For contractors · Free on Android · Pro coming soon

The timestamp camera app for contractors

Date, time, address and GPS on every job photo, filed under the job. Pro, coming soon.

By Andre Gaz, developer of InspectCam™ · Published 18 October 2026 · Last updated 18 October 2026

Most timestamp camera apps were made for travel photos: a date in an orange corner font, a map pin, maybe the weather. That's fine for a vacation. On a job site you need something else: a photo you can find again under the right address, a date nobody has to squint at, and a stamp that still says what it said after it went through a text message, a printer and an adjuster's inbox.

Without it, the job lives as photos stuck in text messages and a camera roll with six houses in it. Then a customer calls about a crack in the tile, a GC asks what was in the wall before drywall, or a landlord disputes a deposit, and somebody has to retrieve the right image weeks or months later, or reconstruct job details from memory.

What does a timestamp camera app for work need to do?

A GPS stamp camera for trades has a short list of jobs, and none of them is looking pretty:

• Print the stamp where everyone can read it. In the picture itself, so a customer sees it on a printout without opening any details screen.
• Say where in plain words. A street address, not only two long numbers. Coordinates too, for the people who check.
• File the photo under the job. The date tells you when; the job tells you which house. You need both to find a photo in March.
• Work in the dark. Crawl spaces, attics and wall cavities. A stamp on a black photo proves nothing useful.
• Go out under your name. A report with your logo and license number, not a zip file of loose pictures.

InspectCam™ Pro, coming soon, is built around that list. The free camera on Google Play already handles the dark part: one tap and the light stays on while you look, take photos and record video.

What does a photo stamp prove, and what doesn't it?

A stamp is what the phone reported when you pressed the shutter: its clock, its GPS fix and the street address that fix matched. That's useful. It is also all it is.

On position, the U.S. government's GPS site says GPS-enabled smartphones are typically accurate to within 4.9 m (16 ft.) under open sky, and worse near buildings, bridges and trees. That's why Pro's stamp keeps the phone's own error figure on the line, like “±8 m”, instead of pretending to be exact.

In a U.S. court, a photo is usually brought in the plain way: under Federal Rule of Evidence 901, the side offering it has to show it is what they say it is, and the first example the rule gives is testimony from a witness with knowledge. In practice, that's you saying “I took this, at that house, and it shows what I saw.” A stamp backs you up. It doesn't replace you.

EXIF or burned in: where does the date live?

There are two places a photo can carry its date and place, and they behave very differently once the photo leaves your phone.

In the file: EXIF metadata

Most phone cameras write the date, and the location when it's allowed, into the photo file's hidden details, called EXIF. Nobody sees it unless they open the photo's info screen, and it's easy to change. Apple's Photos app lets you remove a photo's location, or share photos without it. Google Photos lets you edit the date and time of a backed-up photo, and notes that a copy you share or download may still show the original date. So the hidden date can be edited, and the location can be removed or left behind along the way.

In the picture: the burned-in stamp

A burned-in stamp is part of the picture’s pixels. It goes wherever the picture goes: a screenshot, a printout, a PDF, a forwarded text. Your customer reads it without knowing what EXIF is. It isn't magic either: anyone with a photo editor can crop it off or paint over it, and it's only as right as the phone's clock and position were.

Pro does both. The line is burned into the photo along its bottom edge, and the GPS position is written into the file as well (into the video's own location field for video). If location isn't allowed, there is no position to write: the stamp is the date and time only.

Can a timestamp photo be edited?

Yes. Any photo with a date on it can be edited by someone who wants to, and a stamp made on a phone can't promise otherwise. We don't call InspectCam™ photos tamper-proof or verified. What makes your photos hard to argue with is how you shoot them:

• A wide shot, then the close-up. The house number or the unit door first, then the room, then the crack. The series places the detail.
• The same spot, before and after. Shot from the same place, a few weeks apart, each stamped.
• Straight into the job. Photos filed at the shutter, in order, with nothing picked out of a camera roll later.
• Sent while it's fresh. A report the customer gets that week is harder to dispute than a folder that shows up a year later.

