If you have an old PC or laptop that does not have a webcam or the webcam is not that good, you could transform your Android phone into a webcam. Also, if you want a spare webcam or use two webcams to do streaming, there are some apps that allow you to do this. By using these apps, you can connect your Android phone to your PC via Wi-Fi. The positive side of this is that these apps work even on very old Android phones, so you could get your old Android phone and use it as a webcam. If you are looking for more ways you can transform old Android phones into new things, take a look at our guide here.
How to Transform your Android into a Webcam via Wi-Fi
That is the easiest way to do this. In this method, your phone will record the video and stream it to your PC. The entire process will work wirelessly. In order to do this, both phone and computer have to be connected to the same network. To do this first requirement, you have three options:
- You can connect both computer and Android phone to the Internet using the same connection on the same wireless router.
- You can also do this using a virtual router so your PC will work as a router itself and the phone will connect to the PC (it is available just for Windows)
- Finally, you can also connect your phone to the computer using a shared Wi-Fi network. To do this option, you will need a rooted phone and ad-hoc networking has to be enabled.
After Connecting Both Phone and PC to the Same Wi-Fi Connection
Once both computer and Android phone are connected to the same Wi-Fi connection, you will have to follow these steps:
- Install IP Webcam. It is available at Google Play Store.
- Open the app. The first thing you will see is the settings. While in the configuration screen, you will see options for port, sound, video quality and the username and password you can put to this connection.
- The default configuration is good enough, you will not need to change anything there. Scroll down and choose “Start Server”.
- The app will start streaming the video. Choose “How do I connect” and then choose “I’m using Wi-Fi router” and you will get an IP address and port.
- In your computer, go to this IP address. You will get into a page with many options of how to use your webcam. Among the options, two of them will be there and you will have to choose:
- Connect to PC for use with Skype and other videochats on Windows.
- Connect to PC for use with Skype and other videochats on Ubuntu GNU/Linux6.
You will have to choose Windows or Linux depending on your PC. On Windows, the PC will install the drivers easily. On Linux, you will get a script.
Open the script and change the variable “WIFI_IP=” to the IP address from IP Webcam in the script.
Run the script on terminal as root and it will install some additional files the system needs.
Make sure the computer is connected to the internet. Also, do not forget you will have to run this script every time you want to use your phone as a webcam.
After all this process, open Skype, for example, and choose the webcam driver you have just installed.