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LiDAR Camera

Can you use an iPhone as a night vision camera for a baby's room?

For a quick look through the door at 2 a.m., yes: LiDAR Camera brightens a dim nursery, and on Pro models its LiDAR view shows the shape of the cot in total darkness. It is not a baby monitor, because it does not stream, does not alert you and does nothing while you are out of the room.

3 min read · Updated 2026-09-16

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First, what it is not

  • No live picture on a second device. The image stays on the phone you are holding.
  • No sound or movement alerts. The app has no motion trigger and no cry detection.
  • No unattended recording. A clip runs only while you have the app open and have tapped the shutter.
  • No account and no cloud, so nothing to log in to from another room.

What you get at 2 a.m., by how dark the room is

Pick the view by the light you have
The roomView to useWhat you see
Nightlight or landing light spilling inNormal with Night Vision or GrayscaleA brightened, denoised picture of the room
Pitch dark, iPhone Pro with LiDARLiDAR with Depth MapColour shapes by distance, no faces
Pitch dark, Face ID iPhone without LiDARFront view, TrueDepth Night VisionShapes at arm's length only, up to 2 m
Pitch dark, no depth sensorNothingBlack. Only the torch helps, which wakes the room

The cot in the dark, with numbers

Standing in the doorway and aiming at the cot, the rear LiDAR colour tells you the distance, using the same ramp every time: the cot rail at 1.2 m comes out blue, the changing table at 2.4 m green, the wall behind it at 3.8 m orange. If you turn on the distance circle (PRO), it reads 2.4 m in yellow with Optimal range ✓.

Leaning over the cot with the front camera at 0.5 m, the ramp is light blue; it ends at 2 m, dark red.

The letdown: the sleeping baby is a soft bump in a green box. You can see where and roughly how big. You cannot see a face, a blanket position or whether anything is wrong, and the depth map is only 256 by 192 points.

Keep it quiet

A phone that flashes and clicks is worse than a lamp. Free fix is Controls, then Screen Brightness all the way down; the Camera Sounds setting is already off by default. The full fix is Stealth Mode: tap the gear, then Stealth Mode, then turn on Silent Operation. It removes the sounds, the haptic tap and the white capture flash, drops the screen to minimum and dims the viewfinder. PRO, and open to everyone for the first 7 days.

  1. Open LiDAR Camera before you go in, not at the door.
  2. Turn on Silent Operation and lower Screen Brightness.
  3. Pick the view from the table above. With light, tap Night Vision; without it, stay on LiDAR.
  4. Look from the doorway. Do not use the flashlight button.
  5. Close the app when you leave. It does not keep watching, and should not be relied on to.

What about recording a video?

You can, but only in Normal mode, so only with some light, and the look is baked in. At 10 Mbps a clip costs 75 MB a minute, 750 MB for ten minutes and 4.5 GB an hour before sound, which makes it impractical for recording through a whole night. The depth views take photos only.

Free or PRO

Free gives you every camera mode your device has, 8 looks, Depth Map, video and 15 photos a day, with ads. PRO adds the distance circle and Stealth Mode and drops the ads. The better pick between the two is Stealth Mode, for the silent flash alone. Nothing here needs internet.

Questions and answers

Can I use an old iPhone as a baby monitor with LiDAR Camera?
No. The app cannot send its picture to another device or alert you, so an old iPhone left in the nursery would show you nothing from the next room.
Does LiDAR Camera have night vision for a baby?
Only in the sense of brightening a dim room or showing depth shapes in the dark on LiDAR models. It has no infrared lamp that lights the cot.
Do baby monitors have night vision?
Dedicated ones usually do, using infrared lights of their own. A phone app cannot add that, which is why this page treats LiDAR Camera as a quick look only.
Does it work without Wi-Fi?
Yes. The camera and depth view need no internet; ads and purchases do.
Will it show my baby's face in the dark?
No. The depth views show shapes, not faces, and the regular camera needs some light.

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