convert phone to webcam; because of the global coronavirus pandemic that has forced many of us to work and study at home, video conferencing programs have become the need of the day. if you’ve ever tried to attend a session via a laptop, you’ve probably noticed that the webcam inside your laptop isn’t very useful, and in most cases buying a dedicated webcam will dramatically increase the quality of your videos.
the good news is that you don’t need to raise money for a webcam. you have a good camera on your android smartphone!
on our phones, the effective camera hardware is embedded, and it makes sense to use them for video calls on the computer as well. if you are a distributor or person who has to attend numerous conferences every day, this is cost-effective for you.
convert phone to webcam
OTHERWISE, IT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE TO CHARGE FOR A DEDICATED CAMERA IN ORDER TO ATTEND MEETINGS THAT ARE RARELY HELD. OUR SMARTPHONES CAN CREATE A WIRELESS WEBCAM THAT GUARANTEES MUCH BETTER THAN LAPTOP VGA WEBCAMS.
Our Suggested Method: Using DroidCam
You can use your current mobile phone or old dust-picked phone left in the drawer. Both methods work. When it comes to turning a mobile phone into a complete webcam, there are several tools that are claimed to do better than their competitors. If you have time and patience, check them by any means and give it enough to one of them that is best for you. But to save effort and time I have tried several options briefly and found that DroidCam is the best among all options.
The program has a simple interface and offers all the essentials in its free version. In this tutorial, I will teach you how to use DroidCam to create your own portable webcam that can be used for your next video session.
- First, you need to download and install the desktop version of DroidCam on your laptop or desktop computer as well as on your Android phone. Make sure your mobile phone and PC are connected to a Wi-Fi.
- Now you need to enter the IP address and port in the following fields. Go back to the mobile app and look for IP wifi and port values. Enter these values into the device’s IP fields and the DroidCam port in the computer client respectively.
- Make sure the audio and video windows are checked, and then hit the start button. If everything is set up correctly, you will see a preview of the video in the client DroidCam computer.
- by default, the app uses your rear camera, but you can also use the front camera if you want.
- Open your favorite video conferencing app and start a meeting. The program uses built-in webcams by default. To change those settings, open the settings and change the video to “DroidCam Second Source” or “DroidCam Third Source” (if the second source doesn’t give you output).
- You can use your phone’s microphone or computer microphone for sound. To change the microphone input on your smartphone, go to the sound settings in the conference app and under the microphone option “DroidCam Virtual Audio”.
- all that’s left is to know where to put your smartphone. you can use a simple holder or ones that allow you to adjust the angle or height to your liking.
i did it with an aluminum phone holder. if you have a small tripod, you can also install your mobile phone on it.
The free version of DroidCam only supports SD quality. Higher quality (1080) and more features such as smooth FPS, mirror video, adjustability, autofocus, brightness, and contrast can be used through the purchase of DroidCam. Depending on your needs, it may be worth investing in.
method 2: using wi-fi
in this way, your mobile video is played and provided to your computer program using wi-fi. this is the easiest and most flexible way you can do it.
the requirements of your android pc and phone must be connected to a wi-fi network, which means you can:
- connect your phone and pc to the internet using a wireless router.
- or connect your android phone to the pc’s internet using a virtual router. (only for windows 7).
- or connect your android phone to your pc using a shared wi-fi network (it requires a mobile phone rooted with an active case network).
when your mobile phone connects to the same computer network via wi-fi:
1- Download and install webcam IP.
2- open the program, the configured page will open for you where you can apply settings for the port, sound, image quality and Username/password.
3- The default settings are enough, so drag the screen down and click start server.
4- IP webcam opens your camera and transfers the video to a specific IP address and port. Click on the How do I connect button located at the top left of the screen and select fi route I’m using Wi- to get this address and IP port. You’ll get something like this: http://10. 42. 43. 89:8080
write down this address and type it into your computer’s internet browser. you’ll get a page with links that show you what ways to use your new webcam. from this list you should use one of these two links.
connect to a pc with skype and other videochat programs.
connect to a computer with skype and other videochat programs on gnu/linux.
windows– for windows drivers appear as a convenient installer.
Linux– For Linux it appears as a script that you have to run as rooted in the terminal. Change the variable value WIFI_IP= to the script’s webcam IP address before running. Make sure your computer is connected to the Internet when you first run the script. The computer will try to download and install them if your Linux does not have additional files. You need to run this script every time you want to use your Android as a webcam.
Same! Now open Skype, Google Plus Hangout or any other video calling software and select and start for the little web driver video you’ve installed. I use Google Plus Hangout on Linux as a webcam with my Android.
NOTE: FOR LINUX, DISABLING SOUND IN IP WEBCAM SETTINGS MAKES THE DRIVER NOT WORKING.
method 3: using the phone usb
you can use your android without wi-fi and by connecting it to the pc via usb as a webcam. but this requires more effort because android can only communicate with the computer via usb if it is using adb in debug status.
We also need the DroidCam program in the USB status. Although the previous WEbcam IP program is more popular, it is more or less especially limited to WiFi connections on Windows. So let’s see how we need to configure our Android phone as a webcam via USB.
- set your mobile phone in debug mode. to do so, follow the path below:
Settings -> Applications -> Development -> USB debugging
- connect your mobile phone to the pc via usb (when you connect the usb, do not select the storage option on the mobile phone).
- Download DroidCam from Android Market. Install it and open it on your mobile phone. A message entitled Starting server is displayed.
- download the client software and install it on your computer.
- Open DroidCam and select the option or USB button.
It’s as simple as that! Now DroidCam opens your phone’s camera and you can use it as a webcam on your PC. Just configure your video call app’s video settings to use the DroidCam driver. This is my Google Plus Hangout with a video from my Android phone that I’ve connected it to via USB stick.
For Linux, you can also use the WEbcam IP program. Just connect your mobile phone to the PC via USB in debug mode and start the driver script. The mobile phone automatically finds and installs adb to communicate using USB.
