Bodycam Pro

Your phone. Your witness.

Bodycam Pro turns your iPhone into a professional-grade body camera — always ready, always recording, always protecting you. Whether you're a rideshare driver, delivery worker, journalist, legal professional, or anyone who needs documented proof of what happened, Bodycam Pro gives you the tools to record with confidence and export with credibility.

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Why Bodycam Pro?

Most camera apps are built for memories. Bodycam Pro is built for accountability.

• One tap to record — or set it to start the moment you open the app
• GPS-tagged footage with live route tracking and map playback
• Evidence Mode bakes timestamps, coordinates, and SHA-256 cryptographic hashes into your exports — so the footage holds up when it matters
• Lock screen widget means you never have to unlock your phone to start recording
• iCloud backup keeps your recordings safe even if your device is seized or damaged

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Features

Recording

• 720p / 1080p / 4K resolution selection
• Front and back camera support, including Ultra-Wide lens
• Configurable segment length (1–10 minutes) for automatic file chunking
• Audio toggle with Bluetooth HFP support
• Video stabilization
• Auto-start recording on app launch
• Interruption handling — automatically resumes after phone calls, audio session conflicts, and camera preemption

GPS & Mapping

• Live GPS tracking with location points logged throughout each recording
• Reverse geocoding to a human-readable street address
• Map thumbnail previews in the recording library
• Full-screen map with recorded route polyline
• GPS route scrubber — drag the timeline slider to move the pin along your exact path, with timestamps at every point

Evidence Mode

Turn any recording into a legally-defensible document.

Feature	What it does
Timestamp Watermark	Burns the recording date and time permanently into the video frames — not as strippable metadata, but as visible text baked into the pixels
GPS Coordinates Overlay	Permanently overlays latitude, longitude, and street address onto every frame
SHA-256 Hash Report	Generates a cryptographic fingerprint of both the original and exported file. If anyone modifies a single frame after export, the hash won't match — proving tampering
Evidence Summary	Exports a .json + .txt report with hashes, timestamps, GPS data, app version, and build number

Library & Management

• Recording library with duration, file size, creation date, and GPS thumbnail
• In-app video playback (no need to export to Photos to watch)
• Custom name per recording
• Tags — preset chips (Work, Commute, Incident, Travel, Personal, Evidence, Training) plus free-text custom tags
• Recording Details sheet — view all metadata including evidence hashes in-app
• Batch export to Photos library
• Select mode for multi-recording export and delete
• Share evidence summary package directly from the app

iCloud Backup

• Toggle automatic iCloud backup after each recording finishes
• "Back Up All Now" to sync existing recordings
• Per-recording iCloud status indicator (uploading / uploaded / failed)
• Graceful fallback when iCloud is unavailable

Lock Screen Widget

• Add a widget to your Lock Screen or Home Screen for one-tap recording start
• Supports .accessoryCircular (Lock Screen), .accessoryRectangular, and systemSmall
• Deep-links via bodycampro://start-recording — app opens and recording begins immediately

Monetization

Tier	Features
Free	30-minute recording limit per session, AdMob ads (interstitial, rewarded, native)
Premium ($3.99/mo or lifetime)	Unlimited recording, no ads

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Technical Architecture

Core Managers

Class	Role
RecordingManager	AVFoundation session setup, recording lifecycle, segment rotation, metadata persistence, evidence exports
LocationManager	CoreLocation GPS tracking, reverse geocoding, location path accumulation
SafeRecordingHandler	Background task management, crash protection, disk space monitoring, file integrity verification
AdMobManager	Interstitial, rewarded, and native ad loading and presentation
SubscriptionManager	StoreKit 2 product loading, purchase, restore, and entitlement observation
iCloudManager	iCloud Drive upload, per-recording sync status tracking

Key Patterns

Recording Segmentation Long recordings are split into configurable chunks stored as individual .mov files. This prevents data loss on crash and keeps file sizes manageable.

Metadata Persistence GPS coordinates, address, location path, custom name, and tags are stored in a sidecar metadata.json alongside the video files. Evidence summaries are stored in a separate Evidence/ directory.

Background Safety

App backgrounds → beginBackgroundTask → SafeRecordingHandler expiration handler
    → synchronous endBackgroundTask + EmergencyStopRecording notification
    → AVCaptureMovieFileOutput.stopRecording() → file saved

The expiration handler calls endBackgroundTask synchronously (not via Task) to avoid the "still not ended" system warning.

