How to easily turn your Android phone into a killer webcam

After much anticipation, Android 14 is here. For the past few months, we have been experimenting with Android 14 on the Google Pixel 7a. Surprisingly, the latest major version of Google’s mobile operating system is light on aesthetics and dramatic feature additions. Instead, it focuses more on refinement, especially for devices with larger screens.

But there are still some new tools to get excited about, and one of them is the ability to use your Android phone as a webcam for your PC. With the exception of Microsoft’s Surface tablets, it’s rare to find a way to use a laptop with a webcam that doesn’t turn your face into a grainy mess during a meeting. And if the bandwidth is not at its best, you might be better off disabling your video feed altogether. Therefore, this latest Android 14 feature is no less than a boon.

How to turn your Android phone into a webcam

What really shines about Android 14’s new feature is how well Google has implemented it. Or, more accurately, how easy it is. All you need to do is find a cable, change the USB connection behavior from the notification shade, and you’re good to go in just a few clicks. There is no complicated trickery involved here, and the entire UI is quite simple as well. The only condition is that your smartphone should be running Android 14.

step 1: Connect your phone running Android 14 to your computer via USB cable.

step 2: A notification comes as soon as you connect your phone usb connection Appears at the top. By default, it is set to charging mode.

step 3: Select the notification to expand and open it USB preferences page, Under the heading titled use usb forA new option will appear in front of you named webcam,

step 4: as soon as you select webcamA new alert titled device as webcam Appears in the notification shade.

Step 5: Tapping the notification opens a full-screen viewfinder view where you can see what your phone’s camera is capturing from both sides. The same view will be sent to the PC where you are connected to the video call.

Step 6: If you have a suitable stand or tethering device, you can mount the phone and use the more powerful rear camera for better visual clarity.

Step 7: The next step is to switch from the default webcam view to the camera feed generated by your phone’s camera. To do this, open the camera preferences in the active video calling app on your computer. For example, in Google Meet, follow this path: Settings > Video > Camera > Android Webcam,

it just works

The whole process is quite straightforward and works like magic. All you have to do is follow the instructions. But there are some more advantages to using your Android phone as a webcam with the native approach. First of all, you have access to a very important trick called autofocus. Second, depending on network bandwidth, you can increase or decrease the video resolution, but still get sharp visuals.

There’s also a little trick that lets you zoom in closer to your face almost seamlessly. Unfortunately, the Pixel phone we used doesn’t have a dedicated zoom camera, so we couldn’t test whether a 3x or 5x optical zoom would give a clear view of the person on the other end of the call.

This plug-and-play approach, with its own set of nuances, is nothing short of a revelation. Yes, there are apps that can do the same trick as a webcam, but it’s still a third-party solution. And that can still create functional friction. To be able to do this natively is awesome. This is the type of feature every stakeholder should be targeting. Yes, Apple did it first, but that’s a debate for another day.

What matters is that Google now offers the feature. It would be nice if there was an option to deploy the phone’s own mic as an audio capture method, but we suspect that’s already on the developer team’s bucket list. If you have a phone running Android 14 and want to take your webcam game to the next level, here’s how.