@sealad886/homebridge-blink-cameras-new-api

Important: This plugin uses Blink's new (OAuth-based) API and has been validated to work in at least one European locale. It has not yet been tested in the United States. Feedback from multiple locales is welcome—the new API requires region-aware resolution.

Modern Blink platform plugin for Homebridge using the official OAuth endpoints. Exposes Blink devices as proper HomeKit accessories:

• SecuritySystem for arm/disarm control of networks
• MotionSensor for motion detection events
• Doorbell service for ring notifications
• Switch for enabling/disabling motion detection per device

All API interactions are based on reverse-engineered endpoints from the official Blink Android app (v50.1).

Two-Way Talk Status

Two-way talk is temporarily disabled. The HomeKit microphone/talk UI is hidden and the plugin forces twoWayAudio off until IMMIS uplink framing is validated. Even if you previously enabled talkback, the setting is ignored for now. We will re-enable the UI once payload sequencing and ACK handling are confirmed stable.

Features

• ✅ Proper HomeKit SecuritySystem - Arm/disarm networks using the Security System tile in Home app
• ✅ Motion Detection - Receive motion alerts in HomeKit when your cameras detect motion
• ✅ Doorbell Support - Ring notifications appear as HomeKit doorbell events
• ✅ Status Polling - Automatically syncs device states with Blink cloud
• ✅ OAuth Authentication - Modern OAuth 2.0 with automatic token refresh
• ✅ 2FA Support - Works with Blink accounts that have two-factor authentication enabled
• ✅ Retry Logic - Automatic retry with exponential backoff for rate limits and server errors

Requirements

• Homebridge 1.11.1 or later
• Node.js 20, 22, or 24 LTS
• A Blink account

For the core HomeKit features (arm/disarm, motion, doorbell events, snapshots), no extra binaries are required. For HomeKit live streaming, install ffmpeg and make sure the homebridge user can execute it (for example if Homebridge is running as a service user on Debian/Ubuntu).

[!NOTE] If Homebrew installs FFmpeg as keg-only, set ffmpegPath in the plugin config to the full binary path.

# once Homebrew is installed
brew install 'ffmpeg@8'     # or 'ffmpeg-full@8' for more features

FFmpeg 6+ is recommended. Older releases are untested and may not work reliably for live streaming.

Installation

Via Homebridge UI (Recommended)

1. Open the Homebridge UI
2. Navigate to Plugins
3. Search for "@sealad886/homebridge-blink-cameras-new-api"
4. Click Install

Via npm

npm install -g @sealad886/homebridge-blink-cameras-new-api

Restart Homebridge after installing.

Configuration

Via Homebridge UI

The plugin provides a full configuration UI. Navigate to Plugins → Settings for @sealad886/homebridge-blink-cameras-new-api.

Authentication is handled in the custom UI card (Sign in to Blink). The schema form intentionally hides credential and verification-code fields, and a successful sign-in now keeps the Blink password out of the platform config while storing reusable tokens in Homebridge's .blink-auth.json auth file with owner-only permissions. Temporary verification codes are cleared after successful login.

Manual Configuration

Add a platform entry to your Homebridge config.json:

{
  "platforms": [
    {
      "platform": "BlinkCameras",
      "name": "Blink",
      "deviceId": "homebridge-blink-01",
      "persistAuth": true,
      "trustDevice": true,
      "pollInterval": 60,
      "motionTimeout": 30,
      "enableMotionPolling": true,
      "enableStreaming": true,
      "ffmpegPath": "ffmpeg",
      "videoEncoder": "auto",
      "enableAudio": true
    }
  ]
}

