When people think about the best robot vacuums for pet owners, they're mostly zeroing in on pet hair pickup (i.e. performance on carpet, and maybe the self-emptying aspect for the allergy-havers). But there's another feature showing up on more and more robot vacuums that is a game-changer for pet parents — but it has nothing to do with suction power. It's the ability to check in remotely on your household with a livestream camera on the front of the robot vacuum, and it has become one of my favorite features throughout all the robot vacuums I've tested.
This really speaks to the middle of the Venn diagram between clean freak pet parents and anxious pet parents — what I can only assume is a pretty populous overlap. If your helicopter pet parent senses start tingling the second you leave the door, such a robot vacuum might be a more comforting purchase than a stick vacuum. The brain behind the cordless vacuum leaves when the person leaves home, but that's not the case with robot vacuums. The ones with a camera can show you a livestream POV of everything the robot vacuum sees as it's cleaning your home, offering a more ambulatory way to keep tabs on the home's goings-on than a stationary pet camera.
Many robot vacuum livestream cameras also have the option for remote control viewing, where the user can use on-screen arrows to point or drive the vacuum in a certain direction. With the Roborock Saros Z70, you could even manually maneuver its robotic arm to pick up obstacles like a claw machine — though that took way too much precision to be practical. However, being able to steer a robot vacuum by hand while it's recording could come in handy to slowly approach a pet who's spooked by a machine whirring around.
Though I spy on my cats nearly every time I'm away, they're never doing anything super interesting. Sometimes I catch them walking around (and coming up to the vacuum like, "Mom, you ain't slick"), but they're usually up on the furniture where the vacuum can't clock them. But if your animal is a known hide-under-the-bed-er, the roving floor-level camera could offer some relieving confirmation about your pet's whereabouts.
Pets aside, you can also check in with real humans from the robot vac's camera. Most robot vacuum cameras have a built-in video call feature that supports two-way audio, so you can ring anyone who's at home while you're not: house sitters, kids, the dog walker from Rover. The person on the other end of the line doesn't have to "pick up" — the call automatically just starts. I've successfully used it to call my roommate after she missed my calls on her phone because it was on silent.
I've most enjoyed the livestream cameras in flagship Roborock vacuums like the Roborock Saros 10 and Saros 10R. The view is the least grainy I've tried, and the "search for the pet" feature is just plain fun. I could see it coming in handy for pet parents who don't have time to watch the vacuum clean every single room in hopes of spotting the pet.
However, onboard cameras are no longer fully limited to ultra-premium robot vacs that cost over $1,000. I tested and was wowed by the 3i G10+ budget robot vacuum, particularly by its affordable small obstacle avoidance and remote viewing capabilities.
Can you use a robot vacuum camera for actual security purposes?
I'm a horror movie head, and found footage is my favorite subgenre. You can imagine the pitches I've come up with for a low-budget, very 2020s paranormal short where a robot vacuum camera sees assorted household items moving in the middle of the night. It would get approximately a 14 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
However, the movie wouldn't work well as a slasher. As disguised and genius as it seems, a robot vacuum camera actually wouldn't do a great job of sneakily catching someone in the act — every time you open live view mode, the vacuum announces "remote viewing activated," and also announces when live viewing is toggled off. Yes, this notification plays out loud even if you've turned the vacuum's smart assistant or dock volume off otherwise.
This also means that the cameras are not recording constantly every time they're out and about, or watching 24/7 from the sidelines while they're charging. All of the robot vacuums with cameras that I've tested also require a PIN code or the draw-to-unlock thing, where you connect dots in a certain pattern. I've had a few friends ask if a random person could spy through your robot vacuum if your phone was stolen, but just like unlocking the phone or something like a smart doorbell, they'd have to also know the passcode. (This can be specific to the robot vacuum app and isn't automatically the same one your phone uses.)
