Windows 11 Will Soon Allow Android Smartphones To Double Up As A Webcam

Windows 11 Will Soon Allow Android Smartphones To Double Up As A Webcam

Not willing to shell out for a dedicated webcam for your PC? There’s good news – Microsoft is soon adding the feature allowing Android smartphones to act as a makeshift webcam, similar to Apple’s “Continuity Camera” feature that utilizes iPhones as webcams for Mac devices.

It’s currently available in preview, but the gist of it is simple: link the smartphone via Link to Windows app on the phone, and enable the “Use as a connected camera” switch in a dedicated settings panel. In the blog post, Microsoft says this will require Android 9.0 and up, and supported devices can utilize whatever post-processing effects come available with the smartphone.

Once this is enabled, head to the app that will be using webcam devices and simply select the smartphone model that you’ve configured earlier. And that’s it – the smartphone is good to go. Side note: you can switch between front or rear cameras, pause the webcam functionality, or enable HDR effects when available.

As of this writing, the feature is currently rolling out to Windows 11 Insiders, so expect this feature to be generally available in the coming months.

Source: Windows Central

Pokdepinion: As the owner of a laptop without a built-in webcam, this could be kind of handy.