Netatmo Welcome Camera Gains HomeKit Secure Video Functionality

According to a couple of online forums, including one Reddit user on the r/HomeKit sub, it would seem the Netatmo Welcome Camera (now rebranded as the Netatmo Smart Indoor Camera) is receiving a firmware update that adds the new HomeKit Secure Video functionality to the camera. This makes the Netatmo Welcome the second HomeKit-enabled camera to gain this additional feature, after the beta update recently released by Logitech for their Circle 2 Camera. This new functionality is already listed on Apple’s own website, but merely annotated as ‘announced’. Netatmo’s other Camera, now known as the Netatmo Smart Outdoor Camera is also listed as ‘announced’, so it’s quite likely this will follow shortly.

If you’re not already aware of HomeKit Secure Video (HSV), this was a new set of features introduced by Apple at WWDC 2019, that allows suitable cameras to view both a live stream and recordings from within the Home app, rather than having to go to your camera’s own app. Another new feature allows for scrubbing along a video timeline that appears at the bottom of the screen, and also allows the user to set motion detection preferences, so whilst motion sensors can detect human activity, cars or pets can be ignored when it comes to getting motion detection notifications on your phone.

HSV is only available to users if they have the 200gb iCloud storage plan, which allows for one camera to utilise this feature, with 1TB iCloud plan users gaining the ability to utilise HSV for up to five suitable cameras. All the recordings are stored, encrypted in the cloud, but does not count against your storage.