How to get CCTV alerts on WhatsApp

The brand apps for Hikvision, Dahua and CP Plus recorders, which are Hik-Connect, DMSS and gCMOB, send their alerts as push notifications inside their own app. To receive alerts in WhatsApp you add a service that sits between your cameras and WhatsApp.

• What you get: a WhatsApp message with a photo, the camera name and the time, when the cameras see something that matters.
• What you need: software that analyses the camera video and a sender that is allowed to message you on WhatsApp.
• What to avoid: homemade scripts that message you from a personal WhatsApp account. WhatsApp's rules do not allow auto-messaging or unofficial clients, and accounts that break them can be banned.
• With us: alerts for people after hours, smoke and fire can arrive on WhatsApp. Every alert, including a covered or offline camera, arrives on Telegram and in the Foreman app.

Camera brands build their apps around their own push notifications. In Hik-Connect you switch on Alarm Notification for a device. In DMSS you use Multi-channel Alarm Subscription. In gCMOB and iCMOB, CP Plus says push notifications cover motion detection, video loss, tampering and network disconnect, and that each message carries only the device, the camera name and the event type. Their guides describe alerts in the app. They do not describe sending to WhatsApp.

If you want to see how each app handles alerts, read CCTV on mobile: which app to use.

Already have cameras and a recorder? Try Foreman free for 7 days, no card

• Use the camera app and live with its own notifications. Simple, free and reliable for basic motion. No photo in some apps, and no WhatsApp.
• Build it yourself. A script or an automation tool takes an event from your recorder or software and sends a message. It needs someone who can fix it when it stops, and the sender has to follow WhatsApp's rules.
• Buy software with WhatsApp alerts built in. The vendor handles the WhatsApp side, you choose who is told. This is the route we offer.
• Use another messenger. Telegram and an app notification are free to send and need no approval. Many sites use both.

WhatsApp has an official route for businesses, the WhatsApp Business Platform. Meta's developer documentation says it is for developers using its APIs and lets businesses communicate with customers at scale. Under it, a message sent to someone who has not recently messaged the business has to use an approved template. Meta says template messages are the only type of message that can be sent to WhatsApp users outside a customer service window.

Outside that route, WhatsApp's messaging guidelines say not to engage in adversarial behaviour, and list among examples the use of unofficial clients, bulk messaging, auto-messaging, auto-dialing or automation to harm WhatsApp or its users. A personal account used as an alarm sender is the risky choice. If you build your own, use the official route.

• A photo of the moment, so you can tell in a few seconds whether to act.
• The camera name and the time.
• One message per event, not a stream of repeats.
• A check before it is sent, so a passing shadow does not wake you.
• A choice of who receives it: the owner, a manager, a supervisor on night duty.

• They depend on your phone. If notifications for the chat are muted or the phone is off, you will not see it.
• They are not a siren. If you need the alert to break through silent mode, check your phone's notification settings.
• They need the internet at the site. Detection can run on site, but checking and sending need a connection.
• They tell you. They do not send guards or call the police.

We are software, not a camera brand. Our software installs on a Windows computer at your site in 60 seconds and works with the recorder you already have: Hikvision and Prama, Dahua, CP Plus, TVT, Uniview, Axis, Hanwha, and any camera, DVR or NVR with RTSP or ONVIF.

• Our own AI models, trained in-house, watch each camera on site. A second, larger model checks every event before you are alerted.
• Standard on every site: smoke and fire, people after hours in zones you mark, a covered camera, and a warning when a camera goes offline.
• Alerts for people, smoke and fire can go to WhatsApp, and every alert goes to Telegram and the Foreman app. You choose who receives them.
• Recordings stay on site. Your recorder keeps recording.
• Free 7-day trial on up to 32 cameras, no card. In India it is ₹400 per camera per month plus GST, four cameras minimum.