Pro keeps the line clear between what you shot and what you brought in. Photos added to a job from the phone's gallery are labeled as added from the gallery, InspectCam™ doesn't add a stamp to them, and the app says so when you add them: “These weren't taken with InspectCam. They may have no time or location stamp and may not count as proof of work.” In the report, the same label prints beside the photo’s date. And drawing on a photo never changes the photo: sending a marked-up photo shares a copy with the marks drawn on. For the whole routine, before, during and after, see how to prove the work was done.

What holds up with customers, adjusters, GCs and landlords?

Customers

The fight you want to avoid is “was it like that before you got here?” Shoot the scratched floor, the cracked tile and the chipped cabinet on day one, before your crew touches anything. A stamped series from the first morning ends that conversation before it starts.

Insurance adjusters

The NAIC's consumer guide to the claims process tells policyholders to take photos or video and make a list of the damage, and to make temporary repairs such as covering a hole in the roof. FEMA's advice on documenting damage after severe weather says to photograph damage inside and outside the home, closets and cabinets included. The adjuster wasn't there when the drywall was wet. Stamped photos of the wet wall before the flood cut, and the tarp before the new roof, are what they have instead. The drying side is on the water damage photo app page.

General contractors

The GC wants to see the plumbing and wiring before the wall closes, and the inspector may too. Rough-in photos stamped and filed under the job mean nobody opens a finished wall to answer a question. With Team or Business, your subs can send their photos into your job from a QR code, no app needed on their side. More on that on the construction photo app page.

Landlords and property managers

Deposits run on condition records. In Washington, RCW 59.18.260 bars a landlord from collecting a deposit without a written checklist or statement describing the unit's condition at move-in. Wisconsin's consumer protection agency tells tenants to take photos of any damage and submit copies with the check-in sheet. Both sides are shooting. Stamped move-in and move-out photos, filed under the unit, are the ones that line up. See the rental inspection app page, and the move-in inspection checklist for the walk itself.

InspectCam™ Pro's stamp line, part by part

With Pro, the photos and videos you take carry one line, in U.S. format, along the bottom of the picture:

• Date and time, from the phone's clock at the shot.
• Street address, looked up from where the phone is. A long address is shortened first; the date, time and coordinates are never cut.
• GPS coordinates, with the phone's own ± figure.

Before you shoot, the same line runs in the viewfinder just above the controls, so you see what the photo will say. The first time, the app asks for location after one plain sentence. Say no, and the stamp is the date and time only, with one line in Settings saying why. The stamp isn't on videos recorded with both cameras (Dual); a Dual photo carries it. And when Measure has locked a roof pitch, the photo filed into that job carries it on the stamp, like “Pitch 6/12 (measured)”: a rough check, not for code or safety.

Can the company hide parts of the stamp?

Yes, and only the company decides. On a company account, an admin sets what the stamp shows for the whole crew and can turn off the date, the time or the location. A crew member sees the rule in place of the switches: “Only an admin can turn off the date, time or location.” So the office picks once, and every phone on the account stamps the same way.

Why hide anything? A builder handing photos to a buyer might not want a site's coordinates on every picture. A property manager might keep the address and drop the GPS.

Photos filed by job, not by date

A date answers “when”. Months later, the question is usually “which house?” With Pro, coming soon, each photo goes into the job it belongs to, at the shutter.

Start a new job at the house and Pro fills in the address from where the phone is. Come back next week and, with location allowed, the camera picks the job you're standing at, if you took photos for it there before. When two or more of your jobs are close together, like three units in one building, the job chip asks “Which job?” until you choose. It never guesses between them. Say no to location and you pick the job yourself.

