With the new release of the operating system, it should be possible to use the smartphone as a webcam to connect to the PC. Google is considering including a new feature in its upcoming Android 14 operating system update. This function involves using your Android smartphone as a webcam to be connected directly to your PC or laptop.
Video calls have become the daily bread because of a need for having the best possible video quality, which “exploded” during the pandemic, when between remote working and the impossibility of meeting relatives and friends.
Android Smartphone As A Webcam
Someone had already thought about this opportunity. We’re talking about the Camo app, which lets you use an Android or iOS smartphone as a webcam on any PC with a Windows or Mac operating system. The next step in this direction was made later by Apple, which integrated this feature into their iPhones.
Now even Google seems to be moving in this direction, and from what emerges from the Android code changes unearthed by Mishal Rahman Big, it is about to launch a function similar to the Camo app and Apple’s “Continuity Camera” offer.
The project with a name that leaves little doubt in interpretations is ” DeviceAsWebcam,” which translates to ” device as webcam. ” This device is the smartphone with the Android operating system that can be connected, as mentioned, to the PC or notebook in which better quality is needed to make video calls.
Google Chooses The UVC Protocol
To make this connection between smartphone and PC, Google seems willing to exploit the “USB Video Class” (UVC) protocol, which would allow you to use your Android smartphone with laptops and PCs equipped with different operating systems and Windows MacOS and certainly ChromeOS. This contrasts what Apple is proposing and its Continuity Camera function, which can only be used between iOS devices and Macs.
However, the first doubt that arises concerns Google’s intention or otherwise to create a system app that acts as a “container” for the video data arriving from the smartphone before it is transmitted, a bit like the Camo app does.
In this case, however, if Google limited itself to creating the only service to send video data via USB, it would be up to manufacturers to develop their own to be included in their proprietary interfaces to allow users to use their smartphones as a webcam.
All this is yet to be decided, and it would not be impossible for Google to consider providing this system app in its upcoming Android 14. After all, there are times to develop and test it.
