You know when sometimes you see a product and you just know it’s cool? Like, yeah that’s pretty neat. Well Dormi is one of those products. It’s a free Android app which turns any old Android phone into a baby monitor, but what makes this one different is how it does the job.

For starters you can set up a single ‘Child Device’ and monitor it with multiple ‘Parent Devices’. Great for double teaming and more (you listening Gran?). In addition, everything is done with simple swipe gestures. To start monitoring, just swipe the screen, to stop or pause, swipe again. It’s very visual and not at all intimidating. Why don’t more developers realize that swiping is perfect for touchscreens, and apps that do it right really impress (e.g. also Timely).

If a noise is detected, the parent has the option of push to listen and push to talk if they can’t be bothered to trudge over to the East Wing to soothe baby directly. And because the service runs on just about every network, including 3G, WiFi and even without Internet using Direct WiFi, there should be no problem ensuring coverage.

One other cool feature is if you’re using one of the parent’s phones as the child monitor, and a call or text comes in to that handset, it will notify the parent device and let you respond via call or text. Nice touch, eh?

The app is free, and you get 4 hours free monitoring a month. If you need more, you’ll have to pay, but the fees are extremely reasonable. We’re talking $6.99 for a lifetime unlimited use, or 99c a month. And you only have to purchase for one device. Great to see a well thought out implementation of an old idea.