User Guide¶
Everything SafeCam can do, and how to set it up.
Getting started¶
- Open SafeCam and turn on Accessibility Service when prompted. Every trigger in SafeCam, from the floating icon to a Quick Settings tile, runs through this service, so nothing works until it's on
- From the Home screen, tap one of the six actions, for example Silently Record Front Camera
- Choose how you want to trigger it: the floating icon, a notch or status bar gesture, a shake, a volume key, a home screen shortcut, or a Quick Settings tile
- Grant the permissions the action asks for. These are requested once, the first time you set that action up
- Fire the trigger to start recording. Fire the same trigger again to stop
If Accessibility Service ever gets turned off, the Home screen shows a banner telling you it's required before anything else will work.
Recording actions¶
| Action | What it does | Plan |
|---|---|---|
| Silently Record Front Camera | Records video from the front camera, always with sound | Free |
| Silently Record Back Camera | Records video from the back camera, always with sound | Free |
| Silently Capture Front Image | Takes a photo with the front camera | Free |
| Silently Capture Back Image | Takes a photo with the back camera | Pro |
| Record Audio | Records audio from the microphone only | Pro |
| Screen Recording | Records your screen | Pro |
Camera recordings always include sound from the microphone: setting up a camera recording asks for both the camera and microphone permissions, and SafeCam won't record video without them. Screen Recording has its own audio setting, see Settings below.
Triggering an action a second time while it's still running stops it, so the same gesture, button or tile both starts and stops a recording.
Choosing a trigger¶
Tap an action on the Home screen to see where you can trigger it from. Only one action can be assigned to a given tap pattern at a time; assigning a new one to a gesture that's already in use asks you to confirm the change first.
Floating icon¶
A small draggable icon that sits on top of other apps. It appears once you assign an action to its single tap, double tap or long press. Drag it anywhere on screen; it stays where you drop it.
Notch or status bar gesture¶
An invisible touch area placed over your camera notch or across the whole status bar. Choose which in Settings → Touch Settings. Assign an action to a single tap, double tap, long press, swipe left or swipe right. Swiping down over this area always opens your notification shade.
Shake¶
Shake the phone with a firm, deliberate motion to fire the action assigned to it.
Volume key long-press (Pro)¶
Hold Volume Up or Volume Down to fire the action assigned to that key. A short press of the same key changes your media volume as normal; only a long press triggers the action.
Home screen shortcut¶
Open an action and choose Shortcut to pin a shortcut to your home screen that runs that action straight away, without opening the app. Your launcher must support pinned shortcuts.
Quick Settings tile¶
Each action has its own tile. Pull down your notification shade twice, tap the edit (pencil) icon, and drag the tile you want into your active tiles. Tapping it starts or stops that action directly from Quick Settings, without opening the app.
While a recording is running¶
A notification shows the elapsed or remaining time and includes a Stop button, unless you've turned that action's notification off in its settings. When a file finishes saving, a second notification lets you tap through to open it directly, unless you've turned that off too.
Media¶
Open the Media tab to see everything SafeCam has recorded: screen recordings, silent front and back camera recordings, audio recordings, and silent front and back camera captures. From there you can:
- Play or view a file in the built-in player
- Share one file or several at once
- Rename a file
- Save a copy of a file into a SafeCam folder inside your phone's DCIM, Pictures or Music folder, so it also shows up in your device's normal photo, video or music apps
- Delete a file, or select several and delete them together
Recordings are saved on your device with a time-stamped filename. See the Privacy Policy for exactly where, and what that means for who else can read them.
Settings¶
Open Settings from the menu on the Home screen.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Theme | Follow system, Light, or Dark |
| Touch Settings | Choose whether the gesture area is the notch/camera cutout or the whole status bar |
| Haptic Feedback | Vibrate when a trigger fires |
| Disable in Landscape Mode | Turns off the notch/status bar gesture area while the phone is in landscape |
| Disable on Call | Pauses triggers while an incoming call is ringing through to when it ends (needs Phone permission). Doesn't cover calls you place yourself, and Quick Settings tiles and shortcuts aren't covered |
| Disable Battery Optimization | Opens Android's full battery-optimization app list; find SafeCam in it and allow it to run unrestricted, so your phone's power management is less likely to stop it running in the background |
| Black Listed Apps | Choose apps in which SafeCam's gesture and floating-icon triggers are disabled while that app is in the foreground. Quick Settings tiles and shortcuts aren't covered |
Each action also has its own settings, opened by choosing Settings from that action's trigger list:
| Per-action setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Camera recording quality | Lowest, SD (480p), HD (720p), FHD (1080p), UHD (2160p) or Highest. This is one shared setting for all camera recording actions, not a separate one per action |
| Record Audio (Screen Recording only) | Choose Screen Recording's audio: no audio recording, device audio only, or microphone audio |
| Auto-stop recording | Stop the action automatically after a set time: Never, 15 or 30 seconds, or 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 or 30 minutes. The default is 5 minutes; choose Never to record until you stop it |
| Enable Notifications | Show or hide SafeCam's own notification for that action. Doesn't apply to Screen Recording, which always shows a notification |
Free and Pro¶
| Free | Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Silently Record Front/Back Camera | Yes | Yes |
| Silently Capture Front Image | Yes | Yes |
| Silently Capture Back Image | No | Yes |
| Record Audio | No | Yes |
| Screen Recording | No | Yes |
| Volume key triggers | No | Yes |
| Ads | A banner at the bottom of the main screen, an ad when you switch back to the app, and a full-screen ad after you view a recording | None |
SafeCam Pro is available as a monthly or annual subscription, or as a one-time lifetime purchase; pricing is shown on the upgrade screen and may vary by region.