The Netatmo Indoor Camera isn’t a new product, and it’s not its original name. When the company originally released the smart camera, we knew it as the Netatmo welcome. While it has undergone a rebrand, the device has stayed the same except for a firmware update that adds HomeKit Secure Video support. So in this in-depth Netatmo Smart Indoor camera review. I look at the design, setup, app, facial recognition and how it works with Apples latest HomeKit feature.
For transparency, Netatmo provided the Netatmo Smart Indoor Camera on loan for this review. But this will not influence the outcome, you will get the good and bad regardless of this device. You can read more about our review promise and ethics statement for information on our approach.
Netatmo smart indoor camera review in pictures
Netatmo smart indoor camera specs
- Indoor Wi-Fi security camera
- App with no subscription
- 4Mp sensor video resolution up to 1920×1080
- Field of view: 130-degree lens
- Motion detection
- Face recognition
- HomeKit Secure Video compatible
- Wi-Fi: 802.11b/g/n 2.4GHz
- Storage: 16GB micro-SD card included, optional Dropbox integration or FTP server
- IR night vision: detection up to 15m (50ft)
- Dimensions: 45x45x155 mm
Netatmo smart indoor camera review – Design
The Netatmo Smart Indoor Camera features a minimalistic cylinder design. Netatmo has made the smart camera of aluminum housing with a black bar on the front of the camera which contains the 130-degree field of view lens. While a small LED below lets you know whether the camera is on or off.
On the back of the Smart Indoor Camera you’ll find a slot for the micro-SD card, an Ethernet port and the power port. On the bottom of the camera is a silicone foot, which helps it stay in place. However, when I was first setting things up, the stiff charging cable would move the camera around.
Netatmo smart indoor camera review – Setup
Getting started with the Netatmo Indoor camera is simple and starts with downloading the Netatmo Security app. Once you have downloaded the app, the setup process is fast and straightforward. The security app will search for the camera, ask you to confirm some Wi-Fi settings. Once all that is done, you are good to use the camera.
Connecting to HomeKit maybe a little different depending on the model you have. I have the model in which it generates the HomeKit code via the app, however some come with the HomeKit code on the camera itself. But other than the difference in how you get the HomeKit code, the setup process to connect the Netatmo camera to HomeKit is the same.
You go into the camera settings and click connect to HomeKit. You then follow a few more steps within the Netatmo Security, before it hands you off to the Home App to complete the setup process. Once you have done all of that, the Netatmo Smart Indoor Camera should be visible within the Home App.
Netatmo App & features
Netatmo uses its Security app with the Smart Indoor Camera, which is the same app that pairs with its smoke detector and outdoor camera. When you first open the security app, you will see a timeline of all the events in a vertically. The app gives each event a date and time stamp along with a symbol showing if it was a person, animal or motion.
The stand out feature of the smart indoor camera is its facial recognition. This uses AI technology to help recognise people as they come in view of the camera. Then, with a little interaction from you, builds up a database of known faces that enter your home. This helps in 2 ways, one to let you know when family members arrive home and the second to let you know if an unknown person has entered.
The Netatmo Smart Indoor camera will struggle with sun glaring into the lens. So Be careful not to place the Smart indoor camera so it would not be exposed to direct sunlight.
App timeline
The timeline shows any activity related to the camera whether it is motion detected, or a person entering the camera’s field of view. It will also register sirens going off to alert you to this sound. You also have a “Home” and “Away” tab which shows you who is at home and who is not. It uses the profiles you have set up within the app to determine this.
If a person enters the field of view, the camera will use artificial intelligence to identify the face based on previous people who have entered your home. Over time, the more the camera sees a specific face, the better it will recognise them. However, that being said, the camera is not that clever, so you need to create a profile for people that live or visit the home often before it can start building upon that profile. You do this by clicking on “unknown face seen” icon and then creating a profile for that person.
If the camera flags an unknown person, then depending on the settings it will record or send you a notification. However, if an unknown person was to be identified incorrectly, you can long-press on the face and edit it. It will also ask you to confirm or deny additional images that it thinks maybe that same person.
During my testing, I found that the Netatmo smart indoor camera would even detect faces of people on the screen of my TV. So when I first started using the camera, this would be rather annoying. This meant I had to move the camera to stop this from happening as there is no way to turn recording or unknown faces when you are home.
Besides the alerts for people and motion, the camera will also alert you to sirens. This could be a smoke detector, or a security system. The Netatmo camera will hear them, can start recording, then let you know that an alarm is going off. I tested this with the Eve Water Guard and it worked perfectly.
Advanced settings
If you want to improve privacy and have tighter control over detection and recordings, you can do within the Security app settings. Within settings, you choose what happens for the following situations;
- Unknown faces – record and notify.
