When asked if they have a webcam, many users answer yes, the one built into their computer, whether it’s a laptop, convertible or two-in-one, or all-in-one desktop. Many others will answer no, because when they want to have a video conference, they turn to their smartphone. This was more pronounced by 2020 when the pandemic was a big catalyst for video conferencing, but still today there are many users who do not have a webcam.

It is understandable, because its very specific use may not pay off the investment. However, the problem arises when we need it and when we go to use the one built into our devices, we find to our dismay that its quality is comparable to the cameras of the first mobiles that began to contain cameras. Yes, the ones that hit the market in the middle of the first decade of this century.

In this regard, I can say, as a related anecdote, that a few years ago I decided to use the webcam built into my laptop for the first time to hold a business meeting over the Internet. I joined the meeting place at the specified time and you can see my partners there. But they couldn’t say the same about me, because despite my environment having “decent” lighting, they only saw a handful of dark, truly spooky-looking pixels this made for some jokes once the fear wore off. Finally, I had to join the meeting from my mobile and yes, the front camera of the same managed and the meeting went normally.

Android adds a new “DeviceAsWebcam” service that “turns your Android device into
webcam.” Specifically, Android devices that support the USB video class (UVC) standard widget mode will be able to send video data that hosts can read from /dev/video* nodes. pic.twitter.com/oOgIqr1KkE

— Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) February 2, 2023

Something makes me think that some Google engineer must have gone through a similar situation at some point, because according to revealed on Twitter Mishaal Rahman, a popular Android analyst, Google is preparing a function so that we can use any Android smartphone as a webcam on the PC. Rahman came to this conclusion after finding data indicating that Android is pushing a feature called “DeviceAsWebcam” to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) repository.

According to their findings, the key to this new feature lies in its ease of use, as it will only be necessary to connect the smartphone to the computer via a USB port for the operating system to identify the device as a webcam, without the need to install drivers or other software.