Sometimes you may want to make a video call on your computer either with your family and friends or do your business and manage them online especially in these times of the global pandemic, but you find that your computer does not have a webcam, or it is broken or for some reason, it does not work anymore, so in this case, you might think that you have to spend tens of dollars on buying a new one, but I have good news for you, you don't need to buy anything, you can just use your old or existing smartphone (Android or iOS) as a webcam to make calls on your computer.
You might be wondering how do I do this, and what should I do? Well, let me tell you that you will only need to download a free application on both your computer (whether it is running Windows or Linux), and your iPhone or Android smartphone, and follow a few simple steps to be able to make video calls on your computer using your phone as a webcam.
The application that you will need is called "Droidcam", you can download it from its website from here, and install it on your Windows computer, or follow these steps to install and run it on Linux, then go to the Google Play Store or the App Store depending on the type of smartphone you have (Android or iPhone), search for the app and download it from there.
Connect via Wi-Fi:
Once you've installed Droidcam on your PC, open it, click on 'Droidcam' menu > 'Start', and you will see the following window asking you to enter the Device IP and the Droidcam port in case you want to connect it via Wi-Fi, which is the easiest way. You can find that two data on the app that you just installed on your phone (they appear as the Wi-Fi address and port respectively), for me, as you can see in the image below, my Device IP is 192.168.1.3 and the port is 4747.
Enter those data on the computer app, check the Video and Audio cases, and press click on 'Start', You will see that your phone's camera shows on your computer.
Connect via USB:
1- For Android users:
If you don't have Wi-Fi, or your computer does not have a wireless card, then you can use a USB cable to connect your camera phone with your PC, just be sure that the USB debugging under Developer options settings is enabled on your phone (See the notes below to learn how to turn on them), then connect your phone to your PC with a USB cable.
In the new settings window that opens up, click on File Transfer, after that, you will get another dialog on the phone screen asking Allow USB Debugging, you need to tap OK. Return to the desktop application and click on the USB icon, and then on the refresh icon, you will find your device on the list, click on connect to show your phone's camera on your computer.
2- For iPhone users:
USB connections for the iOS app require the desktop iTunes version (the Windows Store iTunes will not work) to be installed and that it detects your iDevice when you plug it in.
Click the refresh button on the Droidcam Client ‘USB’ tab and any available iOS devices will be listed as a string of random characters, this is the unique ID of the device. Click Start to establish a connection just like you would over Wi-Fi.
Using Droidcam as a webcam on Skype, Zoom...
Once you've successfully set up Droidcam, and your smartphone camera appears on your computer, you can now use it to make video calls. All you have to do is enter the video conference application settings (Skype, for example), and select Droidcam as a voice and camera default option, and enjoy your computer calls on your computer.
Notes:
- In case the phone app shows you two IP addresses, use the Wi-Fi address as a device address.
- You can use this button to switch between the back and front camera.
- To enable Developer options on your phone:
- Go to Settings> About phone and tap Build number seven times until a message appears at the bottom of the screen telling you, "You are now a developer!", then go to Settings> System, and you'll see a new developer options option (it might be hidden under Advanced).
- On Xiaomi devices with MIUI 12: go to the Settings > About Phone and tap MIUI version seven times until the "You are now a developer!" message appears, then go to Settings> Additional settings, and you will find Developer options on the bottom.
- If you have another phone and can't turn on developer options then just leave a comment below with your smartphone model, I will help you find it and get it up and running.
- If your PC does not detect your smartphone, you must search and install your phone's drivers.
- Windows shop applications do not work with Droidcam, you can only use the desktop version of applications.
