blinkpy

What it is and what it does

blinkpy is an async Python library for interacting with Blink camera systems, designed primarily to support home automation integrations. It handles authentication (including two-factor authentication), manages sync modules and individual cameras, and provides methods to retrieve live images and videos, trigger remote snapshots, and control arming/disarming of motion detection.

The library uses aiohttp for async HTTP communication and includes built-in request throttling to avoid overwhelming Blink's servers. It supports saving and loading credentials from files, interactive and non-interactive authentication flows, and exposes camera attributes and cached media as bytes objects. The package requires Python 3.10 or later and depends on aiohttp, requests, aiofiles, python-dateutil, python-slugify, and sortedcontainers.

Use it for:

• Building a home automation system that integrates Blink cameras with Home Assistant or other platforms.
• Retrieving and archiving snapshots or video clips from Blink cameras on a schedule.
• Remotely arming/disarming motion detection or entire sync modules based on presence or time-based rules.
• Monitoring multiple Blink cameras and triggering alerts or actions when motion is detected.
• Automating camera snapshots and saving them to local storage for security logging.

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

A Python library for controlling and monitoring Blink camera systems via their API, supporting authentication, camera image/video retrieval, motion detection, and sync module arming.

Yes. The library is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, uses permissive licensing, and provides a complete async interface to Blink cameras. Install it if you need programmatic control of Blink systems or are building a home automation integration. The low install friction and standard dependencies make it straightforward to add to existing projects.

Install

blinkpy on PyPI

pip install blinkpy

uv add blinkpy

poetry add blinkpy

Installing blinkpy

Before you install

Low install friction with a pure-Python wheel distribution. Actively maintained with a recent release (24 days ago) and steady commit activity. Requires Python 3.10 or later and depends on standard async/HTTP libraries (aiohttp, requests, aiofiles) plus utility packages.

License in practice

Published under the MIT license, a permissive open-source license that allows free use, modification, and distribution with minimal restrictions.

Quickstart

import asyncio
from aiohttp import ClientSession
from blinkpy.blinkpy import Blink

async def start():
    blink = Blink(session=ClientSession())
    await blink.start()
    for name, camera in blink.cameras.items():
        print(f"{name}: {camera.attributes}")
    return blink

blink = asyncio.run(start())

Requires Python 3.10 or later. Blink account credentials and network access to Blink servers are required for authentication.

Verify before relying

• Whether the library's internal throttling (default 30-second refresh rate) is sufficient for typical home automation workflows or if users commonly adjust it.
• Current API compatibility with Blink's servers and whether breaking changes are tracked in release notes.
• Whether two-factor authentication is consistently required or optional depending on account settings.

Package facts

Evidence: blinkpy-0.25.9-py3-none-any.whl

Tags

More Home Automation packages