Configuration Options

| Option | Required | Default | Description | | ------ | -------- | ------- | ----------- | | platform | Yes | - | Must be BlinkCameras | | name | Yes | Blink | Platform name shown in logs | | username | No* | - | Manual fallback email address. The custom UI may populate this automatically after a successful sign-in | | password | No* | - | Manual fallback password for recovery-only flows; it is not re-saved by the custom UI after sign-in | | deviceId | No | homebridge-blink | Unique identifier sent to Blink (hardware_id) | | deviceName | No | - | Friendly fallback name for this Homebridge instance | | persistAuth | No | true | Persist auth tokens across restarts in Homebridge's .blink-auth.json file | | trustDevice | No | true | Trust this device during client verification | | authLocked | No | false | Ignore stored verification codes after a successful login until you explicitly unlock auth | | tier | No | prod | Blink API tier. Common UI values are prod, prde, prsg, a001, and e001-e006; advanced manual values such as sqa1, cemp, and srf1 are also supported | | sharedTier | No | - | Advanced manual override for shared REST routing; defaults to tier and is intentionally hidden from the UI schema | | debugAuth | No | false | Enable verbose authentication logging | | pollInterval | No | 60 | Seconds between state polls (min 15) | | motionTimeout | No | 30 | Seconds motion stays active | | enableMotionPolling | No | true | Poll for motion events | | enableStreaming | No | true | Enable HomeKit live streaming (FFmpeg required only for streaming) | | ffmpegPath | No | ffmpeg | Path to the FFmpeg binary | | ffmpegDebug | No | false | Log FFmpeg debug output | | rtspTransport | No | tcp | RTSP transport for Blink live view | | maxStreams | No | 1 | Max concurrent HomeKit streams | | enableAudio | No | true | Enable audio streaming from camera | | twoWayAudio | No | false (forced off) | Talkback is currently disabled; HomeKit microphone UI is hidden until IMMIS uplink is validated | | audioCodec | No | opus | Preferred audio codec (opus, aac-eld, pcma, pcmu, copy). Use copy to passthrough the source audio without re-encoding | | audioBitrate | No | 32 | Audio bitrate (kbps) | | videoBitrate | No | - | Cap video bitrate (kbps) | | videoEncoder | No | auto | Preferred FFmpeg video encoder; auto prefers platform hardware encoding and falls back to libx264 | | debugStreamPath | No | - | Save raw MPEG-TS stream recordings for debugging | | snapshotCacheTTL | No | 60 | Snapshot cache duration (seconds); 0 always fetches a new snapshot | | persistSnapshotCache | No | false | Keep the last snapshot indefinitely and expose a per-camera Refresh Snapshot switch in Home | | excludeDevices | No | - | List of device IDs/serials/names to exclude | | deviceNameOverrides | No | - | Array of { deviceIdentifier, customName } entries for custom HomeKit display names (legacy deviceNames is still accepted) | | deviceSettingOverrides | No | - | Array of per-device overrides such as { deviceIdentifier, motionTimeout } (legacy deviceSettings is still accepted; motionTimeout is the currently applied runtime override) |

When persistAuth is enabled, auth tokens are stored in a single .blink-auth.json file inside the Homebridge storage root. Pre-0.6.x installs using blink-auth/auth-state.json are migrated automatically.

* username and password are optional when you already have persisted tokens. They remain supported for manual recovery flows, but the custom UI no longer writes the plaintext password back into the saved platform config.

* twoFactorCode, clientVerificationCode, and accountVerificationCode are also supported for manual fallback flows even though they are intentionally hidden from the schema UI. Add them only temporarily when Blink requests a code, then remove them after successful authentication.

When persistSnapshotCache is enabled, snapshotCacheTTL is ignored after the first successful snapshot fetch. Use the Refresh Snapshot switch in Home to force a new thumbnail capture.

Quick Start: Login & Authorization

Use Homebridge UI → plugin Settings → Sign in to Blink.

1. Enter email/password in the custom UI login card.
2. Complete any prompted 2FA/client/account verification in the same custom UI flow.
3. Keep persistAuth: true so tokens survive restarts.
4. Confirm the plugin remains authenticated after restart. Temporary verification-code fields should be cleared automatically, and the plaintext Blink password should not be written back into the platform config.

Tips:

• Ensure deviceId is unique per Homebridge instance.
• Leave trustDevice: true so future sessions are approved automatically.
• If you want restarts to ignore any stored verification codes after a successful login, enable authLocked.
• If you keep seeing verification prompts, confirm that persistAuth is enabled and the Homebridge process can write to .blink-auth.json.

Re-Authentication / Token Reset

If you need to re-authenticate or switch Blink accounts:

1. Stop Homebridge.
2. Remove the persisted auth file from the Homebridge storage root: .blink-auth.json.
   • If you are upgrading from a pre-0.6.x release and the legacy directory still exists, also remove blink-auth/auth-state.json.
3. Start Homebridge and run Sign in to Blink again from the plugin custom UI.

Manual Smoke Checklist (Duplicate Auth UI Regression)

• Open Homebridge UI → Plugins → this plugin → Settings.
• Confirm there is exactly one auth flow: the custom UI Sign in to Blink card.
• Confirm there is no schema auth fieldset containing username/password/verification code inputs.
• Complete login and restart Homebridge.
• Confirm authentication persists after restart and any temporary verification-code fields have been cleared from the config without re-saving the plaintext Blink password.

Live Streaming (FFmpeg)

Live streaming uses FFmpeg to transcode Blink's RTSPS stream to HomeKit SRTP. Make sure FFmpeg is installed and accessible in your PATH, or set ffmpegPath to the full binary location.

Set videoEncoder to auto for the safest default across mixed installations. On macOS it prefers h264_videotoolbox, on Linux ARM boards such as Raspberry Pi it prefers h264_v4l2m2m, and it falls back to libx264 if the hardware encoder cannot be started.

[!NOTE] The automatic encoder selection has been tested on a limited set of hardware (macOS with VideoToolbox and Raspberry Pi with V4L2). If you run into choppy streams, encoding errors, or unexpected fallback to software encoding on your platform, please open an issue with your hardware details and FFmpeg debug logs (ffmpegDebug: true).

