We all have been in that situation where we wanted to video chat with our loved ones but the webcam on our laptops is just not good enough. We know one can always pick up a smartphone but what if you want to go on a video call on a laptop without compromising on the webcam quality? There is a way where you can use your smartphone’s camera as a webcam on your laptop. Here is how you can do it.
Step 1: Download an app called ‘DroidCam’ from the Google Play Store. Also, download the web client of DroidCam from here.
Step 2: Droidcam can access your smartphone’s camera in three ways - via USB, Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi server.
Set up via Wi-Fi
>>Make sure both your smartphone and laptop are connected to the same Wi-Fi network.
>>Open the DroidCam on your smartphone and note down the ‘Wifi IP’ and DroidCam Port.
>>Open the DroidCam client on your computer. Click on the Wi-Fi sign (the first of the three) and enter the Wifi IP and DroidCam Port there.
>>Choose Audio and Video and hit Start.
Set up via USB
>>There are chances that your Wi-Fi is not fast enough to transmit data over the internet. In that case, you can access your smartphone’s camera as a webcam via USB.
>>First download all USB drivers for your device on your laptop
>>The USB connection will take place via ADB so you need to enable ‘USB Debugging’ on your smartphone. For that, go to Settings > Developer Options > Enable USB Debugging.
>>Check if your device is connected via ADB by running the command ‘adb devices’ in Command Prompt.
>>Once done, go to the DroidCam web client again, navigate to the USB tab and hit Start.
To enable Developer Options on your Android device, go to Settings > About Phone > Tap Build Number a bunch of times.
You might face some issues with the USB method. Make sure you have all the USB drivers installed on your laptop and follow the instructions carefully. For detailed FAQ, visit here.
Set up via Wi-Fi server
This option is only available on DroidCamX i.e. the paid version of app. To access your smartphone’s camera via Wi-Fi server. Just go to the Wi-Fi Server tab on the PC and hit Start. Now on the smartphone app, go to the three dot menu > Connect to a server > Create a new by entering the local IP address of your laptop and Start.
To find the local IP address of your network, just open the Command Prompt > enter the command ‘ipconfig’ and look for IPv4 Address.
Once you are done setting up, you will need to manually change the webcam source on the client you wish to do video call on. Skype and Google Hangouts have a simple option in settings to fiddle with both video and audio source.
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