Hello,
I’m using an iPad Mini on a wallmount with Home Assistant as my main overview device.
Now as the inbuild camera of the device is facing our door to our backyard it would be awesome if HA Mobile App could turn this camera into an IP-Camera.
Sadly you can’t use a third party app to solve this problem since iOS only allows the active app to use the camera (no background recording allowed).
Anyway thanks for the great community,
Lars
interesting request
Hi Lars,
I have the same constellation.
Have you found a workaround for this in the meantime?
There are several options, but I’m pretty sure it will not work in the background 
iVCam Webcam
EpocCam
According Apple, background usage of the camera is forbidden
So without modding the Ipad this will not be possible
as @aceindy said, unless you jailbreak the ipad (what I don’t want to do), there’s sadly no workaround I can think of 
BUT, as Home assistant is not “running in the background”, theoretically it would be possible
0
Based on the information in the AV Developer Kit, it is possible beginning with iOS 16, but the app has to explicitly support it:
Camera access is usually limited to apps running in full-screen mode. If your app enters a multitasking mode like Split View, the system disables the camera. Starting in iOS 16, your app can use the camera while multitasking by setting the isMultitaskingCameraAccessEnabled property to true on supported systems. Enabling this behavior also extends to Picture in Picture mode using AVKit. See Adopting Picture in Picture for video calls to learn more.
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answered Jul 14 at 21:32
Hi there,
I’m using an iPad (5th Gen with iOS 16 and the Home Assistant App) as a wall mount Display.
It’s logged in with its own User Account and the iPad is attached to this User as tracked Device.
It would be awesome to use the built in Camera on demand as a stream in Home Assistant.
Has there been any progress to this topic?
Best regards
Bjoern
Hello,
I have a wall mounted iPhone which shows my HA dashboard in Guided Access mode.
As a workaround for pushing the camera image to HA I currently use an iOS shortcut to take a row of photos and send them via web hook (see push camera platform) to my HA server. The advantage is, that the photos can be taken even though the HA app is still active.
camera:
- platform: push
name: Flur Kamera
webhook_id: flur_kamera
buffer: 10
timeout: 12
image form parameter.
To trigger this shortcut I created an iOS automation, which responds to disconnection from power.
The charger is plugged into a smart plug and this smart plug is controlled via a HA automation, which responds to a motion sensor and turns the smart plug off for some seconds and then on again.
I found, that sometimes the iOS shortcut automation is not triggered correctly, but it should help to send some push notification (via HA) to the phone (see Introduction | Home Assistant Companion Docs) to wake it up just before the smart plug will be turned off.
It’s not the prettiest solution, but it works for the moment. Hope it helps some of you while we are waiting for real camera access in the HA app 
Best regards
Julian
The ability to stream directly into HA through the iOS app would be a powerful feature when paired with Frigate. Plus, it would save me from purchasing and installing conspicuous and unsightly camera hardware around my house. What would be the path to getting this implemented in HA? There are surely lots of users with wall-mounted iPads that would utilize this capability.