If you use brew (MacOS or Linux), install ffmpeg using:

brew install 'ffmpeg@8'

Supported Devices

| Blink Device | HomeKit Service | Features | | ------------ | --------------- | -------- | | Network | SecuritySystem | Arm/disarm all cameras in network | | Camera | Switch + MotionSensor | Enable/disable motion, motion events | | Doorbell | Doorbell + Switch + MotionSensor | Ring events, enable/disable motion | | Owl (Mini) | Switch + MotionSensor | Enable/disable motion, motion events |

SecuritySystem Modes

The HomeKit SecuritySystem exposes standard modes:

• Away Arm → Network is armed
• Stay Arm → Network is armed (same as Away)
• Night Arm → Network is armed (same as Away)
• Disarm → Network is disarmed

Note: Blink only has armed/disarmed states, so all "armed" modes map to Blink's armed state.

Two-Factor Authentication

[!TIP] If authLocked is enabled, unlock authentication in the custom UI before using temporary verification-code fields. Locked auth ignores stored codes on restart.

When you first connect a new device to your Blink account:

1. Blink sends an email with a verification code
2. Add the code to twoFactorCode in your config
3. Restart Homebridge
4. After successful login, remove the 2FA code from your config
5. Restart Homebridge again

Future logins will use refresh tokens and won't require 2FA.

Client Verification (New Device Approval)

Blink may require a one-time client verification for new devices, which is separate from 2FA:

1. The plugin will request a verification code on first login.
2. Check your email/SMS for the code.
3. Add the code to clientVerificationCode in your config.
4. Restart Homebridge.
5. After successful verification, remove the code from your config.

If you keep seeing verification prompts, ensure persistAuth is enabled and your deviceId is unique.

Account/Phone Verification

Some accounts require an additional account or phone verification step:

1. The plugin will request a verification code when required.
2. Check your email/SMS for the code.
3. Add the code to accountVerificationCode in your config.
4. Restart Homebridge.
5. After successful verification, remove the code from your config.

Example: Temporary Codes in Config

Add only one code at a time when requested by Blink:

{
  "platform": "BlinkCameras",
  "username": "[email protected]",
  "password": "your-blink-password",
  "deviceId": "homebridge-blink-01",
  "persistAuth": true,
  "twoFactorCode": "123456" // remove after success, then restart
}

Troubleshooting

401 Unauthorized / 403 Forbidden

• Regenerate a unique deviceId
• Check your email for the Blink device approval prompt
• Provide a fresh twoFactorCode if prompted
• If logs show tier_info with a different tier, restart after the plugin auto-updates routing

Rate Limits (429)

The plugin automatically backs off and retries. If you're hitting rate limits frequently:

• Increase pollInterval to reduce API calls
• Set enableMotionPolling to false to reduce calls

Node.js Version

This plugin requires Node.js 18+ for the native fetch API. Check your version:

node --version

Motion Not Detected

• Ensure enableMotionPolling is true
• Check that the network is armed (motion events only trigger when armed)
• Reduce pollInterval for faster detection (but more API calls)

API Documentation

This plugin's API implementation is based on reverse engineering the official Blink Home Monitor Android app (v50.1). Key technical details:

Authentication

• OAuth 2.0 authorization-code flow with PKCE via api.oauth.blink.com
• Automatic token refresh using the refresh_token grant
• Hardware ID required for device identification
• Client verification and account verification flows for new device approval
• Region-aware routing based on tier and locale; behavior may differ by country

Endpoints

• Homescreen/state discovery via v4/accounts/{account_id}/homescreen
• Arm/Disarm via v1/accounts/{account_id}/networks/{network_id}/state/arm|disarm
• Motion enable/disable via Blink device control endpoints under accounts/{account_id}/networks/{network_id}/...
• Media polling via Blink v4 media endpoints for motion/ring detection

For full endpoint documentation, see the API dossier in the source repository.

Development

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/sealad886/homebridge-blink-cameras-new-api.git
cd homebridge-blink-cameras-new-api

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build
npm run build

# Watch + Homebridge (uses test/hbConfig)
npm run watch

# TypeScript-only rebuilds
npm run watch:ts

# Run tests
npm test

# Lint
npm run lint

How to verify (local)

1. npm run build
2. npm test
3. npm run lint
4. npm pack and confirm the tarball includes dist/ (including dist/homebridge-ui/) and config.schema.json
5. npm run watch and confirm the plugin boots with test/hbConfig/config.json

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for current release notes and migration history.

License

MIT - see LICENSE for details.

Credits

• API documentation derived from reverse engineering the Blink Android app
• Homebridge platform plugin architecture
• Community feedback on locale-specific behavior (EU validated; US pending)