Nestwatch
Open the app NL
No accountEnd-to-end encryptedOpen source

A baby monitor that stays in your home.

Nestwatch turns the phones, tablets and computers you already own into a baby monitor. Sound and video travel directly from one of your devices to another, end-to-end encrypted. There is no account to make and no cloud in between.

Open the web app Download the apps

Listen in any browser, nothing to install. Apps for Linux, macOS, Windows and Android; iPhone and iPad are coming.

Nestwatch listener on a computer: three station tiles. Nursery shows sound with a live camera view, Leo's room is quiet, Grandma's is reconnecting. A side panel shows the listening settings with a room-level chart and threshold.Nestwatch listener on a computer: three station tiles. Nursery shows sound with a live camera view, Leo's room is quiet, Grandma's is reconnecting. A side panel shows the listening settings with a room-level chart and threshold.
The listener on a computer, following three stations (design preview).

Private by design

A baby monitor hears and sees the most private room of your home. Nestwatch is built so that what it hears stays between your devices.

Your devices talk to each other

Stations and listeners connect directly on your home network or over a VPN you run yourself. There is no Nestwatch account and no server in the middle.

End-to-end encrypted

Every connection is encrypted and authenticated with the Noise Protocol Framework. Only devices you paired can hear, see or talk through a station.

Nothing collected

No analytics, no crash uploads, no update checks, no recordings. Audio and video are never stored, and logs never contain sound or pictures.

How it works

Any phone, tablet or computer can be a station or a listener. The browser can listen.

  1. Set up a station

    Put a device near your child and choose This device watches. It listens to the room and shows its sound level in a ring. The screen can be dimmed to near-black while it keeps monitoring.

  2. Pair a listener

    On the station, tap Pair a listener. Scan the QR code, open the link, or type the 10-character code. When pairing by code, both screens show the same number so you can check nobody is in between. Pairing stays open for at most 10 minutes.

  3. Listen, talk, look

    The listener plays the room when there is sound, alerts you, lets you hold to talk, and opens the camera only when you ask. Paired devices reconnect on their own, without a code.

Everything a baby monitor needs, nothing it should not do

Sound activation with your threshold

The station sends audio only while the room is louder than the threshold you choose, with a short pre-roll so the start of a cry is never cut off. A chart of the last minute of room level helps you place the threshold just above the background noise. Prefer to hear everything? Switch to always on.

Talk-back

Hold to talk through the station's speaker. One listener talks at a time, and the others see who it is. The station shows when someone is talking.

Camera on demand

The camera is off whenever nobody is looking. Open the view from a listener and the station shows a clear indicator while it sends. A night-friendly grey image helps in a dark room. Sound always comes first; video adapts to the connection.

Several stations and listeners

Follow up to 8 stations at once, mixed into one calm view, with volume, mute and solo per station. A station serves up to 8 listeners, so both parents and the grandparents can listen.

Alerts that work while muted

Get an alert when a quiet room starts to sound, when a station has been unreachable for more than 20 seconds, and when a station's battery is low. Muting a station never mutes its alerts.

Calm at 3 a.m.

Warm, low-glare colours, a night and a day theme, and a dimmed station screen. Every status has a word next to its colour, never colour alone.

On your phone

The same screens on every platform, following the Nestwatch design.

Station screen on a phone: the station Nursery with a level ring at minus 56 decibels, quiet, two listeners connected and the camera on for Mum, and buttons to pair a listener or dim the screen.Station screen on a phone: the station Nursery with a level ring at minus 56 decibels, quiet, two listeners connected and the camera on for Mum, and buttons to pair a listener or dim the screen.
StationRoom level, who is listening and whether the camera is on.
Pairing sheet on a phone: a QR code, the pairing code 7KQ2M-X9RTA, and the note that pairing is open for 9 minutes for up to 8 devices.Pairing sheet on a phone: a QR code, the pairing code 7KQ2M-X9RTA, and the note that pairing is open for 9 minutes for up to 8 devices.
Pair a listenerQR code, link or 10-character code.
Add a station on a phone: nearby stations, the pairing code entered, and the verification number 042 917 to compare with the station.Add a station on a phone: nearby stations, the pairing code entered, and the verification number 042 917 to compare with the station.
Add a stationNearby stations, the code, and a number to compare.
Listener on a phone: the stations Nursery, quiet, and Leo's room, where Dad is talking, each with a level meter, mute and camera buttons.Listener on a phone: the stations Nursery, quiet, and Leo's room, where Dad is talking, each with a level meter, mute and camera buttons.
ListenerEvery station in one list, with hold to talk.

Screens shown are design previews with example names; there are no real camera images on this site.

At home, and away over your own VPN

On your Wi-Fi

Listeners find stations on the home network by themselves (mDNS). Each tile shows which path it uses, and listeners reconnect after network changes, trying every address that worked before.

Over your own VPN

Already use Tailscale or WireGuard? Invitations include the station's VPN addresses and names, and you can type an address by hand. Listen from the grandparents' house without any Nestwatch server.

For difficult networks: an optional relay In development

Some networks block direct connections: mobile data behind carrier-grade NAT, guest Wi-Fi that isolates devices, firewalls that only allow HTTPS. For those, Nestwatch is getting an optional relay server that helps two devices find each other, tries to open a direct path between them and, only when that fails, forwards the encrypted stream. It is off until you turn it on, and you can run your own.

What a relay operator could see

  • that a station is online, and its public IP address
  • which IP addresses connect to it, and when
  • how many bytes flow, which can hint at when there is sound (choose always-on listening on relayed connections to hide this)

What it cannot see or do

  • hear audio, see video or read control messages: they are encrypted end to end between your devices
  • learn device names, pairing codes or keys; invitations never pass through it
  • pretend to be your station or alter traffic: the devices' own handshake would fail

Privacy details Run your own relay

Try Nestwatch on the devices you have

Free and open source. Use an old phone or laptop as the station, and listen on your phone from this website.

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