Yes. Oriel uses peer-to-peer (WebRTC) — the connection works whether you’re on the same Wi-Fi or on the other side of the planet. Both phones just need internet.
How it works (the short version)
- Both phones (camera + viewer) maintain a lightweight connection to our signaling server — just enough to know “this account exists, here’s how to find me”.
- When you tap your camera in the app, the two phones exchange connection info via signaling.
- They then talk directly to each other — video and audio flow phone-to-phone, not through Oriel’s servers.
What if direct connection fails?
About 5–10% of network setups block direct P2P (carrier-grade NAT, strict firewalls). When that happens, Oriel falls back to a TURN relay — a forwarding server that passes encrypted bytes between the two phones.
You’ll see a small badge in the app:
- “Direct” — peer-to-peer working (lowest latency)
- “Relayed” — going through TURN
The video quality is the same; latency might be ~100ms higher when relayed.
Common issues
| Symptom | Cause | What to try |
|---|---|---|
| Live view spins, won’t connect | Camera phone went to sleep / Oriel app got killed | Make sure camera phone is plugged in with Oriel open in foreground |
| “Camera offline” | Camera phone lost internet | Check the Wi-Fi or mobile data on the camera phone |
| Connects but very laggy | Slow upload bandwidth at home, or you’re on bad Wi-Fi | Live view defaults to medium quality; try toggling to lower in the viewer settings |
| Connects then disconnects every minute | Some routers have aggressive UDP timeouts | Try TURN relay mode (Settings → Network → Force relay) — slower but stable |
Privacy reminder
The video stream is end-to-end encrypted (DTLS-SRTP, WebRTC standard). Even when relayed through TURN, our servers can’t decrypt the video — they just pass through encrypted bytes.
— Oriel team