Kapal

Kapal+ Health Alerts are here. Offline camera alerts have been expanded into a new Health Alerts section, now with low-storage warnings for your Frigate storage locations. This update includes: - New low-storage alerts with per-storage GB thresholds - Health Alerts now combines camera offline alerts and storage alerts in one place - Fresh health checks when opening the Health Alerts page, so camera status and storage amounts are up to date - Improved playback compatibility for some H.265/HEVC event clips, including cameras that produce `hev1` tagged video files - Video playback errors are now shown in a cleaner location instead of covering the video preview - Smoother live camera snapshots with less bursty loading, better WebP handling, and improved fallback behavior on slower Frigate systems - More forgiving local connection checks for slower networks, VPNs, and busy Frigate servers - Improved filter loading so cached camera and label filters are preserved when startup metadata is slow to respond - Fixed an Activity by Camera text layout issue in System stats - General polish and reliability improvements for alert handling, playback, snapshots, and connection handling A sincere thank you to everyone who reaches out with logs, screenshots, camera models, and detailed issue reports. That feedback is a huge part of why I can keep improving Kapal across more real-world Frigate setups. My family will only let me buy so many cameras, so reports from your systems help me fix things I could not reproduce on my own. If you run into any issues, please email me from inside the app. Those reports really do help shape fixes and improvements.

New Feature: Timeline (Kapal+) Timeline is now in Kapal+ as an early release, and I’m genuinely excited to finally ship it. It’s already usable and already useful, and we’re committed to improving it over the next few months based on how you use it. What this changes for you: - Quickly jump through your Frigate history with Timeline scrubbing and go straight to event moments, instead of hunting through clips one by one. - See everything that happened around an event, not just one camera at a time, with Play all cameras at once for much better context. - Use local network playback where needed (Only on local network) for better reliability in busier environments. - Turn on settings that match your workflow, like Default zoom, Snap to events, and Group related events, to review events your way. Thanks to everyone supporting the app. Your support has made this possible. We also added the most requested feature with the same focus on real-world use: practical, hands-on monitoring that can actually be used daily. For feedback, suggestions, or bug reports: - Use Contact Support from the App section in the app, or - Email us at support@judeworks.app Need ideas for fixes or features? Check out Roadmap in-app and submit your request directly.

Fixed additional connection issues that prevented some users from connecting to their servers over certain connection types.

This update resolves an issue introduced while tightening app security. I went a bit too far, and Tailscale unfortunately became a casualty. Apologies for the disruption, and thanks for your patience.

Kapal 1.7.3 — Snapshots, Sharing, and Smarter Alerts A massive thank-you to everyone using the Roadmap in Settings to submit ideas and vote on what comes next. Every single feature in this update came directly from your suggestions and the community votes that pushed them to the top. This is your release. WHAT'S NEW • HD event snapshots — event photos now pull a full-resolution frame from the recording stream when available, with a graceful fallback to the standard snapshot. Massive quality upgrade on cameras with low detect resolution. • Photo / Video switcher — event detail now has a proper segmented control to swap between the photo and the clip. Snapshot is finally a first-class view, not a placeholder. • Pinch, zoom, and pan on the fullscreen photo — tap the photo to go fullscreen, then pinch to zoom in, drag to pan, double-tap to toggle 2.5x. Share button included. • Bigger, sharper event list thumbnails — new Full Frame option (now the default) shows the whole camera frame for each event instead of a tight 175x175 crop. Toggle right from the Events tab toolbar if you prefer the old style. • Offline Camera Alerts (Kapal+) — get a notification when a camera has been offline for a while. Configurable threshold, optional "back online" alerts, per-camera toggles. Lives under System → Connection → Offline Alerts. • Faster live grid — camera previews now use WebP where supported, dropping bandwidth roughly 10x at the same image quality. Falls back automatically. • iPad polish — events now lay out as a 2-column grid and the long-standing tap bug on event cards is fixed. KEEP THE IDEAS COMING Every feature above started as a comment in the Roadmap. Settings → System → Roadmap. Submit what you want, vote on what others have asked for, and be specific! The more clearly you describe the use case, the easier it is to design the right thing. Thank you for making Kapal better. :)

What’s New in Kapal This update fixes an issue where some videos would stop playing after 5 seconds. Onboarding has also been improved, especially for users who need to enter a username and password, making setup smoother and easier to follow. New in this release: Roadmap. You can now submit your own feature ideas and vote on future improvements directly in the app. Find it under the System tab, at the bottom near the Contact Support button. This release also marks build 50 for Kapal. A special thank you to everyone who has reached out for support, reported issues, and shared suggestions along the way. Kapal gets better because of users like you, and your feedback directly shapes what comes next.

