- USING IPHONE AS WEBCAM FOR MAC INSTALL
- USING IPHONE AS WEBCAM FOR MAC ANDROID
- USING IPHONE AS WEBCAM FOR MAC PLUS
- USING IPHONE AS WEBCAM FOR MAC FREE
Update: Enterprising redditors have discovered that it’s possible to workaround the security restriction per-application by unsigning the application bundle with a command like this:Ĭodesign -remove-signature /Applications/.app So if you want to use a smartphone as a webcam, or if you want to be a potato, I suggest you join your meetings in Firefox or Chrome. I’m hoping there’s a better technical solution to this soon (so we can have our security and eat it too), but for now, this phone-as-webcam approach is limited to certain apps.Īs of this writing, these apps will not work with virtual webcams: Notably, Zoom 4.6.10 removed virtual camera support, which is why Snap Camera doesn’t work anymore. The last few versions of macOS have tightened security around plugins, and applications now have to specifically opt out of a security feature to use them. Virtual webcams are apparently implemented as plugins, where the camera-using app has to load a library from the camera provider. There’s one big caveat to using phones as webcams on macOS: many apps won’t be able to use them.
USING IPHONE AS WEBCAM FOR MAC PLUS
I put a little putty between the phone and the monitor to provide a bit of adjustability, plus tape to catch the phone if the putty fails. It won’t win any awards, but this, um, rapidly prototyped approach is working nicely. (Images captured from this webcam test page.) Hardware Setup I think the image quality speaks for itself. I’d like to thank my office mate for volunteering to help test these cameras. Unfortunately, wired use requires enabling USB Debugging. It also allows me to choose between my phone’s two front cameras in the past I’ve noticed that few camera-using apps seem to bother with this. Iriun’s preview image geometry was also a bit off, but the app worked fine, and it has a few options, including camera selection.Epoc has no UI controls at all, just a (squished) video preview, and it doesn’t autofocus.Just for completeness, I fired up both apps on my Pixel 3.
USING IPHONE AS WEBCAM FOR MAC ANDROID
I’m even able to keep the phone in airplane mode! Android Unlike EpocCam, however, Iriun reliably connected with both wifi and USB. Unfortunately, there’s no horizontal flip. Like EpocCam, Iriun has a button to switch between front/back cameras and a button to blind yourself with the flashlight. I’m not sure why you’d ever want to turn on the light. There’s a video preview (when it’s not obscured by a fullscreen ad, that is) and buttons to flip horizontally, switch between front/rear camera, and turn on the flashlight. It worked once or twice, but without rhyme or reason.Īpart from that, the app is adequate.
Worse yet, I was never able to reliably connect via USB, even in airplane mode. I would hate to have to do that during a meeting. Sometimes I had to quit both apps, start the desktop app, then start the mobile app. It usually took a while to connect, and it wasn’t always able to recover after one side restarted. It exists only to prove that the tech works.
USING IPHONE AS WEBCAM FOR MAC FREE
Iriun Webcam EpocCam iOSīecause of its ads and limitations, EpocCam’s free version clearly isn’t meant to be used for any practical purpose. (Shown with mounting hardware) App Impressions – EpocCam vs. I also brought an iPhone SE out of retirement for one last mission.
USING IPHONE AS WEBCAM FOR MAC INSTALL
EpocCam for Android – Free with no ads but also limited to 640×480 the pro version costs $5.50īoth apps require you to install a special app on your Mac, and they’re pretty spartan affairs: a single window with a video thumbnail and a named virtual webcam device appearing in other apps.EpocCam for iOS – Free but ad-laden and limited to an impractical 640×480 the $8 pro version adds features and removes the limits and advertisements.Iriun Webcam for Android – Free with a video watermark (removable for a $4.50 in-app purchase).Iriun Webcam for iOS – Full-featured and free.Searching around for use-phone-as-a-desktop-webcam apps that work with macOS, I found two options: If you’re not willing to wait for weeks or pay through the nose, what are you to do? There’s an app for that. Naturally, a surge in demand for webcams has driven inventory down and prices up, particularly for favorably-reviewed models. If you want your image to look decent or want the video perspective to come from above your desktop monitor (instead of that off-to-the-side laptop angle many of us are sporting), a proper USB webcam is in order.
Unfortunately, laptop webcams are generally terrible. So we’re all working remotely right now and participating in a lot of video chats.