How to set up security cameras in Home on iPhone

Saturday October 10, 2026 6:15 pm EAT by Chris Smith

You can use the Home app to view video activity captured by your home’s cameras. With any Apple Home-compatible camera, you can view video streams, choose who can view them, and set up notifications when activity is detected. When you add a camera, you can choose streaming options and assign it to a room, such as your front porch. By default, up to four cameras show up as favorites on the Home tab.

With one or more HomeKit Secure Video cameras, you can also take advantage of these features:

Encrypted video: Video captured by your cameras is privately analyzed and encrypted on your home hub device (Apple TV 4K or HomePod) and securely uploaded to iCloud so that only you and those you share it with can view it.
Record video: If you subscribe to iCloud+, you can view the last 10 days of activity from one to an unlimited number of cameras. The 50 GB iCloud+ plan supports a single camera, the 200 GB iCloud+ plan supports up to five cameras, and the 2 TB, 6 TB, and 12 TB iCloud+ plans support an unlimited number of cameras.

Note: Video content doesn’t count against your iCloud storage limit.

Activity Zones: Create zones that focus your camera on the most important areas within its view.
Face recognition: Receive notifications when people you’ve tagged in the Photos app are within the camera’s view.

Camera options

When you add a camera in the Home app, you can choose streaming options and assign the camera to a room. With a HomeKit Secure Video camera, you can also choose recording options. By default, up to four cameras are marked as favorites and appear on the Home tab. To edit those settings later, tap the Camera tile, then tap the Settings button to see these options:

Room: A camera can be located in a room inside your home, or you can create a room for an outside location such as your front porch or back yard.
Notifications: Tap Status and Notifications, then choose to receive notifications when the camera detects activity, changes status, or goes offline.
Recording options for HomeKit Secure Video cameras: You can create separate recording settings for when you’re home and when you’re away. For example, when you’re home, you might choose to stop streaming and recording from a camera inside your home, but continue to stream and record from an outdoor camera.

Note: To switch between Home and Away modes, the Home app relies on the location of devices belonging to members of the home. So when you leave home with your iPhone, for example, the camera moves from the When Home settings to the When Away settings.

Set up notifications

Open the Home app on your iPhone.
On the Home tab, tap the More button and then tap Home Settings.
Tap Cameras & Doorbells.
Tap a camera and turn on Activity Notifications.

All Apple Home-compatible cameras can send a notification when motion is detected. HomeKit Secure Video cameras can additionally send notifications based on these factors:

The time of day
When someone is or isn’t home
When a clip is recorded
When any or a specific type of motion is detected

When you choose a specific motion, you get a notification when the camera detects vehicles, animals, or people, or when a package is delivered. For the camera to detect a package, it must be within the camera’s view after delivery.

Choosing a specific motion instead of any motion means fewer clips, fewer clip notifications, and less video to review. If you choose to detect people, for example, your camera won’t capture a squirrel leaping from branch to branch or leaves moving on a tree.

Create Activity Zones for HomeKit Secure Video cameras

Zones help your HomeKit Secure Video camera focus on the most important areas within its view, like your front walkway but not the sidewalk behind it, and you can be alerted when motion is detected in them.

Note: Only cameras set up to record when a specific motion is detected can use Activity Zones, and Activity Zones don’t affect motion detection automations.

Open the Home app on your iPhone.
On the Home tab, tap the camera tile. Then tap the Settings button.
Tap Select Activity Zones. Tap the video to create a zone.

To have your camera detect motion only outside the zone you defined, tap Invert Zone.

Create any additional zones you want within the camera’s view—one for the driveway and another for the mailbox, for example.
Tap Done.

To remove an activity zone, tap Select Activity Zones, tap inside a zone, then tap Clear.

View video

Open the Home app on your iPhone.
On the Home tab, tap the camera tile.

Live video should play automatically.

If you’ve chosen to record video with your HomeKit Secure Video camera, swipe through the timeline at the bottom of the screen to browse recorded clips.
Tap a clip to play it.
Tap Live to switch back to live video.

With the camera set up to detect specific motion, the timeline shows unique symbols for people, animals, vehicles, and packages.

Note: When your home has more cameras than Home Hubs that can analyze their video, video from some of the cameras may not be analyzed. Those clips are still recorded, but they’ll carry the Unanalyzed Video badge, meaning the video wasn’t analyzed for specific motion.

On a Mac with macOS 10.15.1 or later, the Home app shows live and recorded video, too.