Your cameras work and your smart speaker works, but they have never met. Here is how a camera gets into a home app, and what it can do once it is there.
📍 We serve KL, Selangor & Putrajaya.
Whether your CCTV shows up in Google Home, Alexa or Home Assistant depends on how the camera talks, not on how new it is. A Wi-Fi camera whose maker has built a Google or Alexa link appears after you sign in to that maker's account. Cameras on a recorder usually do not, but many IP recorders and cameras speak ONVIF or give a stream address, and Home Assistant can read either. Linking adds viewing and triggers; the recorder still does the recording. For the wider picture of devices in a home, see smart home installation.
A common complaint goes like this: the house has six cameras on a recorder in the store room, the family has a smart speaker with a screen in the kitchen, and nobody can say "show the gate camera" and see anything. The cameras work, the speaker works, but the two have never been introduced. Google Home and Alexa do not search your network for cameras. They only list a camera when the company that made it has written a link between its own cloud service and theirs.
That is the key idea for the rest of this page. A smart-home app is a front end. It shows what other services hand to it. If the camera brand never built that hand-off, or built it only for its newer Wi-Fi models, the camera stays invisible however good its picture is. The fix is to find a route the camera does support, and there are three.
| Route | How the picture travels | Works with | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maker's cloud link | Camera to the maker's cloud, then to Google or Amazon | Google Home, Alexa, sometimes both | Only for brands and models the maker chose to support |
| ONVIF | Camera or recorder answers a standard set of requests on your home network | Home Assistant and other local hubs | The device must actually follow the standard, not just print the logo |
| Generic stream address | Home app opens the camera's own video address directly | Home Assistant | You need the address format and a user name for the camera |
Most houses end up using more than one route: a doorbell camera through its maker's link, and the older fixed cameras through ONVIF or a stream address. The choice between a plug-in Wi-Fi camera and a wired system is a separate question, covered in Wi-Fi camera vs professional CCTV.
Google publishes a camera device type for companies that want their cameras inside Google Home. The camera company implements it in its own cloud, and Google can then ask for a live stream and send it to a smart display or a Chromecast. Amazon has the equivalent for Alexa: the camera company adds a camera stream feature to its Alexa skill so that users can view the feed. Amazon's own notes also warn that an address reachable only inside your home network cannot be shown on every Alexa device.
In practice this means the steps are simple when they exist: open the Google Home or Alexa app, add a "works with" service, search for the camera brand, sign in with the camera account, and the cameras appear. When the brand is not in that list, nothing you change on the camera itself will make it appear. Look the brand up in both apps before you buy a new camera if voice viewing matters to you.
Most landed houses in the Klang Valley have cameras on a recorder rather than standalone Wi-Fi units. Two kinds matter here. An analog system sends video down coaxial cable to a DVR, so the cameras themselves have no network identity; anything that reaches an app comes from the DVR. An IP system sends video over data cable to an NVR, and each camera is a small network device with its own address. The IP vs analog CCTV guide explains the difference in detail.
Recorders from the common brands usually have their own phone app, and some also offer ONVIF or a stream address per channel. That is the door into Home Assistant. Very few recorders have a Google or Alexa link of their own, which is why a recorder-based system almost always goes through Home Assistant rather than straight into Google Home.
ONVIF is an industry forum that publishes profiles, and Profile S covers basic video streaming. Home Assistant's ONVIF integration works with devices that conform to Profile S. It can often discover the camera or recorder by itself and offer it for set-up; if not, you add it by hand with the device's address and a user name. The integration needs Home Assistant's video tool to be configured, and its own documentation suggests making a separate user on the camera just for Home Assistant.
Two points from that documentation are worth knowing before you start. A device usually offers several video profiles of different quality, and the first one is normally the sharpest. On a recorder, the profiles can also be the separate cameras on its channels, so one recorder may appear as several cameras. ONVIF itself notes that Profile S is being phased out, so check what a new camera supports rather than relying on the logo on the box. Setting up Home Assistant itself is covered in the Home Assistant setup guide.
When a camera does not do ONVIF well, Home Assistant's Generic Camera integration accepts either a still-image address or a video stream address from the camera. Many IP cameras publish the format of that address in their manual or settings page. Home Assistant then shows the camera on a dashboard and passes the picture through its own server, which is how the household can view it from outside without opening the camera itself to the internet.
This route needs more care than the others. The address contains the camera's user name and password, so it should live only inside Home Assistant, never in a shared note or chat. Use a camera account that can view but not change settings, and keep a record of which address belongs to which position so that a later recorder replacement does not leave a blank tile on the dashboard.
Once the cameras are inside a home app, the gain is in combining them with other devices. The table sets out the common uses and where each one runs.
| What you want | Typical route | Runs where |
|---|---|---|
| Say "show the porch camera" on a smart display or TV | Maker's cloud link | Through the internet |
| Open the gate camera on screen when someone presses the bell | Home Assistant with ONVIF or stream address | On the home network |
| Turn on the porch light when the driveway camera sees movement | Home Assistant, or the maker's app if it has routines | Home network or cloud, depending on route |
| One dashboard of all cameras next to locks and lights | Home Assistant | On the home network |
| Phone alert with a still image when the back lane camera triggers | Maker's app or Home Assistant | The alert goes to the family's own phones |
A combined set-up for the gate, bell and cameras is a project of its own, explained in autogate, doorbell and camera in one app.
It is easy to forget that a smart-home app usually only views. The recorder or the camera's memory card still holds the footage, and that is where you go to find what happened last Tuesday afternoon. Do not remove a working recorder because the cameras now show up on a dashboard. Plan the storage in the usual way; the CCTV hard disk guide explains how many days a drive holds.
The other point is the internet. A camera that reaches Google or Alexa through its maker's cloud stops showing there when the broadband drops, while a recorder carries on recording. If you want the dashboard to keep working at home during an outage, use the local routes, as set out in smart home without internet.
When a staff member, tenant or helper leaves, remove their access to the camera app and the home app on the moment you collect their keys.
A linked camera can send an alert with a snapshot to the phones of the people in the house. That is useful, but it is a household tool: the alert goes to you, and you decide what to do. It is not a guarding service, and nobody else is watching. Keep the number of alerts low enough that the family keeps reading them, for example only at night or only for the gate area, and point cameras at your own property rather than a neighbour's porch.
| Find out | Where to look | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Camera and recorder brand and model | Label on the recorder or the camera's app | Decides which of the three routes is open |
| Analog or IP cameras | Cable type at the recorder: coaxial or data cable | Analog cameras only reach the app through the recorder |
| Recorder admin account | Whoever set the system up | Needed to make a viewing user |
| Which home app the family already uses | Phones and speakers in the house | Avoids a second app nobody opens |
| Whether a Home Assistant box exists or is wanted | Household | Needed for the ONVIF and stream routes |
| Router features | Router settings | A guest or separate network helps keep cameras apart |
We link existing cameras and recorders to your phone app, Google Home, Alexa or Home Assistant, set up the viewing users, and build the routines you want, such as the gate camera on screen when the bell rings. We do the smart device, app and low-voltage side of the job. If a camera position needs a new power point, that is a separate job. Any mains electrical work, such as a new power point, a change at the distribution board or a hardwired switch that needs new wiring, must be done by an electrical contractor registered with Suruhanjaya Tenaga. Tell us the camera and recorder brands and which app your family uses, and we will say which route fits before the visit.
WhatsApp us your job details for a quote — we reply within the hour. A site visit is free. We serve KL, Selangor & Putrajaya.
💬 WhatsApp for a quoteTell us what you need — we reply within the hour.