Buttons and settings overview

This topic lists and describes buttons and settings in the XProtect Mobile app. If you see something in the app that you're not sure how to use, you can look it up here.

When you start the app, the Servers screen contains the following buttons and settings:

Name

Description
Add server (Android) Scan the local network for available mobile servers. The XProtect Mobile client has a scanning functionality for finding XProtect Mobile servers based on UPnP.

(Android)

Edit (iOS)
  • Add server (iOS) - Scan the local network for mobile servers.
  • Edit - Edit settings for the server.
  • Delete - Delete the server from the list.
  • Connect or Disconnect (Android) - Connect to the mobile server or disconnect the server you are currently connected to.

(Android)

Settings (iOS)

View or change:

  • General settings:
    • Stay awake - Enable to keep the screen awake while streaming video.
    • Hide demo server - Enable to hide the demo server from the server list.
    • Provide usage data (Android) - Enable to help us deliver excellent services to you.

      You must not enable data collection if you want the system to have an EU GDPR-compliant installation. For more information about data protection and the usage data collection, see the GDPR privacy guide.

    • Push notifications (Android) - Enable to receive push notifications in the app. To receive push notifications, you must also enable the notifications setting for the app on your mobile device and on the mobile server (see Enable or disable notifications).
    • Enable use of biometrics or your device credentials for this app - Use biometric sensors or your device credentials to unlock the app before you open it (Android and iOS) or before you edit or delete a mobile server (Android). To use the feature in the app, you must enable the setting about biometrics and security on your mobile device.
  • Video quality settings:
    • Frames per second - Lower FPS will reduce the bandwidth usage.
    • Optimize bandwidth or image quality - Enable to reduce bandwidth usage. Disable to increase image quality.
    • Use lower video resolution - Enable to allow for higher FPS rates.
    • Allow direct streaming on device - Allow to improve the video quality. Direct streaming is only available if enabled on the server.
    • Use keyframes only in live video from multiple cameras - Enable to use keyframes only and to reduce the usage of CPU power. Disable to use all frames and higher FPS rates.
    • Video diagnostics overlay - Enable to view the FPS (frames per second), the codec, the resolution, and the type of streaming of the video stream in the selected view. The feature displays the information as an overlay to the video and can help you to troubleshoot XProtect Mobile client issues related to the video stream and performance issues.
  • Controls settings:
    • Autohide video controls - Hide the video controls after a period without activity.
    • Default PTZ controls - Select the preferred default setting for the PTZ control.

Find more information about using the XProtect Mobile app by tapping the Help link.

When you tap Add server, the Add servers screen contains the following settings:

Name

Description

Add server with ID

Add a server using a unique server identifier. This connection method uses the Address book service and requires a Milestone Care Plus subscription package.
Add server manually Enter a name for the server, its IP address or its host name, and select the type of connection that you will use to connect the XProtect Mobile client to the mobile server. By default, the HTTPS connection is selected.

After logging in to a mobile server:

  • The user menu in the upper left-hand corner contains the following:
  • The top bar in Android and the bottom tabs in iOS can contain the following options:

The options are available only if you have been given permission to view them, which happens in Management Client.

Name

Description

(Android)

(iOS)

 Go to Smart Map to view and access devices (for example, cameras) of your VMS at multiple locations worldwide through your mobile device. This feature is only available in certain XProtect VMS products. See the complete feature list, which is available on the product overview page on the Milestone website (https://www.milestonesys.com/products/software/product-index/).

(Android)

(iOS)

View your current location on the smart map visualized by the current location marker. On the smart map toolbar, the location button can show the following location states:

  • (Android) or (iOS) - The location is centered around your current location marker.

  • (Android) or (iOS) - The location is not centered around your current location marker.

  • (Android) or (iOS) - No current location is available on the smart map.

(Android)

(iOS)

 View live video in a grid view with all cameras in the area that is visible on the smart map. Find the grid view button on the smart map toolbar. To close the grid view, tap (Android) or Close (iOS).

(Android)

(iOS)

Filter camera views or bookmarks. By default, all views and bookmarks are selected.

Search for a view or a specific camera.

