Compatibility
Devices
Section titled “Devices”| Needs | |
|---|---|
| iPhone and iPad | iOS or iPadOS 26 or later |
| Apple Watch | watchOS 26 or later, paired with an iPhone running the app |
| Mac | macOS 26 or later, on a Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or later). The iPad app runs there, from the Mac App Store, without alerts: a Mac can’t prove to the notification relay that it’s running the real app, so alerts go to your iPhone or iPad |
| AI descriptions of alerts and events | iOS 27, on an iPhone or iPad that supports Apple Intelligence, with it switched on |
| Running a shortcut when an alert arrives | iOS 27 |
| Live Activities | An iPhone; the Dynamic Island on iPhones that have one, and the Smart Stack on a paired Apple Watch |
The app is in English, Spanish, French and German, and follows the device’s language. Frigate’s object names, such as person and license plate, are shown in that language too, the way Frigate’s own web interface names them.
On iPad, the app uses the extra room: Cameras, Review, Explore and Settings show a list and its detail side by side.
Time zone
Section titled “Time zone”The app shows your server’s times the way Frigate’s own web interface does. When the server has a
time zone set, under UI › Timezone in Frigate’s settings (ui.timezone in its config), every
time is shown in that zone, wherever your iPhone is. When it has none, times are in your iPhone’s
time zone.
That covers everything your cameras recorded: reviews, events, recordings and the timeline, the days in the calendars, the time in an alert, widgets, Live Activities and the Apple Watch app. A recording’s time then matches the time your cameras print on the picture, and reads the same for everyone who looks at it. The Activity widget counts “today” from your server’s midnight, too; with several servers in different time zones, from your iPhone’s.
When your server’s time zone and your iPhone’s differ, the time on a review’s or an event’s own screen, the timeline’s clock, the time in an alert, and the times in widgets, Live Activities and on the Apple Watch face carry the zone’s short name, such as 4:02 AM EDT, so a time an hour from your iPhone’s clock doesn’t look wrong. Where a widget or a watch complication has no room for the name, it shows your iPhone’s or watch’s own time for the same moment instead, without one.
What your iPhone decides keeps its own clock: quiet hours, how long a snooze lasts, and the app’s own diagnostics. The 12- or 24-hour clock and the date format follow your iPhone’s settings.
The app reads the time zone each time it loads your cameras. After changing it in Frigate and restarting the server, pull down on the Cameras tab to refresh.
Servers
Section titled “Servers”Fregata Mobile works with Frigate 0.17 or later and every version of Fregata, the native port of Frigate for Apple silicon Macs. Older versions of Frigate aren’t supported.
Connect the app to Frigate’s signed-in port, 8971 by default, and sign in. Alerts are registered to an account, and which one depends on how the app connects:
- Sign-in can be off. With it off, alerts are filed under the
adminaccount, which Frigate and Fregata create the first time they start with sign-in on, as they do by default. Only a server that has had sign-in off since it was installed has no such account: it accepts the app’s registration and silently saves nothing. Turn sign-in on and restart it once to create the account. - Not port 5000. Frigate’s internal port, 5000, skips sign-in. Live view works over it, but
while sign-in is on, Frigate files an alert registration made through it under an
anonymoususer that has no account: the registration reports success, saves nothing, and no alerts arrive. Use port 8971. When the app is connected through port 5000, Server Notification Setup says so, and Settings › Diagnostics shows Connected without signing in.
Frigate 0.17 and 0.18
Section titled “Frigate 0.17 and 0.18”Almost everything works the same on both. The differences:
| 0.17 | 0.18 | |
|---|---|---|
| Ask Frigate for a test notification, in Server Notification Setup | Not accepted, even from an administrator. Walk past a camera instead. | ✓ |
Extras on Fregata NVR
Section titled “Extras on Fregata NVR”With a server running Fregata NVR, the app also:
- offers lighter live streams for every camera, made on the fly, and opens on a lighter one away from home;
- plays recordings that adapt to a slow connection;
- shows which part of the Mac runs detection, such as the Neural Engine, on the server status screen.
Accounts
Section titled “Accounts”Any Frigate account works. An administrator account also lets the app change the server: setting up alerts for you, turning a camera’s detection, recording, snapshots and notifications on or off for everyone, camera groups, and restarting. A viewer can do everything else. The full list is in Administrator or viewer.
Frigate can give an account access to only some cameras. The app shows that account only those cameras.
Networks
Section titled “Networks”The app reaches your server directly, at home or away: over your home network, a VPN such as Tailscale, Cloudflare Tunnel and Access, or a reverse proxy. Alerts arrive through Apple’s push service, wherever the iPhone is.