Private, one way, iPhone to iPhone video

July 12, 2018 4:23 AM

I’m working on an escape room concept. As part of it, I need a one way video broadcast to another iPhone. Searching for the simplest/best solution. Details after the jump.

Here’s exactly what I want:

One iPhone (call it iPhone A) will initiate a video broadcast or call to a second iPhone (iPhone B). Call/broadcast Should be private and not something viewable by the public.

iPhone A will not see a video feed from IPhone B, only that iPhone B is connected and can see the broadcast. This can’t be controlled by iPone B disabling options as this will be an uncontrolled device. This is the “one way” part of the ask.

iPhone B should simply see a video stream from iPhone A.

Suggestions on best apps iPhone apps for this? FaceTime is t a great option as it’s two way. Guessing I want a livestream app. Looking for the right app that gives iPhone A all the control and leaves iPhone B as a passive viewer.

Thanks!

posted by quantum to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)

If you are planning to buy devices/leave devices in, I bet you could get a CCTV camera and monitor for under $100, much less than the cost of the iphone. Or, you could buy a wifi camera, and get the corresponding iphone app for the camera set up. You could lock iphone B to not be able to close the wifi camera app.



Well, if the iphone was behind glass or something, you could set it so that the iphone was on the rear camera, and see the image of the other camera, and see that the rear camera is on but barely otherwise interact. It would be just like facetime but with a black screen in the corner for A, and B would have it like facetime but with a black screen.

You can use private youtube streaming or private periscope streaming or (I think?) private twitch.tv streaming.

One worry I would have for those is that the quality isn't the best if you have choppy (at all) internet, whereas facetime, facebook messenger, skype, or snapchat calls are ... relatively... stable.

If none of these ideas help, one easy way to do this would be to break the cameras / turn off access to the cameras on iPhone B. You could probably just as easily use skype and a cheap android phone, and stock android has a bit of ability to just get rid of the camera entirely.
posted by bbqturtle at 4:49 AM on July 12, 2018

You could make a fake Facebook account and have phone b friend that account. Then phone b does a live broadcast only for that fake friend.
posted by bleep at 5:09 PM on July 12, 2018 [1 favorite]