Just thought I'd share some notes regarding the Reolink app, for anyone with a Reolink NVR or standalone cameras.

With the exception of push notifications, the Reolink app appears to be fully functional with no dependencies on the Google Play Service/Store or Google Services Framework.

Push notifications do require the Google Play Store, with network permissions enabled.

If that's a privacy concern for you, you can enable email alerts directly on the NVR or camera. Options for these include: repeat notification internals, text only, text and picture, or text and video clip notifications.

If you manage your own domain, I recommend creating a dedicated email address for the Reolink devices and have the notifications sent from/to this email address. This will eliminate the need to provide your personal email address and/or credentials to the software. You can then opt to add the account to your email app of choice, or create a server-side filter that redirects the notification emails to your personal mailbox(es) and then discards them from the Reolink mailbox. Combined with K-9 Mail's push IMAP support, this solution is working very well for us, with multiple recipients receiving notifications directly from the NVR in real-time; all without the need for Google services.

4 months later

Can you confirm live stream works for you while on mobile data? For some reason live stream will not work for me unless I am connected to a wifi network (any). Pixel 6P, android 13.

I have switched my sim card into a Oneplus phone (android 12) and live stream works on both mobile data and wifi.

    2 years later