- People – ignore, record and record & notify
- Animals – Ignore, Record and record & notify
- Other motions – Ignore, record and record & Notify
- Alarms – Ignore or Record and notify
You can change the settings based on when someone is home versus when everyone is away. However, what is surprising is that you cannot turn the camera completely off when people are home without disabling it all together.
When you have a profile of a person setup within the Security app. You can manage several settings. At a global level for all profiles you can set how long after a person is last detected does it consider them away. Also, if you want an alert when they arrive home.
While the Netatmo Smart Indoor Camera has built in storage for video via a Micro-SD card. You can also have them uploaded to Dropbox or a personal FTP server. I tested it with both Dropbox and a FTP server, and both worked great.
You can also manage users, this setting gives you the ability to add and remove people from accessing the camera via the app.
Video & Sound quality
The video quality is reasonable with up to 1920×1080. However, you cannot alter the resolution of the recordings like you can on other smart cameras. Video quality at night is good with the infrared sensor and does a very good job of providing clear recordings.
HomeKit Secure Video support
For the basics of HomeKit, I could view the camera from the Home app. You will also find the motion sensor and the occupancy sensor within the Home app. But by default, iOS 13 groups these accessories together, but they can easily be ungrouped.
But with a recent firmware update, the smart indoor camera has HomeKit Secure Video support. However, to enjoy this enhanced HomeKit feature. You need to be running a HomeKit hub such as an Apple TV, HomePod or iPad with iOS 13 or later.
Tapping the live camera feed in the Home app will show you the timeline of motion activity recorded at the bottom of the display. Apple has split these into events that help you easily identify. HomeKit has 4 different icons to help you identify the motion it has recorded. These are people, animals, cars or a generic motion that HomeKit could not identify.
Selecting a clip will playback that clip and I found this responsive and played within seconds. You can also jump to live view to the left of the timeline or play the entire recorded clips using the button to the right of the timeline. If you want to share the clip with family and friends, you can also open up the share sheet with various options presented.
HomeKit Secure Video records up to 10 days of motion footage and older clips will automatically delete on a rolling basis. You can Delete individual clips from your timeline by selecting the share button and then the bin icon.
Privacy is king
Privacy is at the heart of HomeKit Secure Video with strict security settings that you can implement both for when you are home and when they are away.
You need to set what you would like each camera to do with the following options available.
- “Off”–Basically it does nothing. You cannot view the stream, nor will it record.
- “Detect Activity”—This is used for triggering automations or to send notifications. But you cannot view the stream, nor will it record and save to iCloud.
- “Stream”—You can view the stream, but it will not record. You can use this camera triggering automations or to send notifications.
- “Stream and allow recording”—You can view the stream and it will record based on your settings. You can also use this camera triggering automations or to send notifications.
Netatmo Smart Indoor Camera review conclusion
The Netatmo Indoor Security Camera is a great option for anyone who wants to monitor their home and be alerted to any issue. I like the design and allows it to fit into most surroundings.
The quality of recording, while not the best, but is good enough to monitor your home with decent night vision and facial recognition. I would have like to have seen two-way audio, which is something I love about the Logitech Circle 2.
The facial recognition feature works well to identify people, although you need to be careful if the camera is positioned facing near a TV as it will pick up faces on the screen.
Being a fan of HomeKit Secure Video and this being added recently is a big bonus for this smart camera. The ability to monitor and control the Netatmo camera from the home app and knowing its all done with privacy in mind is great. I also like the fact you can still use the Netatmo Security app when you have upgraded.
Although the Smart camera has some huge positives and is a camera that provides peace of mind. The one thing that lets it down it’s the inability to turn off recording when people are at home, unless you turn it off completely. From what I understand, Netatmo plan to address this in future software updates. But the redeeming factor is that all recordings are stored locally, the big brother is not watching.
So that’s a wrap on the Netatmo Smart Indoor Camera review, Don’t forget to subscribe for more HomeKit reviews. If you have a question or a comment, then leave it below. You can also follow us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.
My wife and I have hearing problems and we’ve been missing fire alarms when sleeping (so far always a false alarm) in our condominium building. I was wondering if the Netatmo Camera, when hearing an alarm, can interface with HomeKit and turn on the lights we have connected in HomeKit. I understand iOS14 will have a similar feature for sound notification but I don’t know if this will work with HomeKit automation.
[…] Now you are all setup, your HomeKit Hub will work transparent with no further involvement from you. You can now set up automations from within the Home App and access your HomeKit home remotely. If you have an iCloud account of 200GB or above, you can take advantage of HomeKit Secure Video via supported cameras. Supported cameras include the Logitech Circle 2 and the Netatmo smart indoor camera. […]
I have this camera (and Netatmo outdoor camera too) and I can confirm – it doesn’t like direct sunlight. But even in the evening, it has sometimes problem with people recognition, especially when you sit on couch 🙂 But anyway, it’s very useful. Now I’m trying Apple Watch App and hope it will be working fine.