This tutorial will show you how to use your phone camera as a webcam using Phone Link in Windows 11. Phone Link is one of the important system components of Windows 11 that has many interesting features. You can use it to record your mobile screen on a PC, copy text from an image, set up and use Calls, and more. Now this app has a feature to use your Android phone or tablet camera as a webcam in any video application (such as Zoom, web apps, Windows Camera app, etc.) on Windows 11. You can switch to the front and back cameras, pause and resume video/streaming, and use Effects (if supported by your phone).
Once you have connected your Android phone and PC with its desktop client and mobile app (Link to Windows), you can use the Phone Link app to use your phone as a webcam to take photos, record videos, start video streaming, and more. Just make sure that both apps are updated so that you can use this feature. Also, you need to connect to WiFi or turn on access to mobile data to use the mobile camera.
Use Phone Camera as Webcam using Phone Link app in Windows 11
The steps to use your phone camera as a webcam using Phone Link in Windows 11 are as follows:
- Open the Settings app (Win+I) on your Windows 11 PC
- Select the Bluetooth & devices category
- Access the Mobile devices page
- Turn on the Phone Link option that is needed to access the mobile device from the PC
- Turn on the Allow this PC to access your mobile devices option and expand it
- Press the Manage devices button and a new Manage mobile devices window will open
- In this window, you will see your connected device(s) under the My devices section
- Use the Enabled button for your mobile device
- Turn on the Use as a connected camera option so that the phone camera can be available to apps that use a webcam
- Open a video application. Here, we are using the Camera app
- After opening the app, click on the Change camera icon on the top-right part of its interface
- A box will pop up to ask permission to use your device camera. Press the Send notification button in that box
- Now a Permission request notification will display on your mobile using which you can grant the necessary permissions (like taking pictures and recording video) for the Link to Windows app
- Once it is done, the Phone Link box on the PC will show two options that you can use accordingly:
- Switch to back or Switch to front
- Pause video or Resume video.
The same options will be visible on your mobile screen, as shown in the image above. Now, you can start using the Android phone as a webcam and use the options present in the video application you’re using.
Related: Mirror content from iPhone or Android phone to PC
When you need to stop the camera stream, click on the close icon on the box visible on the desktop screen, and press the Disconnect button.
This way, you can connect with another video application to use your phone camera as a webcam.
Read: How to Hide or Show Phone Link Sidebar on Start Menu
How to use phone as webcam in Google Meet?
To use the phone camera as a webcam in Google Meet, you will need a third-party application with a desktop client and mobile app. One of the best applications for this purpose is DroidCam. After installing and establishing a connection between your PC and phone using this app, you can select your phone camera for a Google Meet meeting, apply visual effects, switch to front and rear cameras and more. You can also turn your Pixel phone into a webcam with a USB cable.
How do I access my laptop camera from my phone in Windows 11?
While we can’t access a laptop camera or webcam from a mobile device, there are some best free apps we can use to remotely control a Windows PC from the phone. One such app is Chrome Remote Desktop. Once you’ve set up your device for remote access, you can access the desktop screen to control from your phone, open Notepad, and do other things. PC Remote, AnyDesk Remote Desktop, etc., are also some good applications to remotely control a PC.
Read next: Best Webcam Software for Windows PC.
