How to use Android phone as Webcam on Mac

With the advent of the Continuity camera, you can actually use iPhone as a webcam on your Mac. But what if you have an android phone and a Mac Computer? Should you get an iPhone just to have a good webcam on your Mac Computer? Not at all. You can actually use the Android phone’s camera as a webcam on your mac device.

See Also: How to use iPhone as a Webcam?

Do you wonder how? In this article, we will go into detail as to how this works and how you can take advantage of this feature. First things first, this article works only if you have an Android device and also a mac computer. It doesn’t have to be any specific modal. As long as it’s android and macOS, ideally, the steps we see in this article should work fine.

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Demand for better Webcams

This sudden demand for better webcams purely came because of the pandemic of 2020. The world became more virtual in terms of meetups and office work and so much more. The ability to present yourselves better became a priority, especially in the last two years.

Apple has always been very particular about its ecosystem and cross-platform support. Since this feature primarily works over WiFi, we can circumvent the restrictions that Apple might put up.

How to use Android phone as Webcam on Mac

For the purpose of this article, we will use Camo as the tool. But there are so many tools like this and you can pretty much use any of them. They might have a different look and feel but it works pretty much the same.

In this section, we will see the steps you need to do on the Android phone, and the mac computer, and then how you can use the android device in a zoom meeting. Carefully use the steps below I’m using a pixel as an android device and if you use a different device, the screenshots might look different but it shouldn’t be difficult to follow.

Steps on Android

Ideally, it would be great if you have the latest versions of Android on your smartphone but the older versions shouldn’t be shabby to work with either. Follow the steps below to ensure that Camo works smoothly.

Open the Play Store app and then Download the Camo app first. It has more than 100K downloads so, you can trust it.
After you have successfully installed the app, you can open the app and you will see this loading page. Tap Continue at the bottom.
After that you will have to allow the app to have both camera and microphone permission. Make the choice accordingly. You kind of need this access for this to work. You can either choose to give access while using the app or only once like you see above in the screenshot.

This is the initial set up on the Android phone. Once these steps are done, then let’s move on to the set up in the mac computer.

Steps on Mac

Now, move on to the Mac Computer. Follow the steps below and then you can easily start using the Android camera as webcam in the computer.

Go to the Camo Home Page and download it from there by clicking on the Download for macOS button as you can see below.
Once downloaded, you will see the file in the Downloads Folder as you can see. Double click on the file and open it to install it in the computer.
Since you’ve downloaded the app from the website and not from the App Store you will get these notifications, you can just get click Open.
Once the installed shows up, click on the Start Install button.
As soon as you install it successfully, You will get this prompt saying that an audio plugin installed and it requires you to reload the camo app. Click on the Reload Now button as you can see.
Once the application is reloaded, you will have to make some changes in the Settings app as you can see. Click on the Open Security & Privacy button and it will take you to the correct page you are supposed to be in.
Since we have installed Camo, you will get this notification in the settings app, you get this option in the bottom of the Security & Privacy section of the System Preferences app. Click on the Allow and it will work like a charm when you get back to the Camo app.
Once its done, connect the Android Phone to the mac computer using an USB Cable and if the Camo app is open on the android phone, you will see the camera feed on the mac Computer like this.
There are some options on the side like adding text or templates to the image which you can do if you please to do so. Its a good idea to place the phone on a tripod or a webcam stand or else its going to be a little difficult for it to serve the purpose its intended for.

That’s it super easy, now you have added the Android phone camera as a webcam on the Mac Computer. In the next section, you can see how to use this cam on the Zoom video conferencing app.

Steps on Zoom

Let’s use the Camo app on a zoom call in this section. I’m showing only how to use it on the Zoom app but this should ideally work on any video conferencing app like Webex or Google Meet etc.,

Once you have completed successfully the steps in both the sections above, open the zoom app and join or start a meeting.
Now, click on the arrow next to the Show video button at the bottom bar or the meeting controls.
In the popup that appears, click on Video Settings. This will open up the Settings window with the Video tab selected.
You will see a dropdown with the list of all the available options. In my case its showing only Camo Camera because I have a Mac Mini and a webcam is not connected.
Sometimes it might not automatically pick up and you will have to choose this by yourself. Ensure that Camo Camera is selected. Now, your android camera will be used as the video source for the Zoom conference call.

Thats how you can use the Android smartphone camera as the video source for zoom calls on your mac computer. Its super easy and its free to use.

This is how you can use your Android device camera as a webcam on your mac computer. The cameras on mac device or any computers for that matter has always been not that great. It’s a shame to say that the best camera in a mac device is just 1080p. Also, with the Continuity camera about to be released, we can be sure that mac cameras are not going to be improved at all.

So, it’s nice that we have alternative options like Droidcam and so many more apps that can definitely help us show our faces better on video conferencing calls.

Did you find this article useful? Do let us know in the comments below.

Demand for better Webcams