How to use your Android or iOS device as a webcam

A good webcam, let alone any webcam, is hard to find these days. Just to put a time marker on this post: the coronavirus pandemic has moved much of the American workforce into a work-from-home environment. With so many people in need of basic tech supplies, demand for webcams has increased, and as supplies dwindle, prices have unsurprisingly skyrocketed.

My colleague Chris Welch has

reported the trend.

, and many of us here at

The Verge

spent more time (and money) than we'd have liked simply to outfit our Windows 10 or macOS home with a decent camera. Luckily you don't have

battling the online mob to spend hundreds of dollars on a webcam that you may or may not use a lot when we're on the other side of this pandemic. There is an alternative: a spare Android or iOS phone or tablet (or your current one) that you may own.

You'll want to make sure your device stays plugged in, as these apps consume battery power. p>

We'll start with how to make your Android phone or tablet act as a webcam for your computer, and then we'll do the same with your iPhone or iPad. (By the way, you can also easily

turn a Wyze security camera into a webcam

, but you'll probably get much better video quality from your device.)

These steps work with most Android phones and tablets

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales/The Verge

Use your Android phone/tablet as a webcam with DroidCam

There are several apps in the Google Play Store that claim to turn your Android device into a webcam. Of the few I tried, DroidCam offered the easiest setup with the most reliable results. I'm sure there are smarter, app-free solutions to achieve this, but for the sake of simplicity, that's what we'll do here.

Download and install the free version of

Play Store DroidCam

. (It requires a device running Android 5.0 Lollipop or newer software.) The developer,

Dev47Apps

, creates a desktop client for Windows 10 and Linux (but unfortunately not for macOS) that you will also need to download to your computer. (Note: I'm focusing on the steps to use it with Windows 10 in this manual.) Make sure to

download latest version

because it fixes some issues that can cause headaches if you're using an older version.

Download DroidCam version 6.2 for Windows 10.

Once the Android app is installed, focus on setting up and running the desktop app. During installation, you will need to allow the application to install audio drivers. Feel free to uncheck “Always trust software from DEV47 APPS” if you prefer.

Once the Windows app is running, you will see options at the top of the app window that will allow you to connect your device wirelessly or via USB. It's actually easier to connect over Wi-Fi, so that's what we'll focus on. Luckily, it's on this default setting.

Under these options, you will see a box where you need to enter the IP address of your Android device. At this point, open the DroidCam app on your Android phone or tablet. It will then display your device's IP address. Go back to your PC and enter this address in the field called “Device IP”.

The DroidCam client.

DroidCam: the good and the bad

Advantages:

Startup free and surprisingly capable at no cost

Works with Android and iOS

no watermark

Allows you to use either front or rear cameras

You can minimize the app while using the webcam

Disadvantages:

No macOS support

There are two things to do before hitting "Start" in the desktop app. First, make sure both boxes for “video” and “audio” are checked. If only video is checked, your phone's microphone will not pick up your voice.

Next, click on the three vertical dots in the top right corner of the Android app to open Settings. There, in the “camera” section, you can choose to use the front or rear camera. Your rear camera is almost guaranteed to outperform your selfie camera, so I recommend using that. Most of the other defaults are set to the ideal choice, so you can leave them.

DroidCam's phone view.

Finally, tap “start” in the desktop app to initiate the connection. You should see a preview of the video stream on your PC screen. If you don't see it, make sure your PC and Android device are on the same Wi-Fi or LAN network. My PC is connected to the internet, but it still works wirelessly with my phone because they are on the same network.

Now just open your

favorite video conferencing app p>

, such as Zoom, Google Meet or Skype. In each app's video settings, switch the default camera to "DroidCam Source 2" or "DroidCam Source 3". One of them should mirror what you see in the DroidCam client window.

Select the DroidCam as the video source.

To make your device's microphone the default input in your video conferencing application, go to the microphone section of your video conferencing application (it may be called audio input) and select "DroidCam Virtual Audio". Once you've done that, it should work as expected.

