How to Turn Your Phone Into a Webcam for Mac or Windows 10

With all the things our smartphones can do—they can take selfies, record videos, play music, and so much more—it only makes sense that they could also be used as Webcams on a computer or laptop. Unfortunately, this isn’t an included feature of your smartphone’s operating system (OS). But don’t worry—all you need to do is download an app that will let you use your smartphone as a webcam on your Windows 10 or Mac computer. Here’s how!

Follow the steps

Download the app Apowersoft Streaming Video Recorder and then select Settings in the app. In the window that pops up, check both Desktop Screen Capture and Mobile/Tablet/Webcam Recording as you want to use your phone as a webcam. Next, plug your phone into your computer using an OTG cable, which looks like an adapter with two USB ports on it (you can get them from Amazon). Plug one end of the OTG cable into your phone and one end into an open USB port on your computer. If you’re using an Android device, make sure you have rooted it and enabled the Developer Options by going to Settings -> About Device -> Build Number -> Tap Build Number 7 times.

Run iStopMotion on your iPhone

The app of your choice will have both iOS and Android versions, so be sure you’re using the right one. It doesn’t take long to figure out how it works, which is nice because iStopMotion isn’t the easiest program in the world. When you start it up on your computer, go to Preferences>Devices>Connection and look for iPhone or iPad. Type in the email address of your phone—you can find that under Settings>iCloud (or just log into iCloud on your phone)—and select Connect. The rest is pretty straightforward; just make sure your iOS device is connected and running iStopMotion before you click Record on the computer version.

Connect iStopMotion to your computer via Wi-Fi

Connect your iPhone to your computer via Wi-Fi. Open iStopMotion on the phone, then connect it to your computer by clicking Remote control in the bottom left corner of the screen. Type in the Wi-Fi password when prompted, and hit Enter. The Remote Control section should now show an internet icon with Connected underneath it, meaning you’re good to go!

(1) Click File, then choose Save still frame as video clip. (2) Name this video file appropriately (e.g., Date_time), then save it to your desktop folder.

Change your settings if needed

Both your laptop and your phone should be on the same wireless network. You may need to change your settings. In most cases, this means that you’ll need to turn Wi-Fi on and connect it to your desired network. If there’s a small airplane icon next to the Wi-Fi name, then the connection is being shared with other devices and will need its own hotspot name and password before it can be used as a webcam.

If you have an iPhone, open up Settings. Navigate down to FaceTime and toggle it on. If you have an Android device, open up your camera app and select Video Calling. You may need to register your phone before you can start using it as a webcam. For Apple products, head back over to FaceTime and go into your settings. Enter in your phone number, which will then send you a verification code via text message. Once you enter that code into FaceTime, your phone should be ready for use as a webcam in just a few seconds. Android users also need to log into their Google account before they can begin video chatting; doing so will ensure that their video calling is linked with any other Google services they might use such as Gmail or Hangouts.

Create short stop-motion videos

To do this, you’ll need a number of items, including A phone (Android or iPhone will work fine) A tablet in landscape orientation with the stop motion app installed The ability to take screenshots of your browser and on-screen actions The means to put the phone’s camera and tablet’s screen side by side. You can either try attaching them together somehow (putting tape over the tablets’ camera is an option if you’re willing to risk it) or stick them next to each other. If your setup works as intended, you should be able to rotate the tablet without affecting how many videos are captured.

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