I used a flexible Gorillapod I already had, but just about any phone or tablet stand should work. Whichever of these options you use, make sure you have a good way to stand your phone up, so you don’t have to hold your arm out for an hour. As long as you have enough bandwidth to handle both chats at once, it’ll work in a pinch. You can use your phone to transmit your video, but use the PC to see and hear everyone else. If you like seeing people on a bigger screen, or you need to use screen sharing from your computer, here’s a nifty workaround: connect to the video conference using both your PC and your phone (again, using the mobile app for Zoom, Skype, or whatever app your compatriots require).
(If you have an iPad or Android tablet with a front-facing camera, all the better.)
You won’t be able to see your friends or coworkers as easily on the small screen, but it’ll do the trick when you don’t need a PC. Most video conferencing apps, including Zoom, Skype, Hangouts, and others have mobile apps that you can be used to chat right from your phone. If the above apps don’t quite meet your standards, or you’d rather not use third-party software, you could just use your phone without your PC. Even if you stick with Wi-Fi, though, you may want to charge your phone while video chatting, since it will drain the battery fairly quickly. If you prefer to connect over USB rather than Wi-Fi, DroidCam can do that too, though it requires a little advanced finagling with some phone-specific drivers-you can refer to DroidCam’s instructions here. You can adjust a few things in the settings, like which camera to use (front or rear), which microphone to use (camera or speakerphone), and a few battery-saving features, but just know that it probably won’t be as good as a traditional webcam. Some had trouble with the audio coming from my phone, so my computer’s microphone was still ideal. Friends on the other end said the SD video quality looked fine, but there may be a bit of a delay. In my experience, DroidCam worked well enough. (Skype is an exception, which can be a bit finicky-you may need to use the old, non-Microsoft Store version.)
Most video chat apps should recognize DroidCam as a valid webcam, though you may need to restart them if they were running when DroidCam was installed. Click the Start button, and you should be connected. The DroidCam Android app should have an IP address listed-something like 192.168.1.91-which you can enter in the desktop app to connect the two.īe sure to check the Audio box if you don’t have a microphone on your PC. Once both are installed, make sure your computer and phone are on the same Wi-Fi network. To get started, you’ll need two pieces of software: the DroidCam Android app from the Play Store and the Windows client from Dev47Apps. If you plan on using it a lot, it’s a worthy upgrade, but I felt the experience with the free version was pretty solid.
The free version has everything you need to get started, though a $5.49 upgrade to DroidCamX adds 720p/1080p video with HD Mode, plus it gets rid of the small banner ads.