I appreciate your ongoing support and a big thank you to those who reach out with suggestions! Bug fixes and quality improvements: • Improved support/contact flow for a smoother help experience. • Fixed a System tab issue so server restart is consistently available. • General stability and reliability enhancements.

What’s New This update comes to you from a laundromat in Miami while I’m on vacation, because apparently that is when I decided to finally wrap up Kapal’s H.265 / HEVC support. Main Improvements H.265 / HEVC Reliability This is a major H.265 / HEVC update for Kapal. Live camera streams and event clips using H.265 should now work much more reliably, including setups that previously failed or behaved inconsistently. One of my own H.265 cameras has been a long-running troublemaker: unreliable live view, unreliable event playback, and constant edge cases exposing gaps in Kapal’s playback support. With this update, that camera is now correctly streaming its main feed and playing back events reliably. Stream Quality Selection You can now tap the stream quality while viewing a live camera and switch qualities directly from there. Kapal will remember your selection and use it as the default for that camera. Other Improvements - Improved live camera playback reliability for both main and sub streams. - Improved playback handling for H.264 streams and event clips. - Added better fallback handling for unsupported codecs and playback paths. - Improved detection of available Frigate/go2rtc stream options. - Improved main/sub/MJPEG fallback behavior so stream selection is clearer and more reliable. - Added a connection status indicator while Kapal tests available stream fallbacks from main stream to sub stream to MJPEG. - Improved event loading, filtering, snapshots, and thumbnails, especially for ongoing events. - Added a dedicated fallback playback path so Kapal can still attempt event clips instead of failing immediately. If you have a camera, stream, or event clip that still does not play correctly, please reach out: hey@judeworks.app

Added logic to automatically refresh the Events tab so data stays fresher. Thank you to the user who suggested this change.

One of the last visual tweaks I wanted to ship after recently refreshing the Cameras feed and System menu was the Events experience, and this update delivers that. What’s new in this update • Events view fully refreshed • Cleaner, more modern event cards with better hierarchy and less clutter • Improved metadata presentation for things like confidence, names/sub-labels, zones, and plate info (when available) • Smarter filtering and sorting • Updated Filter & Sort flow with clearer date handling • Added ongoing-first sorting and better filter controls for faster triage • Better event search • Search now progressively pages server results and continues finding more matches as you scroll • Added retry behavior for paging failures instead of silently stopping • Added search suggestions based on discovered event data • Event detail improvements • New status strip for high-signal states (ongoing, retained, false positive) • Cleaner detail layout that hides empty fields automatically • Added retry actions for failed snapshot/video loads • Connection/recovery UX improvement • Added Manage Servers button on the connecting screen so you can cancel and switch/edit servers quickly if a target is unreachable Fixes and polish • Removed noisy badges/labels that weren’t adding value • Improved reliability around event pagination edge cases

This update is proof that one email can spiral into a full revamp: a simple request turned into rebuilt onboarding and much better server management. What’s new and improved: •Fixed cases where Kapal could show “no cameras” even though you were connected and cameras were still loading •Better connection handling: Kapal now detects disconnects while you’re using it and prompts you instead of requiring a quit/relaunch •Cleaner settings layout (system options moved out of Camera Settings into the System view) •Server URL testing when you add a server to confirm connectivity and help you choose the most secure option available •Added a Support button during onboarding if you hit issues getting your server authorized •Plus a pile of smaller polish and consistency fixes throughout the app Also introducing Kapal+ to help fund ongoing development, with: •Multiple servers •Server priority ordering •Automatic failover if your primary server goes down I’ve got a ton of ideas queued up for what’s next. The only big area left that still needs the full treatment is the Events page — and I’m looking forward to improving it soon. And seriously: keep the feedback coming. If one email can cause this much change, imagine what two could do.

What's New Birdseye Auto-Hide Birdseye can now automatically show and hide based on activity. When set to "Only With Detections," Birdseye appears when objects are detected on any camera and disappears when activity stops. Find this option in Settings → Birdseye → Visibility. Improved Network Performance Fixed an issue where snapshot requests could pile up on slower connections. The app now waits for each request to complete before starting another and automatically backs off when experiencing connection issues. Thank you for using Kapal! If you have feedback or run into any issues, please reach out via Settings → Contact Support.

