Use your android phone as webcam

Have you ever needed a webcam on the instant, but did not have one available? Well, if you have your phone at your side you could easily use your android phone as webcam! That’s right, in this article we will show you how to quickly turn your android smartphone into a web camera in less than five minutes. That way, you won’t even need to buy an actual webcam device, especially if you’re not going to need it for frequent use. Still, it should be said that it’s probably better to get a dedicated device, but the Android phone can will do in an emergency. However, if you don’t feel like spending extra money on a separate camera, using your android phone as webcam will also work just fine. Trying our guide would be even more beneficial to you if you have an old smartphone that you no longer use – you can turn it into a webcam instead of selling it and save some money that you might have otherwise spent on a dedicated device. If your phone has a high-end camera you might even get superior results compared to relying on a regular webcam. For instance, built-in laptop webcams often do not have overly good quality of picture. Using your android phone as webcam – especially if the cam in question is a high-definition one – is actually not at all hard.

We will show you two separate methods how you can utilize your android device as web camera using two different apps, that you can download right away from the google store (both of which are free). Either of those apps should be able to turn your android smartphone into a webcam. The first application, which will let you stream video from your smartphone via wireless connection is called IP Webcam. The app that we will use for our second method will enable you to connect your device to a PC via both an USB cable and a wireless connection. The name of that second application is DroidCam. There’re surely many other similar apps that you can download from Google Store, so don’t feel obliged to use only the two suggested in our article.

Use Adroid Phone as Webcam by Using IP Webcam

1. First thing you have to do here is download the IP Webcam app from Google Store. As we already said it is free, so you won’t have to pay anything. We advise you to download the application directly on your PC – it will automatically get installed onto your smartphone device. Just make sure that you’re using the same Google account on both your android device and on your PC. Also, you need to have both your computer and smartphone connected to the same wireless network. /you can download the app from here/
2. Next thing you need to do is get your smartphone and open the app from there. As we already said, the app should have been automatically installed onto your android smartphone. After you access IP Webcam from your android device, you’ll need to set up a password and a username. To do that go to Local Broadcasting under Connection Settings and tap on Login/Password.
   
   • Note that you can skip this part and go on without a username and a password if you so desire.
3. Now, what you need to do is go to Service Control > Start Server. After doing that, your mobile will start streaming through its camera. 
4. Next, open a new browser tap and in go to the following address: 192.168.0.103:8080. After the page loads, you’ll be asked to enter the username and password if you have provided the latter.
   1. If this address does not work, you can check what the correct address is by going back to the app on your smartphone and then to Start Server > How do I connect? > Connect directly > I’m using Wi-fi router. In there, you should be able to see what address you need to visit on your computer
5. Finally, after you’ve opened the browser page on your PC, simply click on Flash next to Video Renderer and there you have it, your android smartphone has successfully been turned into a webcam. 

Use Adroid Phone as Webcam by Using DroidCam      

This app is similar to IP WebCam. However, with DroidCam you can also use an usb cable if you do not have wireless internet connection, which makes it a bit more versatile.

1. As with the previous method, the first thing you gotta do here is download the app from the app store. This time, download it directly onto your phone.
2. You will also need to download a separate desktop application for your computer. /You can get the desktop client from here/
3. Open both the desktop client and the android app. On the desktop client choose go to the USB tab and click on Start.
    
   1. If you want to use this app for camera streaming via wireless network connection, you can do that by using the Wi-Fi from the desktop client. You can see the required IP address from your android application’s interface.