How to use your phone as a webcam on Windows
Every way to use a phone as a webcam on Windows 10 and 11: Phone Link, USB webcam mode, a dedicated app, and what to check when it will not connect.
Guides
Your phone as a webcam, step by step
Practical guides for Windows 10 and 11: pairing, video apps, OBS, USB or Wi-Fi, and what to check when nothing connects.
How to use your phone as a webcam on Windows
Every way to use a phone as a webcam on Windows 10 and 11: Phone Link, USB webcam mode, a dedicated app, and what to check when it will not connect.
Use an Android phone as a USB webcam, no app
Android 14 added a webcam mode: plug in a data cable, tap one notification, and the phone becomes an ordinary USB camera. How to check if yours has it.
Android phone as a webcam on Windows 11, no app
Windows 11 can borrow an Android camera through Phone Link with nothing to install on the PC. The setup, the requirements people miss, and where it stops.
How to use your iPhone as a webcam on Windows
Continuity Camera is Mac only, so a Windows PC needs an app. Pair an iPhone over Wi-Fi or USB, and fix the cable requirement that catches everyone.
iVCam and DroidCam alternatives, up to date
Most alternative lists still recommend two apps that no longer exist. What is really available, what each runs on, and the questions that decide it.
How to use your phone as a camera in OBS Studio
Add your phone to OBS as a video source, use it as a second angle on your hands or your desk, and send the result out to Zoom through OBS Virtual Camera.
Where to put the phone, and how to light it
Height, distance, light direction, stability and background. The cheapest part of a phone webcam setup, and the part that decides whether it shows.
Phone webcam not connecting: the fixes, in order
Your phone cannot find the PC, drops out, or the camera never appears in Zoom. The real causes in order: networks, firewall, permissions, and the cable.
Phone webcam: USB or Wi-Fi, what really differs
Where the delay in a phone webcam actually comes from, measured, and how to choose: latency, charging, networks that block you, and where the phone needs to sit.
Phone webcam quality: what actually gets through
Why setting 4K changes nothing, what really decides how you look on a call, and how to deal with banding, stutter and a phone that overheats.
Your phone as the camera in Zoom, Teams and Meet
Where the camera list hides in each video app, and the three problems behind almost every case of a camera that will not appear in it.