How Findy works
Five inspection methods and what each one physically measures. If you only read one page about this app, read this one.
A. Camera lens-reflection inspection
Camera lenses reflect directed light. When you shine a light at an object and view it from close to the light's axis, a lens can appear as a small, distinctly bright point that shifts as you move. This is the same technique used to spot lenses by eye; the phone camera makes the reflection easier to notice and hold steady.
How Findy reports the result
3 reflection(s)
The automatic lens scan reports how many reflective points it is currently tracking and offers an Inspect action. It does not classify any of them.
B. Infrared-style viewing
Many cameras with night vision illuminate a room using infrared LEDs. That light is invisible to the eye, but some infrared wavelengths reach a phone camera's sensor and appear as a faint white or purple glow on screen. Findy provides a viewing mode intended to make such sources easier to notice in a dark room.
C. Wi-Fi and local-network scanning
When you are connected to a Wi-Fi network, other devices on that same network are often reachable. Findy looks at the network you are on and reports what it can observe: which addresses respond, which services they advertise over Bonjour, and which respond on ports commonly used by IP cameras and recorders (RTSP and the vendor control and web ports).
What Findy can observe
- Local IP addresses that respond on the subnet
- Service advertisements broadcast over Bonjour, including
_rtsp._tcpand_http._tcp - Which of a set of camera-associated ports are open
- Host names, where a device publishes one
- Changes since your previous scan of the same network
Device discovered is not camera identified
These are different claims and Findy keeps them separate. A device named IPC-1234
advertising a video service is genuinely worth investigating. A device with no name and no recognisable
service is simply unidentified — and most home and hotel networks are full of those.
Findy marks each discovered device either as ordinary or as showing camera-related indicators, and shows the specific reason it was marked. There is no "confirmed" state and no certainty score.
| Label | What it means |
|---|---|
| Ordinary | Nothing Findy observed about the device is associated with cameras. |
| Shows camera-related indicators | One of the checks below matched. Findy totals these and reports the count as the number of suspicious devices. |
The reason shown beside a marked device is one of the following:
- a name matching a manufacturer known for cameras, shown as "Likely <vendor> camera";
- a name matching a camera-related keyword, shown as "Name matches <keyword>";
- a streaming or surveillance service advertised on the network;
- an open port associated with cameras.
Findy shows the reason behind every flag. Be aware that a device whose name matches a manufacturer known for cameras is flagged on that basis alone — many such manufacturers also make televisions, doorbells and routers, so treat a name-only match as a starting point rather than a finding.
D. Bluetooth discovery
Findy lists Bluetooth Low Energy devices that are advertising nearby, and shows an estimated distance and a direction arrow calculated from the received signal strength. It also watches, in the background, for a device that keeps reappearing near you across different places — the pattern that suggests an item tracker is travelling with you rather than simply being nearby.
Try it: warmer or colder. Move the phone and watch the signal — the bar is all you get, and it only tells you the direction to keep moving.
Weak signal — the device is somewhere in range, but you cannot tell where. Stronger — you are moving the right way. Keep going. Strong — you are close, but a wall could still be fooling the reading. Strongest here — now look. The app has taken you as far as signal can.
Bluetooth discovery finds devices that are
- Powered on and actively advertising
- Within radio range
- Visible under iOS's rules for third-party apps
E. Magnetometer checks
The iPhone's magnetometer measures magnetic field strength. Electronics containing motors, speakers, shielding or magnets distort the local field. Sweeping the phone slowly across one specific object, and comparing against a baseline taken away from electronics, can reveal that the object contains more hardware than it appears to.
How to take a reading that means something
- Remove magnetic phone accessories, cases and stands.
- Establish a baseline well away from electronics and metal.
- Move slowly around the specific object you are inspecting.
- Repeat the measurement to check the reading is stable.
- Compare several sides of the object rather than one face.
- Inspect the object visually before concluding anything.
Why several methods instead of one button
Each method above works under different conditions. Lens reflection needs the right angle. Infrared needs the camera to actually use infrared. Network scanning needs the device to be on your network and powered on. Bluetooth needs it to be advertising. Magnetometer readings need a specific object to test.
A device that one method does not surface is often visible to another, which is why Findy uses several and presents its output as evidence to interpret rather than a single verdict.
Last reviewed 2026-07-23 · Reviewed by the Findy team at Flaps Apps.