Turn an old phone into a baby monitor

What you need

You do not have to buy anything. Gather these:

• An old phone or tablet with a working camera and microphone. It needs no SIM card and no data plan; Wi-Fi is enough.
• A current browser on it: Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari. MeiMei opens over a secure https address, which the camera and microphone require.
• Your own phone, tablet or computer as the parent device, on the same home Wi-Fi.
• A phone stand or wall mount that holds the old phone steadily, and either a charger with a cable you can keep out of reach or enough battery to run without one.

The old phone is the baby unit: it stays in your child's room and watches. Your own device is the parent device: it shows the live view and receives the alerts.

Get the old phone ready

• Charge it fully and check that the camera and the microphone work, for example in the phone's own camera app.
• Close other apps. If another app is using the camera or the microphone, the browser cannot open them.
• In the display settings, set the screen timeout to the longest value. In a browser, MeiMei needs the screen to stay on.
• Connect it to your home Wi-Fi and move it to the room where it will be used, so you can test the signal there.

Set it up with MeiMei, step by step

1. On the old phone, open meimeimonitor.com/app/ in the browser and choose “This device watches the child”.

2. Allow the camera and the microphone when the browser asks. MeiMei asks for them only on the baby unit. Check the preview picture.

3. The old phone shows a QR code and a pairing link. On your own phone, point the camera at the code. On a computer, copy the link and open it in the browser there.

4. On the parent device, choose that it is for the parent. The two devices agree on a secret key that encrypts everything between them.

5. Go on to the placement check on the baby unit and confirm the distance and the cable. Both are needed before a session can start.

6. Start the session. The old phone begins to listen and watch. On your device you get alerts, and you can open the live view or talk back whenever you want.

Do a test run during the day. Make a noise near the old phone and check that the alert reaches you, before you rely on the setup at night.

Power: battery or charger

Old batteries wear out, so decide how the phone will be powered before the first night.

• For naps, run on battery so there is no cable near the crib. MeiMei estimates how long the battery lasts in low-power mode and tells you whether it is enough for the session.
• If the battery would not last, use the charger, with the cable kept at least 1 m (3 ft) from every part of the crib and routed out of reach.
• Keep the charger and the cable out of your child's reach in either case, and check them again as your child grows.

MeiMei can also alert you about a low battery or a lost connection, so a phone that has run flat does not go unnoticed.

Wi-Fi and placement

• Without an account, both devices must be on the same Wi-Fi network. Check the signal where the old phone will sit: a weak signal there means a choppy picture.
• Mount the old phone high on a wall or shelf, at least 1 m (3 ft) from the crib or bed and out of your child's reach. Never put it inside the crib or on its edge.
• Children who sit and stand reach further. Place the phone higher and farther away than you think you need.
• Phones have no infrared camera. A dim, warm night light, with its cord out of reach too, lets MeiMei see movement. Without it, MeiMei listens only.

How you place the baby unit matters more than any setting in the app. The safety page has the full advice.

What works for free

Everything in this guide works without paying and without an account:

• Pairing, live view and talk-back.
• Crying, coughing and movement detection, on the phone itself.
• Every alert, shown on the parent device's screen.
• The placement check before every session.
• Phones, tablets and computers in any mix.

Without a plan, nothing is saved: no clips and no sleep history. A free account adds alerts to a locked phone or a tab in the background. MeiMei Home keeps clips, a night timeline and summaries.

If something does not work

• No picture or no sound: allow the camera and the microphone for the page (the camera icon in the address bar, or the browser's site settings), and close any other app that is using them.
• The parent device cannot connect: check that both devices are on the same Wi-Fi, then open the link or scan the code again.
• The picture stops after a while: the screen went to sleep or the tab went to the background. Keep the screen on and the tab open.
• Still stuck: the support page lists the common fixes.

Limits to know

• In a browser, keep the tab open and the screen on. Watching stops when the tab is in the background, the phone locks or it goes to sleep.
• Without an account, alerts only reach an open tab on the parent device. They cannot reach a locked phone.
• Browsers cannot pin the screen or tell when someone moves the phone.
• The MeiMei apps for Android and iPhone are coming soon. They keep watching with the screen off and send alerts to a locked phone.

MeiMei is not a medical device and does not replace watching your child yourself. It reports sounds and movement; it cannot tell you whether something is wrong.