ViewTile
English

For people who install cameras, and the people they install them for

Your cameras. One local view.

Cameras from almost any brand, on your own Wi-Fi, on a phone, a tablet or a television. No account and no cloud. And when a camera will not connect, ViewTile tells you what went wrong and what to do next.

Get ViewTileSee what a failure looks like
The 2×2 wall on an Android tablet held sideways, light theme.
The ViewTile wall on an iPhone in the 2×2 layout: a car park, a shop floor, a corridor and a main road, each with a green dot and its name.
Real footage from the test lab, on an Android tablet and an iPhone.

When it fails

It says what went wrong, and what to do next

Most camera apps stop at “connection failed”. ViewTile checks the camera one step at a time and names the step that broke.

The camera’s clock is 47 minutes ahead, and drifting

The camera refuses the sign-in because its clock is too far from this phone’s. It also moved between two checks, so ViewTile cannot work around it.

Camera clock
47 min ahead of this phone
Between two checks
moved by 1 h 47 min
The camera said
“not authorised”, twice

→Set the camera’s time, or turn on automatic time on the camera, then try again.

  1. The symptom

    The camera keeps refusing your password — and the password is right. It is one of the most common calls an installer gets, and the usual answer is a factory reset.

  2. What ViewTile checked

    Before signing in, it compared the camera’s clock with the phone’s. The camera was 47 minutes ahead, and it drifted again between two checks. ViewTile works around a small difference; this one was too big and kept moving, so the likely cause was the clock, not the password.

  3. What to do

    Set the camera’s time, or switch on automatic time on the camera, and try again. No guessing and no reset.

A real case from ViewTile’s tests, in the words the app uses. Every failure comes with a likely cause and a next step, and the camera’s own page keeps its last answers so you can copy a report and send it to whoever can help.

Setting up

Three steps, on the ground

  1. Find

    Open ViewTile on the Wi-Fi the cameras are on. It looks for them by itself; you can also type an address.

  2. Sign in

    Use the camera’s own username and password — not the Wi-Fi password. ViewTile checks the connection, the login, the clock and the picture, and tells you which step failed if one does.

  3. Adjust

    Name the camera, choose which picture the wall uses, and tune the resolution, the picture and the camera’s movement from the camera’s own page — where the camera offers them. It says plainly what this camera does not offer.

The scan screen while it looks for cameras, with a progress bar and a plain-language status line.
Looking for cameras
The scan screen when nothing answered, listing five things worth checking in order of likelihood.
When nothing answers: the usual reasons, in order
A camera’s settings screen: live preview, name, starred, listen, the camera clock with Set from phone, Restart camera, and a box listing what this camera does not offer.
The camera’s own page

Every day

A wall you can actually watch

One camera or a whole site: 1×1, 2×2 and 1+3 layouts, saved views such as “Yard” and “Tills”, and a wall that turns its own pages so twelve cameras fit on one screen.

  • Turn, tilt and zoom a movable camera with the on-screen controls, and jump to saved positions with one tap.
  • A snapshot or a short clip, straight into your photo library.
  • When the Wi-Fi cannot keep up with the full picture, ViewTile switches to the lighter one, says so, and one tap brings the full picture back.
Live view on an Android phone in the light theme: the car park picture, the full/lighter picture switch, the speed selector, snapshot, record, stop and diagnose, a zoom rocker, the pan-tilt pad and saved positions.
Live view on an Android phone
Live view on an Android phone held sideways: the picture fills the screen with the saved positions, speed, zoom and pan-tilt pad drawn over it.
Turn the phone, and the controls sit over the picture

Beyond the phone

Set up nearby. Watch from across the room.

The same cameras on an iPad, an Android tablet or a television. Hand a setup from the phone to the TV with a code on the screen — over your own network and nothing else.

The Android TV wall in the 1+3 layout: the car park large with a mint focus ring, three cameras stacked on the right.
Android TV, one large and three beside it, driven by the remote · The television app is still in development.
The 2×2 wall on an iPad in portrait, light theme, with the camera list below.
iPad, four cameras
The pairing screen showing a QR code for a phone to read.
The TV shows a code; the phone reads it

Yours

No cloud of ours in between

There is no ViewTile server. The app talks to your cameras directly over your own Wi-Fi. The only things that leave your network are the ones you send yourself: a snapshot to your photo library, a report or a setup you choose to share.

  • No account, no sign-up, no cloud. Install it, find cameras, done.
  • Camera passwords stay in the phone’s secure storage and never go into a file, a log or a report. Removing a camera removes its password.
  • No analytics, no crash reporter, no advertising — in the app and on this site.

Try it before the stores

ViewTile is built for iPhone, iPad, Android phones and tablets, and Android TV. It goes into the stores after it has been tested against real cameras. If you install cameras for a living, write with the brands you have, and a test build comes back with instructions.

Ask for a test build

  • iPhone and iPadbuilt · testing next
  • Android phones and tabletsbuilt · testing next
  • Android TVin development
  • Mac with Apple siliconruns the iPad app