Smarter Streams, Faster Loading This update improves how Kapal connects to camera streams and makes setup cleaner. SMART STREAM DETECTION - Kapal now auto-detects the best stream type per camera by analyzing your go2rtc configuration - Settings now shows at a glance which cameras support HLS, Sub Stream, or MJPEG - Added "Reset Stream Detection" to re-probe after Frigate/go2rtc changes FASTER CONNECTIONS - Rebuilt timeout logic gets you to video faster - Quicker detection of connection problems means less waiting on black screens - Live connection status like "Checking HLS...", "Trying Sub Stream..." PICTURE-IN-PICTURE - Keep watching cameras while using other apps - Available for HLS streams. Tap the PiP button in the controls overlay NEW SETUP GUIDE - Added an HLS Streaming Setup guide in Settings to help configure go2rtc for best quality SETTINGS CLEANUP - Cameras now live on their own subpage in Settings to reduce clutter and keep stream settings focused BUG FIXES - Fixed swipe-to-dismiss not working on MJPEG streams - Improved text readability in setup guides If Kapal’s been useful, an App Store review helps a lot. Questions or issues: Settings → Contact Support.

What’s New in Kapal First of all, a huge thank you to everyone who has given Kapal a shot. Building this has been a labor of love, and seeing others find it useful really keeps me going. This update brings several new features to help you keep an eye on your home: • High-Quality HLS Streaming: I’ve introduced support for high-quality video via go2rtc. Please note that for this to work, you’ll need to have go2rtc streams configured in your Frigate server. If you’re unsure how to set that up, the Frigate documentation is a great place to start. • Performance vs. Quality: You’ll now find a new "Stream Mode" toggle in settings. Choose "Quality" for a crisp, high-definition HLS feed, or "Performance" for a lower-latency MJPEG stream that loads nearly instantly. • Birdseye Support: Birdseye is finally here. You can now view your composite feed directly in the Live tab. I’ve also included sizing options so you can set it to "Large" if you want it to act as a full-width hero card at the top of your grid. • System Stats: A brand new System tab is now available, allowing you to monitor your Frigate server’s health, storage usage, and detector performance in real-time. • Automatic Stream Recovery: If a high-definition stream isn't supported by your hardware (which can happen with certain H.265 formats), Kapal is now smart enough to automatically cycle through your available feeds until it finds a usable stream so you aren't left with a black screen. Note: To get the most out of the new Birdseye features, please ensure you have 'restream: True' enabled in your Frigate config. I’m still working hard to make this the best experience possible, so if you have any questions, feedback, or just want to report a bug, please reach out at hey@judeworks.app. I’d love to hear from you!

What's New • Fixed authentication issues with various Frigate server configurations including reverse proxies, URL redirects, and token-based auth setups • Live camera streams now automatically reconnect when returning to the app after being in the background • Event thumbnails and snapshots load more reliably with automatic retry on failure • Added image caching for smoother scrolling in the event browser • Camera grid now refreshes periodically even when live preview is disabled • Fixed text visibility in dark mode on camera cards

This update brings new customization options and navigation improvements to Kapal: • Object Overlays: Added a new setting to show or hide the red object detection tags on your camera previews. • Swipe to Dismiss: You can now swipe down to close the full-screen camera view. • Cloudflare Support: Added preliminary support for Cloudflare Tunnels. If you run into any issues with these new features or have feedback, please reach out to hey@judeworks.app.

Faster browsing, smarter filters, and a smoother experience What’s new • Faster event loading: Events now appear quicker so you can start browsing right away. • Smarter filters: Camera and object filters are built automatically in the background and stay accurate without extra steps. • Date range filters: Easily pick a start and end date (with simple defaults like “start of day” and “end of day”) to narrow what you see. Thanks for using Kapal! If you have feedback or requests, we’re listening.

This update introduces full compatibility for Frigate 0.16, powerful new filtering options, and a streamlined user experience. Key Updates: • Frigate 0.16 Compatibility: Kapal is now fully compatible with the latest version of Frigate. • Multi-Select Filtering: Filter events with greater precision by selecting multiple cameras and object types simultaneously. • Streamlined Connectivity: Connection handling has been fine-tuned to be more resilient to intermittent network drops. • Overhauled Onboarding: The first-time setup process has been completely redesigned with clearer instructions, guided help, and more reliable network permission handling to ensure a successful connection.