Still Images on Main Screen

[SJMarty]

I have two outdoor and five indoor cameras. Something that I have found difficult to get used to is that the images that are displayed on the main screen when the app is launched are not a “current” image. Instead, the image is from the last time I manually tapped the camera icon and took a still. Even watching live video does not change the still image. It’s just kind of weird to me. Just something as simple as it’s night and my cameras have daytime images when I launch the app. I have several suggestions for features/enhancements that I think would be beneficial…

• Add an option to “capture a still image every X” where the interval could be days, hours, minutes, or seconds (DD:HH:MM:SS).
• Add an option to put the time and date the still image was captured as a watermark. Nothing big or gaudy…just small and readable.
• Add an option to include the temperature as a watermark on the still image.

Please let me know if you’d like me to explain any of these in more detail.

-Steve

[Ben_at_Blink]

Thanks for the input Steve! Your ideas will definitely be taken into consideration. We do agree that having a refreshed snapshot when opening the app would give some more “life” to the home screen. Seeing daytime images at night could get frustrating, and we certainly understand this. It’s always good to hear things from a customer’s point of view - it helps us understand what steps the company needs to take to make sure you guys are satisfied with the product.

For everyone else - feel free to build on Steve’s idea and/or offer some more suggestions for how to improve the Blink app!

[Icuhowie]

The Still Images on the Main Screen should be

the 1st or 2nd Frame of the Last Clip Captured,
should have the date, time and temp of when of when the last clip was captured.

And Please Move the Add Camera to the Sync Module Menu, what you have might look nice and all but it is in the way, it’s only used x times and no more.

Thanks
James

[Tori_At_Blink]

James,

Your design ideas are great! I will be sure our app developers see this post. The idea of having the “Add a Camera” on the home screen is to make the setup of a new camera quick and easy. Do you think maybe adding this to the top or bottom banners would work well? I feel moving it into the Sync Module menu could get confusing, so do you have any other ideas on where we can place it to keep it easily accessible and out of the way? I look forward to hearing more of your thoughts!

[Icuhowie]

This is how I currently view the Blink world ( my view is always odd )

• in the Camera Settings, the very last thing is ( Delete Camera ) that should really be part of the Sync Module tasks/functions
  ( Side note, when deleting a camera, should there be an prompt to remove the videos in the cloud? if the Module is defective and being sent back, just thinking out loud here )

[SJMarty]

I also agree with placing both the “Add a Blink Camera” from the main screen and the “Delete Camera” from the individual camera settings screen under the “Sync Module” options.

[Jofnan]

I have my blink camera set up to monitor when my gas canisters go empty. As there will never be any motion, all I can do right now is manually take snapshots which works well enough. As per the OP’s suggestion I would love for:

• snapshots to be timestamped on the main screen
• snapshots to be saved in the clip roll (this would timestamp automagically)
• have the ability to schedule snapshots, like timelapse but with the ability for long times (eg 1 per week)

Thanks!

[PeteCress]

I know this is a 2+ year old post, but thought I would add my two cents anyhow, since nothing seems to have happened in response to SJMARTY’s OP.

Just blew $350 on a five-cam set assuming that, of course, there would be such a basic option as scheduling snapshots.

Oops!.. $350 down the toilet…

I was fixated on the idea of triggering a snapshot every N minutes, but somebody elses’ suggestion that snapshots be updated each time somebody opens the Android app also makes sense for my use case - as long as it is done asynchronously (i.e. the user can use the app while the snapshots are updating).

I looked into creating my own script via IFTTT, but IFTTT seems to be a work in progress with almost no functionality - certainly no time-related triggers or snapshot-related actions.

Or am I missing something?

My Use Case:
Allow family members to check up on The Old People and verify, for instance, that nobody is laying on the floor at the bottom of a staircase…preseumably to allow prompt removal of the body so it doesn’t stink the place up and diminish resale value… -)

In my use case, motion triggering would be turned off and having to supply external power would not be a deal breaker.

[JVK]

I would actually prefer to open my app and see live video. These should be options. This would be more convenient while I’m on vacation.

[M9th]

I vote for a selection menu that allows None for people saving battery, Sapshot when open app or Live for people hardwired.

[jscott]

Please integrate Steve’s suggestions.
Have a snapshot refresh button or auto refresh on open or refresh on drag down.
Would also be convenient to have the option to store images on demand or store images periodically.

[CWJones]

Some of your competitors simply show a thumbnail of the most recently captured video. It doesn’t necessarily change the confusion that it may appear day even when it’s actually night, but it never seemed to phase me when I was using the competitor product.

[Bikergofast]

Some great ideas here, but man this is an old thread, and we still don’t have the option to save a still image. Personally I could forego the autoupdate home screen feature if it meant getting the ability to save stills.

Bottom line: the app cannot get bloated and slow. That is the cardinal sin with developers: planned obsolescence of our devices. Keep the app light on resources and you keep your customer base wide.

[KhaoticOG]

I wouldn’t mind just to have one button to press and it refreshes all the still images for every camera on the system without having to refresh each and every one. Having ten cameras this is tedious because you can only refresh one at a time.

[athena]

I agree 100% with Steve. Please have app developers make it happen. I think it’s important added security besides the live feature.

Athena

[Zach-P]

It might be easiest to just remove the still images from the Home Screen. I would rather look at a blank screen and tap in to a live camera than see an old photo that I accidentally clicked. The featur is good in theory but it gives a false representation of security bc the photo is dated. Just store the photo like a clip and put the default back to black

[suttyblink]

No thanks. It makes camera identification far easier, at a glance, than having to look and read, especially when you have many. If you don’t want it, put a piece of card in front of them and snap away. You’ll be back to blank in a trice.