  • Enter ptz to find all your PTZ cameras.
  • Enter audio to find all your cameras that have microphones attached.
  • Enter ptt to find all your cameras that have speakers.

Views (Android)

(iOS)

View the available views of cameras on the Home screen. Select the view that you want to play video from (live or recorded). The available views are organized in folders:

  • (Android)

  • (iOS)

These folders can contain other folders with views or separate views with cameras - (Android) or (iOS). The views can only contain cameras.

Cameras (Android)

(iOS)

 View the available cameras listed in the All cameras view.

Investigations (Android)

(iOS)

View investigations created in XProtect Web Client or XProtect Mobile client.

Bookmarks (Android)

(iOS)

 View the list of bookmarks. You can also:

  • Edit the bookmark details - (Android) or Edit (iOS).

  • Share the bookmark - (Android) or (iOS).

  • Delete the bookmark - (Android) or Delete (iOS).

Actions (Android)

(iOS)

Access outputs and events to activate them.

Alarms (Android)

(iOS)

View and react to alarms.

(Android)

(iOS)

Video push lets you use the camera on your mobile device to stream video with audio to your surveillance system.

On the Video push screen, go to (Android) or Settings (iOS) to view or change:

  • Video resolution - Select the resolution of the video stream to push.
  • Automatic image quality - Enable to adjust the image quality automatically. If you disable the setting, then you can set the image quality to Low, Medium, or High.
  • Location data - Add location data to the video stream.
  • XProtect Corporate
  • XProtect Expert
  • XProtect Professional+
  • XProtect Express+
  • XProtect Essential+

In live mode, you can use these buttons to do the following:

Name

Description

(Android)

(iOS)

View a list of actions for the selected camera.

(Android)

(iOS)

Go to PTZ mode. Shows PTZ controls on the screen so you can pan, tilt and zoom in on the selected camera. Dimmed for non-PTZ cameras.

(Android)

(iOS)

View the PTZ preset positions on the selected camera (for PTZ cameras only).

(Android)

(iOS)

Take a snapshot of the current frame. Snapshots are saved as follows:

  • Snapshots are saved to your device's SD card at /mnt/sdcard/Milestone (Android).
  • Snapshots are saved to your device's Photo Library and can be accessed by tapping Photos on your device (iOS).

You cannot change the save locations.

(Android)

(iOS)

 Share live video from any camera with your co-workers.

(Android)

(iOS)

 Go to Smart Map to see the location of the camera you are viewing live video from. This feature is only available in certain XProtect VMS products. See the complete feature list, which is available on the product overview page on the Milestone website (https://www.milestonesys.com/products/software/product-index/).

(Android)

(iOS)

 Start or stop listening to incoming audio from cameras that have microphones attached.

Start or stop using the push-to-talk (PTT) feature with cameras that have speakers.

(Android)

(iOS)

Add a bookmark to live videos to quickly locate relevant video sequences (see Viewing live video).

(Android)

(iOS)

Switch from live mode to playback mode.

In playback mode, you can use these buttons to do the following:

Name

Description

(Android)

(iOS)

View a list of created video recordings.

(Android)

(iOS)

Turn on and turn off a small picture-in-picture (PiP) for live mode. Tap the button again or double-tap the PiP view to return to live mode.

(Android)

(iOS)

 Create an investigation.

(Android)

(iOS)

 Play a video recording forward.

(Android)

(iOS)

 Play a video recording backward.

(Android)

(iOS)

 Pause playing a video recording.

(Android)

(iOS)

 Go forward to the next sequence or go back to the previous sequence.

(Android)

(iOS)

 Go one frame forward or one frame backward in the sequence.

Drag the time scroller to go to a specific time in a video recording. Tap the time indicator to open the time picker.

X1

Open a selection of playback speeds.

(Android)

(iOS)

 Play back audio from cameras that have microphones and speakers attached.

(Android)

(iOS)

 Take a snapshot in playback mode.

(Android)

(iOS)

 Add a bookmark to recorded videos to quickly locate video sequences (see Find and view video recordings).

(Android)

(iOS)

Go back to the previous screen.