How and Why to Use Your Smartphone as a Webcam

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Video calling spiked at the onset of the pandemic, allowing family and friends to have more meaningful chats while staying safe.

Now, nearly two years in, this modern form of communication is only getting bigger. It has also proved to be an invaluable tool for businesses, letting colleagues effectively collaborate on

plans no matter where they’re working from, significantly cutting travel costs and carbon footprints.

But did you know you can use your smartphone as a web camera, instead of your computer, when engaged in video chats via apps including Facebook Messenger, FaceTime, Google Meet, Microsoft

Teams, Skype, WhatsApp and Zoom? It requires a third-party app, but it’s easy to get going.

Why bother when your laptop or desktop already has a built-in webcam or you’ve got an external camera plugged into a USB port? A couple of reasons.

First, your smartphone’s camera is likely better than your webcam. Surely you want to look your best when chatting online. Plus, webcams can still be difficult to find because of the

pandemic and related supply chain challenges, and you may have a new-ish iPhone or Android that could do the job very well.

Second, you can position your smartphone for a more flattering angle than your computer’s integrated webcam. Yet you can still use your big monitor to see everyone else or the files you may

be working on with coworkers.

In other words, using your smartphone for video and audio may be better than your computer’s webcam because you can move it around and avoid “up-your-nose” shots. And you can still use your

computer screen for seeing everyone and sharing your screen with others.

Third, why not use only your smartphone for video calling? You can walk around and bring it to places that wouldn’t be conducive to a laptop or desktop computer.

How you go about using your phone as a webcam depends on whether your computer is a Windows or Mac and whether you have an iPhone or Android smartphone. But the solutions all involve

downloading and using a third-party app.