DashGuard Pro

Use an old Android phone as a dashcam and a parked-car camera.

Download APK · Get it with Obtainium · Build from source

DashGuard Pro records the road in continuous video loops, protects crash incidents from being overwritten, and monitors the vehicle while parked. Live speed, heading, and G-force are displayed on screen and embedded into companion .srt subtitle files. Footage remains entirely offline on the device—no internet permission is requested.

Features

Category	Highlights	What It Does
🚗 Driving	• 1, 3, or 5-min loops • 1.6–3.5 G impact lock • 15–300 s incident buffer • 480p to 4K, up to 60 fps	Continuous loop recording with automated FIFO storage pruning. Sudden shocks or manual locks preserve the incident file.
🛰️ Telemetry	• GPS speed (km/h or mph) • Compass & GPS heading • Real-time G-force • Saved to .srt files	Overlays driving metrics on the camera viewfinder and exports synchronized .srt subtitles or burnt-in fused telemetry videos.
🛡️ Sentry Mode	• Tier 1: Shock & sound standby • Tier 2: 4 FPS optical motion • Auto-arm on power loss • Strobe / chime deterrents	Guards the parked vehicle. Tier 2 optical motion automatically demotes to Tier 1 standby on low battery or high temperature to protect hardware.
⚡ Power & Thermal	• Auto-record on car charger • 15% low-battery cutoff • Warm auto-dim & cool-off • True-black OLED saver	Starts and stops with vehicle ignition. Protects the phone's lithium battery with thermal throttles and inactivity screen dimming.
🎬 Gallery & Playback	• Smart trip playback • Whole-trip lock & protection • Fused telemetry video export • In-player pinch-to-zoom	Automatically groups related driving loops into unified trip sessions with continuous playback, route mapping, and safety speed lock-out.

Permissions

Permission	Why
Camera	Recording video
Microphone	Clip audio (can be turned off) and Sentry sound trigger
Location (precise)	Speed, heading, route and incident position
All files access / media access	Saving to and reading from a folder or SD card you choose
Notifications	The ongoing recording notification
Ignore battery optimizations	Recommended: prevents Android Doze from stopping recording during long drives
Do Not Disturb access	Optional: silence calls and alerts during active recording

No internet permission is requested.

Install

1. Download the latest DashGuard-Pro-vX.Y.Z.apk from Releases.
2. Open the APK on the phone and allow "Install unknown apps" when asked.
3. On first launch, grant camera, microphone and location. For long sessions, allow DashGuard Pro to ignore battery optimization; the app's optimization screen has phone-maker-specific tips.

Or add this repo to Obtainium to get updates automatically from GitHub Releases.

Build from source

Needs JDK 17 or 21 and the Android SDK (compile SDK 37, target SDK 36, min SDK 24).

git clone https://github.com/roaxio/DashGuard-Pro.git
cd DashGuard-Pro
./gradlew assembleDebug        # app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk

Note

Installing a debug APK over a release APK (or vice versa) will fail due to differing signature keys. Uninstall any existing release build first before installing a locally built debug APK.

Security

Please report vulnerabilities privately through GitHub's Report a vulnerability form rather than in a public issue.

License

Apache License 2.0.