The jobs list has a search box, and the open jobs near you come first. On a company account, the office sees the crew's photos during the day, with each colleague's name and time under their photos, and full-size photos and videos follow on Wi-Fi unless you let them use mobile data.

From stamped photos to a report

A stamped photo still needs to say what it shows. In Pro, open the photo and number the problem with arrows and circles, then type a line for what each number means. Hold the last-photo square to say it out loud instead: the voice note stays with the photo, and the phone writes out the words where it can (Android 13 and later), with a note that they may have mistakes. On a company account, the owner or an admin decides whether the crew's voice notes print.

The report is a PDF under your company's name, with your logo, contact details, license number and a report number that stays the same every time you send it again. Each photo prints with its capture date and time, notes and marks. Pick a Before and an After in the job and they print as a pair, one above the other at the same size. The last page carries one small “Generated with InspectCam” line. Anything you mark internal stays with your team and never prints.

What the free app does today

The free InspectCam™ app on Google Play doesn't stamp photos: the stamp is part of Pro, coming soon. What it does today is the shooting part, in the places job photos are hardest to take.

• One tap, light stays on. One tap and the light stays on while you look, take photos and record video. No switching between the flashlight and the camera.
• The light guard. The light turns off after 10 minutes untouched, with a warning first, or if the phone gets very hot. Tap the light to turn it back on.
• Focus and zoom. Tap to focus, pinch, or use the wide and close presets your phone supports.
• A level on the camera, with roof pitch and Measure: a rough check, not for code or safety.
• Gloves and one hand. A volume-button shutter, a 3 or 6 second timer and touch lock.
• Both cameras, on phones that support it: the back camera with your face in a small window, for walk-through videos.

Free photos save to your phone and carry a small, faint InspectCam™ mark in one corner. When Pro arrives, it lives inside the same app, so there's nothing new to install.

Which Pro plan fits a contracting company?

Duo and Team: pay yearly and get a year for the price of ten months. Business is monthly only. US prices, plus any tax, charged by Google Play. Pro is coming soon and can't be bought yet. At launch, Pro is sold in the United States; the free app is available everywhere. For now, everyone on the account needs an Android phone; the iPhone app is coming soon, with Pro included. The rest is on the InspectCam™ Pro page.

Questions contractors ask

Does the free InspectCam™ app put a timestamp on photos?

No. The date, time, address and GPS stamp is part of Pro, which is coming soon inside the same app. In the free app on Google Play, one tap keeps the light on while you look, take photos and record video, and its photos carry a small, faint InspectCam™ mark.

Is a timestamped photo legal proof?

Not on its own. The stamp is a record of when and where the phone says the photo was taken, not a certificate. In a dispute, a photo usually needs someone who was there to say it shows what they saw. How much weight the stamp carries is up to the people you show it to.

Is the GPS written into the file, or only printed on the photo?

Both, with Pro. The line is burned into the picture along its bottom edge, and the position is written into the file as well. Without location allowed, the stamp is the date and time only.

Can I turn off the address or the GPS on the stamp?

On a company account, an admin can turn off the date, the time or the location for the whole crew. Crew members can't change it on their own phones.

Does the stamp go on videos?

Yes, with Pro, except videos recorded with both cameras at once (Dual). A Dual photo carries the stamp.

Do photos I add from my gallery get a stamp?

No. InspectCam™ doesn't add a stamp to them. Pro labels them as added from the phone's gallery, with the date they were taken if the file has one. The report prints the same label, so nobody mistakes them for photos taken on the job.

Is InspectCam™ on iPhone?

Not yet. The iPhone app is coming soon, with Pro included. For now, InspectCam™ runs on Android phones.

Pro is coming soon and can't be bought yet, so some details here may still change. If your jobs need something that isn't here, write to support@inspectcam.app.

Pro by trade: contractors and their crews, rental move-in and move-out, water damage and restoration, or see everything on the InspectCam™ Pro page.