is a Google-developed technology used by many products such as Google Hangouts and Discord and many others to allow real-time video chat. Its direct peer-to-peer communication makes it possible to transmit encrypted streams from one device to the other. However, some limitations will interfere with its operation if the network connection of your device is limited or behind a firewall. You can test your connection as described here . When establishing this type of connection between two devices, they exchange negotiation messages, which tell them how to form a peer-to-peer connection. All negotiation messages are securely encrypted on-device, and only devices in the same iCloud account listed in "Devices" screen in AiCam app can decrypt them. You can learn more about WebRTC and how it works here .

Why my device is overheating?

If you receive a push notification or the camera display saying that the device is overheating. It means your device used a lot of power and get overheating. The AiCam app monitors actively the device temperature and precautionary pause running if the device get hot and resume running when it is cooler. If the device is stopped running because it is hot, it is still under the allowed temperature limit defined by Apple. If the device is hotter than the allowed temperature defined by Apple, the OS will show a black screen with a red thermometer and the device is not useable until it get cooler. It may be annoying that the app cannot monitor for events, but it will not impact the hardware as you can still open and use other apps.

The overheating problem may occur with older models like iPhone SE (1st gen) because they do not have much compute power required for running AI algorithms. You can do the following to avoid overheating on your device:

Avoid placing the device in a high-temperature area like under the sun or near a window.
Activate "Low Power Mode" in AiCam > Settings > Camera section
Choose lower camera resolution (720p is recommended)
Select fewer events for monitoring

‍

Frequently Asked Questions

Didn’t found answer to your question?