Indie Watch - Issue #29: HomeCam by Aaron Pearce

Issue #29: HomeCam by Aaron Pearce

By Aryaman Sharda – 17 Jan 2023 – View online →

Today, we're looking at HomeCam by Aaron Pearce.

HomeCam allows you to monitor all of your HomeKit-enabled cameras live on one screen.

While Apple's Home app only shows snapshots of your camera feed, HomeCam works around this limitation allowing you to easily monitor what your cameras are seeing in real-time.

HomeCam supports iPad allowing you to take advantage of your largest screens as viewports into your camera feeds.

When you bring a camera into full-screen mode, you can view layers of data from surrounding HomeKit accessories such as temperature, humidity, and air quality. Additionally, you can also use the speaker and microphone of the camera to communicate with others.

As an added bonus, HomeCam also lets you control surrounding accessories in the same room as your camera, thereby allowing you to change the lighting, adjust the temperature, and much more.

With HomeCam 2, you are able to rearrange, show, and hide cameras to suit your needs.

With HomeCam's Siri integration, you can now simply ask Siri to show you your camera live in Siri's responses.

Use a phrase like “View Kitchen” for easy access.

It's easy to track your most important cameras with a Today widget and with HomeCam's RoomControl you can react immediately if necessary.

You'll also receive alerts within the app for key sensors like motion, smoke, doors, and windows opening or closing.

“HomeCam is essential for HomeKit cameras like the and — not just for viewing playback on multiple streams at the same time...”
- 9to5Mac

Available for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS

HomeCam has been featured on 9to5Mac - check it out here!

A quick thank you to Smartr Daily for sponsoring this issue of Indie Watch!

Smartr Daily sources the smartest articles on the Web - thought-provoking ideas and insights delivered straight to your inbox daily!

Can you tell us a little bit about yourselves?

Aaron Pearce (@aaron_pearce)

Hey, I'm Aaron, I'm 30 years old and I live in New Zealand. I began my app development journey in 2010 and I've been loving it ever since.

I love to build apps to make people's home lives easier.

How did you come up with the idea?

Each of my apps was either inspired by a problem I faced or by a suggestion from one of my current users.

When I created HomeCam, my goal was to have all my HomeKit cameras live on a single screen, something Apple was not offering at the time.

💡 Want to see your app featured?‌
‌Submit your app or reach out on Twitter 🐦

How did you market the app as an indie developer?

For each of my apps, I reached out to Apple-related sites early to allow the writers to test the app as they saw fit. Given my niche, I was also able to contact HomeKit-specific sites that would often offer to cover my work.

What’s your app design and development workflow like?

For a new app, I focus on validating the concept quickly via a minimal prototype. This allows me to see the potential of the concept fast without investing too much of my limited time.

If the first prototype has potential, I will invest more time to polish it before sharing some initial screenshots publicly to gather feedback on the idea. This allows me to quickly validate if there is a market for the app.

From there, I will attempt to ship my first version of the app within the next month. This gives me a quick turnaround from idea to product to see if an idea will have any success.

Any advice on monetizing your app and improving conversions?

As the vast majority of my apps are paid upfront at this time, I have to convert users to the App Store page, which means providing good screenshots and descriptions is essential.

I've found a good app description to be key to the success of my apps recently. It allows users to learn both what the app is and any limitations it may have before committing to a purchase.

What's your favorite tool in your development workflow?

Most recently, my favorite tool is actually SwiftUI itself. As an indie developer, it allows me to make apps even faster than I could before which is key with the limited time I have between my day job, family, and other commitments.

It's really easy to prototype for ideation with SwiftUI, which speeds up my whole development process.

A quick welcome to the ✨ 3 new people ✨ joining us this week - feel free to reply to this email and say 👋.

If you're enjoying the newsletter, please consider sharing it! Have some feedback you want to share? Drop me a message 📧

If you missed last week's issue, you can read it here:

Issue #28: Tasks by Mustafa Yusuf

Today, we’re looking at Tasks by Mustafa Yusuf. Tasks is the task manager you’ve been waiting for to help you take your productivity to the next level. It allows you to track and organize your commitments in a way that suits your specific needs and your preferred workflow. In addition