A video doorbell for apartments and rented homes

Apartment doors are awkward. The communal buzzer may be broken, wired to the previous tenant's name, or so faint you never hear it from the back bedroom. Many tenancy agreements rule out drilling into brickwork or door frames, which quietly rules out most camera doorbells. Even where a camera doorbell is allowed, it needs power, a place to fix it and often a neighbouring flat in shot.

The result is familiar: couriers mark a parcel as "attempted delivery" without ever reaching you, tradespeople stand outside calling a number you cannot hear, and friends text "I'm downstairs" and wait.

DoorVi turns your door into a contact point instead of a barrier. The sign displays a QR code and contains an NFC tag. When someone arrives, they scan the code with their phone camera or tap the sign, and a secure video call opens in their browser and rings your phone.

Nothing is fixed into the wall, nothing needs charging, and there is no camera at the door recording the communal hallway — which also avoids most of the friction with neighbours and building management.

• Register your DoorVi sign to your phone number after it arrives — the registration guide walks you through it.
• Fix the sign beside your door, or where building rules allow it, near the main entrance.
• A visitor scans the QR code with their camera, or taps the sign with an NFC-capable phone.
• Their browser opens a secure video call and your phone rings.
• You see and hear the visitor. They hear you, but they do not see you.

• No drilling for standard sign installation, so no damage deposit worries.
• No wiring and no electrician visit.
• No batteries in the sign — nothing to charge or replace.
• No app for visitors, which matters most for couriers in a hurry.
• No monthly subscription.
• Portable: take the sign with you at the end of the tenancy.
• Answer from anywhere your phone has an internet connection.

Suitable properties

• Purpose-built flats with a shared entrance and a broken or unlabelled buzzer.
• Converted houses where several front doors share one hallway.
• Student and house-share accommodation with frequent deliveries.
• Short-term rentals where fitting hardware is not an option.
• Upper-floor flats where you cannot hear knocking from every room.

The call is one-way video: you see the visitor, the visitor does not see you or inside your home. The sign itself has no camera and no microphone, so it is not watching the hallway between calls and there is no standing recording of neighbours coming and going. A call only exists when a visitor chooses to start one.

Installation is a two-minute job: clean the surface, peel the backing and press the sign into place at roughly chest height where a visitor will see it. No tools, no cabling, no holes. If you later want the sign somewhere else, you can remount it.