Many people are working from home right now due to the pandemic. Of course, this ways people will have to use webcams to exist virtually present in meetings and events.

Webcam prices are rising due to the higher demand, then information technology may not exist feasible for yous to open up your wallet for a new webcam. Furthermore, if you need but to use a webcam occasionally, buying a defended webcam could be a waste of coin.

Whatever your reasoning, if yous are non ready to crush out cash for a webcam, you can always use your Android telephone as a webcam for your PC. That's right, with the assist of an app, y'all tin can plough your phone into a webcam for costless.

You can do this wirelessly and using a USB cable, and each method has its ain upsides and downsides. I'll show both of these ways to use your Android phone as a webcam for PC in this post.

Utilize an Android phone as a PC webcam Wirelessly.

If your PC and telephone are on the same network, you tin can use an Android app to connect both devices and use the phone camera as a webcam. The app will register your Android phone as a webcam for the PC, so all apps that check your PC for webcam availability will use your Android phone camera instead.

Before I tell you how to gear up it upward, it's skilful to know the good and bad side of wireless connectedness:

Pros:

  • It's a wireless connection, and so you lot have total command over how y'all move and position the phone photographic camera. Yous tin even take information technology to another room.
  • It is easier to fix as no special permissions are needed.

Cons:

  • There volition be unavoidable latency due to the limitation of how wireless connexion works.
  • Wireless signals strength (the device signals, not the cyberspace) can bear upon the quality of the video, leading to higher latency and frame skips.

At present that you know the proficient and bad sides, allow's see how to use an Android phone as a webcam for PC. At that place are many Android apps to make it happen, just I will utilize DroidCam as it's the most reputable app for this purpose, and it'southward straightforward to use.

Tip: If you aren't most a WiFi connection, y'all can also use your telephone's hotspot feature to create a wireless connection. Just connect your PC to your telephone's hotspot and follow the above instructions (mobile data not required).

Using DroidCam to fix wirelessly

You need to gear up DroidCam on both your PC and your Android phone. Download the app on your phone and download the PC client from the programmer's website.

Launch the apps on both PC and phone, and so follow the below instructions.

  • Make sure both PC and telephone are connected to the same network.
  • On the phone app, y'all volition come across Device IP and DroidCam Port values. Keep these details in front.
  • Now on the PC client, select Connect over WiFi and enter the Device IP and DroidCam Port values you come across on the phone app.

Afterward, merely striking the Start button, and the video from your phone will start showing in the DroidCam interface. If y'all need to use the webcam with any app/service, simply select DroidCam as your webcam in its interface.

Use Android as webcam for PC wirelessly

The PC customer needs to stay open up to keep using the phone as a webcam. Notwithstanding, you can shut the phone app every bit it will keep working in the background. To stop a session, either shut the PC client or tap the carte du jour at the superlative-left corner on the phone app and select Terminate.

Use Android phone as a PC webcam using a USB cable

If you don't desire whatever latency at all, then using a wired connection is much ameliorate. Every bit USB cable connexion isn't affected past external factors, unlike wireless connexion, it offers the best quality without latency.

The pros/cons of this method are merely the opposite of wireless connection. You become a better connection with no latency, but you sacrifice the freedom to motion the phone around as the USB cable's length on a leash limit it. There is another caveat, though; y'all have to enable USB debugging on your phone to arrive work.

The same DroidCam app can also make the connection over a USB cable so that nosotros will use it for this method. The requirements are a bit dissimilar; just follow the below procedure.

Enable USB debugging

USB debugging makes it possible for a PC to admission more than secure sections/features of your phone, including control over the camera. Y'all have to enable information technology to brand this setup work, just unfortunately, the USB debugging on Android phones differs depending on the manufacturer and Android version.

The main gist is to enable developer options in your phone then enable USB debugging inside it. I am going to bear witness you how to enable USB debugging in Samsung and Xiaomi phones (the two most pop manufacturers), but if you lot accept a different telephone; you will have to search online for the exact instructions:

Warning: Enabling USB debugging can be a security risk as this characteristic can exist used to steal information from a phone connected to the PC. Ensure you don't connect to a public PC later enabling USB debugging and immediately disable it when you are done using it.

Enable USB debugging on Samsung phones

  • Go to Settings > Virtually phone > Software information and tap 7 times on the Build number option in succession to enable developer options.
  • A new Developer options entry will become available in Settings at the bottom. Open it and enable the USB debugging option inside.

Enable USB debugging on Samsung phone

Enable USB debugging on Xiaomi phones

  • Go to Settings > Nigh telephone > All specs and tap 7 times on the MIUI version choice, and developers' options will be enabled.

Enable Developer mode in Xiaomi

  • Now tap on the Additional settings option in the Settings and and then get to Developer options and enable USB debugging.

Enable USB debugging in Xiaomi phone

In one case USB debugging is enabled, follow the below instructions to employ DroidCam to use your telephone as a webcam for PC over a USB connection.

Using DroidCam for USB cablevision setup

Connect a USB cablevision to your PC and your telephone and turn on the DroidCam app on both PC and telephone. On your PC, click on the Connect over USB push button and click on the Refresh button to discover the USB connexion.

After a short delay, the app should find the USB connectedness and show it in the drop-down bill of fare. Select it and click on the Start push button to start using your Android phone equally a webcam.

Use Android as webcam for PC over USB

Similar to the wireless connection, you tin select DroidCam equally a webcam inside apps that require one.

Ending words

Using an Android telephone every bit a webcam wirelessly should be the go-to solution for nigh users as Wi-Fi access isn't uncommon, and the latency isn't fifty-fifty noticeable in about cases. I personally constitute the best performance when I connected the PC and phone via hotspot instead of my WiFi router. For those who want a perfect connection, the USB connexion should suffice.