HomeCam for HomeKit +4

Just as the title says, HomeCam completes the HomeKit camera experience with the quality and completeness that the Apple experience usually provides.

I would rate this five stars except that I believe there’s been a bug in the Apple TV app for some time — audio simply doesn’t work, even when you select an individual camera. It seems to have broken with an update several months ago, but I haven’t been able to pinpoint exactly when. I do recall that it did work at one time on ATV, and the other platform versions of this app continue to work fine.

I could not find an email address or contact form to directly reach out to the developer to inquire about this audio issue. Outside of that, this is a five-star app.

Thanks for the review. The iOS app has a support link in the settings that will reach out to me.

Apple TV does not support audio streaming, this is a limitation by Apple. Only iOS and watchOS can stream audio. I have a ticket open with Apple regarding htis limitation but there has been no movement on this recently.

Unfortunately Homecam no longer functions as it should (since ~February). The app persistently deselects or randomly reselects cameras in the Manage Cameras section. This is persistent on iPad (7th Gen), iPhone (13), and Apple TV (2 4K, 1 HD) over both iOS 16 and 17. The developer appears to be responsive on Reddit and email but hasn’t tried to troubleshoot a solution. I don’t like paying for multiple apps from a developer only to be ghosted on solutions. I’ve logged out, deleted, and redownloaded on all affected devices and I’m not really sure what else to try. I will happily update if there is ever a solution to this issue because I think small developers deserve revenue, I’m just disappointed in this case. (Edit: I contacted the developer June 30 and again on July 17th via email. I was not asked for any follow up information. This has been within the last six months)

(Edit: I’m beginning to feel gaslit here. I asked for support and reported a bug on June 30th at 4:20pm and attached a mov file and developer responded with “ Hi Pete,

Thanks for reaching out. I’ll take a look into that issue! I haven’t seen it myself before so I’ll see what I can do to reproduce it.” And then again on July 17 at 6pm to which developer responded with “Thanks for that update. I’m still investigating into this bug.”)

Hi Pete,

Thanks for sharing the example email messages, I've now been able to find them. I wasn't able to previously as your Apple review name does not match your email sender name.

Looking at this issue and my notes around, I was never able to reproduce it myself locally and assumed it had resolved itself since as you never got back in contact with me since the last email in July. I've reached out on the original email thread to continue this discussion and am actively looking into what could have caused this.

All this does is allow you to view your cameras in one spot, rather than having to scroll through them on the Home app on Apple TV (via HomeKit). However, it’s named “HomeCam for HomeKit.” That sounds great when you’ve just ordered four deterrence cameras through Apple Store. However, what you need to know, but the app developer doesn’t tell you, is that HomeKit does not allow two-way audio. This is why you BRIEFLY see the microphone button before it disappears on ANY IOS device you’re using. HomeKit also doesn’t allow you to turn on the camera’s floodlight. All you can do is view and listen to all of your cameras in one spot (well, five cameras because that’s Apple’s limit), rather than scrolling through them on Apple TV or opening them individually in the Home app. This limitation by Apple isn’t the app developer’s fault, except that the app developer calls it, “HomeCam for HomeKit” and doesn’t tell you when you purchase the $4.99 app that the money you poured into the deterrence cameras you purchased will turn them into surveillance cameras only. If you want to use the deterrence features on your cameras, do not buy this app or use HomeKit - just use the app that the camera manufacturer provides.

Hi,

HomeCam does in fact support two way audio if your cameras support it in HomeKit. I would think your cameras may not support said feature.

HomeCam supports dozens of cameras. The limit you mention is that of HomeKit secure video not any apps.

Camera spotlights are also supported if the cameras offer them within HomeKit as controllable lights, cameras such as Arlo do not do this.

None of the issues you’ve noted are limitations of HomeKit or HomeCam but of specific camera manufacturers not implementing the features as they should.

Feel free to reach out to me via the in app support and I’ll be happy to discuss it further.