A quick aside: if you're using the front camera for video tasks and for some reason need to grab your webcam-turned phone to text or browse your contacts, DroidCam won't stop you. You can close the application without interrupting the camera feed.

Now, if you're using a phone, you'll want to find a way to position it on your desk for a webcam-like angle. of your face. For some, this might be the most difficult step. However, a simple fix for me came in the form of a car dashboard mount that I already had.

I own this model of iOttie

in my car, and it easily attaches to my glass monitor stand. Its grip is wide enough to hold a Nexus 6P in a hard case, so virtually any phone should fit. The company also makes a model with a suction cup, which should work with most desks.

My iOttie car dash mount came in handy for securing a phone to my glass monitor mount.

You can also notice several additional DroidCam X Pro controls in the screenshot below; you will have to pay $4.99 to access it. You can do that if you want to support the developer, but you might be happy with the free version, which doesn't show a watermark and doesn't put you through too many hurdles.

Photo by James Bareham/The Verge

Use your iPhone/iPad as a webcam with EpocCam

Just like Android, there are several iOS apps that claim to be able to turn your mobile device into a webcam. Recently, Dev47Apps released

DroidCam on iOS

, and after testing it, I'm confident to recommend it. The application is simple to configure, it works perfectly and uses the same

Windows DroidCam client

which the Android version of the app uses (although unfortunately it's still not available on macOS). The instructions above in the Android section reflect what you need to do to get it working on your iOS device.

Another solid option is

EpocCam

, which was acquired in October 2020 by Elgato (which is owned by Corsair). It requires iOS 13 or later (it used to be supported on Android, but not anymore). As with DroidCam, you don't need to use cables to make it work. It exists

a free limited version and a paid version at $7.99

(called EpocCam Pro) which has more features and a higher resolution stream for your camera. To use either:

Download and install

EpocCam from App Store

. The

paid version is available here

.

A set of desktop drivers for EpocCam is available for Windows 10 and macOS (unlike DroidCam). Meeting on

Elgato site

to download the necessary drivers for your machine.

After installing desktop drivers, you don't have to worry about opening any application on your computer yourself. Just make sure your iOS device and your computer are on the same Wi-Fi or LAN network. Open the mobile app and launch your video conferencing app on your computer.

What EpocCam looks like on an iPhone (taken from a previous version)

EpocCam: The Good and the Bad

Advantages:

Doesn't require desktop client, just drivers

Works on Windows and macOS

Works wirelessly and is easy to set up

Disadvantages:

Doesn't work if you click outside the mobile app

Limited to iOS phones

Free version is very restrictive — for example, you cannot use your device's microphone and your resolution will be 640 x 480

Every video conferencing app I tried worked flawlessly with my iOS device. Just search for “EpocCam” in the camera settings. Once you select it, you should see a notification appear on your computer confirming that the camera is connected via Wi-Fi. In my case, it said “EpocCam iOS connected via Wi-Fi”.

Look for this notification when EpocCam activates on your PC.

There are a few troubleshooting steps to take if things don't work perfectly right off the bat. If you are using a browser-based video conferencing application rather than a separate computer application, be sure to allow the browser to access your webcam. A notification should appear asking your permission before launching the app or conference call. Look for it near the web address bar.

There are a few other things to note about the free version of EpocCam. First, its free feature set is much more restrictive than DroidCam's. The free version displays a watermark on your video stream and limits the resolution to 640 x 480 and 30 frames per second. Also, the free version doesn't even allow you to use your device's microphone, so you'll have to plug a headset into your computer that has an inline microphone, unless you've found another solution. The EpocCam Pro app removes all these limitations and adds more features for $7.99 on the App Store if you install on an iOS device.

Update, March 31, 2021, 4:30 p.m.: p>

Updated iOS section to mention that EpocCam has been acquired by Elgato and to more accurately reflect changes to the app.