Evidence Export Pipeline

AVURLAsset → AVMutableComposition → CALayer overlay (timestamp + GPS text)
    → AVVideoCompositionCoreAnimationTool → AVAssetExportSession
    → SHA-256 hash of original + exported → EvidenceSummary JSON + TXT

Widget Deep Link

BodycamWidget (WidgetKit) → widgetURL("bodycampro://start-recording")
    → BodycamProApp.onOpenURL → NotificationCenter post
    → MainView.onReceive → showRecorder = true

Concurrency

All managers use @MainActor. Background operations use Task.detached for AVCaptureSession and Task.detached(priority: .background) for iCloud file copies.

File Storage

Documents/
├── Videos/
│   ├── 2026-01-15-14-32-01-abc123.mov
│   ├── 2026-01-15-14-32-01-abc123.mov  ← segments
│   └── metadata.json                   ← GPS + tags + custom names
└── Evidence/
    ├── 2026-01-15-14-32-01-abc123-evidence.mov
    ├── 2026-01-15-14-32-01-abc123-evidence.json
    └── 2026-01-15-14-32-01-abc123-evidence.txt

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Project Structure

Bodycam Pro/
├── BodycamProApp.swift          # App entry, audio session, ATT, URL scheme handler
├── MainView.swift               # Main UI, library, settings, all sheet views
├── RecordingView.swift          # Active recording screen, free-tier limit
├── RecordingManager.swift       # Core recording logic, evidence exports
├── LocationManager.swift        # GPS tracking, reverse geocoding
├── SafeRecordingHandler.swift   # Background tasks, crash protection
├── AdMobManager.swift           # Ad loading and presentation
├── NativeAdView.swift           # Native ad UIKit component with MediaView
├── SubscriptionManager.swift    # StoreKit 2 purchases
├── PaywallView.swift            # Paywall UI
├── VideoPlayerView.swift        # In-app AVKit video player
├── iCloudManager.swift          # iCloud Drive backup
└── BodycamPro.entitlements

BodycamWidget/
└── BodycamWidget.swift          # Lock screen / home screen WidgetKit extension

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Setup

Prerequisites

• Xcode 16+
• iOS 17.6+ device (camera and recording features require a physical device)
• Apple Developer account

Steps

1. Clone the repository
2. Install CocoaPods dependencies:

   pod install

3. Open Bodycam Pro.xcworkspace (not .xcodeproj)
4. Configure signing in target settings
5. Update AdMob App ID in Info.plist if using your own account
6. Configure StoreKit products in App Store Connect:
   • com.jimwas.bodycampro.premium.monthly — $3.99/month subscription
   • com.jimwas.bodycampro.premium.lifetime — one-time lifetime purchase
7. Build and run on a physical device

Widget Setup (optional)

1. In Xcode: File → New Target → Widget Extension, name it BodycamWidget
2. Uncheck "Include Configuration App Intent"
3. Replace generated files with BodycamWidget/BodycamWidget.swift
4. Add URL Type in Info.plist with scheme bodycampro

iCloud Backup Setup (optional)

1. In Apple Developer Portal, enable iCloud Documents for App ID JimWas.Bodycam-Pro
2. Add container iCloud.JimWas.Bodycam-Pro
3. In Xcode: target → Signing & Capabilities → iCloud → iCloud Documents
4. Xcode will add the required entitlement keys automatically

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Requirements

Requirement	Detail
iOS	17.6+
Xcode	16+
Camera	Required
Microphone	Required
Location	Required for GPS tagging
Photo Library	Required for export to Photos
iCloud	Optional — for backup feature

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Dependencies

Dependency	Purpose	Source
Google Mobile Ads SDK	AdMob ads	CocoaPods
AVFoundation	Video recording	System
CoreLocation	GPS tracking	System
MapKit	Map display and snapshots	System
StoreKit 2	In-app purchases	System
WidgetKit	Lock screen widget	System
CryptoKit	SHA-256 evidence hashes	System

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Changelog

Latest

• In-app video player — tap any recording to watch without exporting
• GPS route scrubber — interactive timeline slider in the map view
• Custom recording names and tags (Work, Commute, Incident, Travel, and more)
• iCloud automatic backup after each recording
• Lock screen and home screen widget for instant recording start
• Auto-start recording on app launch toggle
• Evidence Mode info popup with full feature explanation
• Recording Details sheet — view all metadata and SHA-256 hashes in-app
• Fixed white screen bug on map view (Map frame collapse in ZStack)
• Fixed background task "still not ended" warning (synchronous expiration handler)
• Fixed background task firing on every app backgrounding when not recording
• Added MediaView to native ads so video-format ads render correctly
• Fixed rewarded ad unit ID format mismatch
• Fixed AVAssetExportSession Sendable concurrency warning

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Legal

Users are responsible for complying with local laws regarding video recording, audio recording, privacy, and consent. Laws vary by jurisdiction. When in doubt, inform the people you are recording.

App Store privacy policy: jimwashkau.com/privacy
Terms of use: jimwashkau.com/terms