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Microsoft Phone Link may soon let you use your Android phone as a webcam (www.androidauthority.com)
submitted 11 months ago by FragmentedChicken@lemdro.id to c/android@lemdro.id
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[-] ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org 22 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

If you're in Linux and you want the same thing right now, scrcpy already offers to expose your cellphone's camera as a video4linux device. See here:

https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy/blob/master/doc/v4l2.md

I use it every once in a while when I do a presentation in Teams at work and I need one webcam to show my mush, and another to demonstrate whatever device I'm presenting: I use the cellphone to capture close-ups of the device and focus on features people ask me to show, scrcpy sends the camera capture to a v4l2 device, and Teams uses the v4l2 device as a regular video source.

Super useful!

[-] fatboy93@lemm.ee 3 points 11 months ago

Not really an open-source approach, but I found that irium Webcam is generally a lot better if you're just wanting to use your phone as one.

For some reason scrcpy just doesn't work well for me.

[-] otter@lemmy.ca 11 points 11 months ago

I thought this was built into Android 14, and it's relatively simple already?

https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/how-to-turn-android-phone-into-webcam-android-14/

I always found Phone Link to be bloated and buggy. KDE connect was more reliable for what I needed

[-] SatyrSack@lemmy.one 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Does GrapheneOS not support this? I am not seeing a Webcam option under Use USB for

EDIT: https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/8672-phone-as-webcam/3

Seemingly it is still a pending feature, that will be included with the December quarterly feature release ("QPR1"). The only people who are using it now on their phones are running QPR1 betas, which I think first began releasing in September.

[-] atocci@kbin.social 3 points 11 months ago

I guess it needs a cable though, and Phone Link is wireless?

[-] otter@lemmy.ca 1 points 11 months ago

Yea I guess so, I'd be curious about the latency from that

[-] atocci@kbin.social 2 points 11 months ago

My Asus laptop came with their own version of this preinstalled. I had to install the corresponding app on my phone, but when I tried it out, I had no noticeable amount of latency for anything you would use a webcam for. It was over a relatively fast WiFi 6 connection though.

[-] dandroid@dandroid.app 2 points 11 months ago

KDE connect has been really buggy for me since my most recent Linux install. I can't even send texts unless I use the command line. And it has to redownload all my texts every time I reopen the app.

At least I get notifications 100% of the time, which is the most important use case for me.

[-] Bluefruit@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

I was curious if someone was gonna mention KDE connect. From what i saw it looked pretty good though i havent used it myself.

[-] otp@sh.itjust.works 7 points 11 months ago

DroidCam does this

[-] dvdnet89@lemmy.today 4 points 11 months ago

yeah. But Droidcam is not free

[-] otp@sh.itjust.works 3 points 11 months ago

Really? I never paid for it. I guess it's missing features unless you pay?

I used it for a good 2 years before I got a separate webcam

[-] brax@sh.itjust.works 1 points 11 months ago

There's a free version and a paid version. The paid version is worth it IMO

[-] CJOtheReal@ani.social -4 points 11 months ago

No thanks, i don't want to install Malware on my phone.

[-] ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

You don't have to:

Create a work profile managed by Shelter. then install the sketchy Microsoft app - along with all the other sketchy apps you don't trust - in the work profile where they won't have access to any of your important data or contacts, won't have any permission you don't want to give them, and where you can freeze them and neuter them completely when they're not in use.

Here's a good howto for Shelter and work profiles. Work profiles are great: they're just as good as separate accounts to keep unstrustworthy apps from accessing data you don't want them to get at and putting you under surveillance, but they're a lot more flexible than separate accounts.

Work profiles are a standard Android feature that everybody who cares about privacy should use.

[-] Vilian@lemmy.ca 3 points 11 months ago

kdeconnect is the way

[-] dvdnet89@lemmy.today 1 points 11 months ago

you cannot use phone camera on kde connect

this post was submitted on 29 Nov 2023
37 points (91.1% liked)

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