How to check your CCTV cameras remotely from your phone

“Phone and CCTV” usually means one of two quite different things, and it's worth being clear which one this page is about before going further. One is turning a phone's own camera into an input, propping it on a shelf to watch something. The other, the one covered here, is using a phone to check on cameras you already have elsewhere: opening an app while you're out and seeing what's happened, what's flagged, and what's going on right now. If it's the first one you're after, that's a separate guide on using a phone as an AI security camera; this one is about looking, not capturing.

What you get on a phone

There's no separate mobile app with a cut-down feature set to learn. The iOS and Android shells simply load app.svid.ai, the same web app you'd use on a desktop, and the app itself is built mobile-first: under 1024px wide it switches to a bottom tab bar (Home, Alerts, Add, Library, Store) so everything fits a phone screen properly rather than being a shrunk-down desktop layout.

Home gives you the summary view: footage watched, review labour saved, incidents flagged, reports written, and anything currently monitoring live. Alerts is the full flagged-events feed, filterable, and deep-linkable, so a push or email alert can be tapped straight through to the exact moment it fired rather than dropping you at a generic app screen you then have to search from. Library search works identically on a phone as anywhere else: it searches the folder you're in, subfolders included, in the same plain English you'd type on a desktop. Store is there too, for adding a check on the go if something's come up that a current setup doesn't cover.

1. 01

   Sign in at app.svid.ai on the phone

   There's no separate app to install beyond the iOS/Android shells, both of which load the same app.svid.ai you'd use anywhere else.

2. 02

   Check Home for anything live

   Home shows what Svid has done recently and flags anything monitoring right now, a quick first read on whether anything needs attention.

3. 03

   Open Alerts for anything flagged

   The Alerts feed is filterable and deep-linkable, so tapping a push or email alert takes you straight to the moment it fired.

4. 04

   Search the Library for a specific person or moment

   Search the folder you're in, subfolders included, the same plain-English search as on a desktop: “person in a red jacket near the till” works exactly the same from a phone.

If you actually want the reverse

If what you're after is pointing a phone's own camera at something, as a stopgap camera for a pop-up, an event, or a gap a proper installer hasn't reached yet, that's the other half of “phone and CCTV” and it's a different feature entirely. Svid handles that too, but it's covered in the phone as a security camera guide, not this one.

Do I need a separate app to check my cameras from my phone?

The iOS and Android shells simply load app.svid.ai, so it's the same web app either way, with a mobile-first layout under 1024px wide.

Can I get notified and jump straight to the alert?

Yes. Alerts go to the account's iOS or Android devices as native push, and the Alerts view is deep-linkable, so tapping one takes you to the flagged moment.

Does search work the same on a phone as on a desktop?

Yes, it's the same Library search: it searches the folder you're in, subfolders included, in plain English.

Is this the same as using my phone as a camera?

No, that's a different feature. This page covers viewing your existing footage and alerts from a phone; using a phone's own camera as an input is a separate guide.