Windows 11 will soon allow you to use the camera of an Android smartphone or tablet as a webcam on a PC. A practical function which should greatly improve image quality during video calls.
Videoconferencing and video calls on PCs have become widely available in recent years and have become commonplace with the explosion of teleworking. Even in professions previously little exposed to these modes of communication, it is not uncommon to have several meetings and discussions in the same day via collaboration tools such as Zoom or Teams. However, hardware hasn’t necessarily evolved as quickly as practices, and we often find ourselves stuck on a desktop computer without a camera or a laptop with a mediocre webcam. Faced with this situation, many users have gotten into the habit of using their cell phone as a camera to participate in these meetings and calls. Nowadays, most smartphones are equipped with microphones and cameras of much better quality than those of laptop computers, and they also have the image advantage of being always within reach.
Microsoft has clearly identified this trend and announced, in a post on Windows Insiders blogs, be working on the integration of a new function in Windows 11, which will allow you to use an Android phone or tablet as a webcam on your computer. Concretely, it will therefore be possible to connect your Android devices to a PC and use them as a wireless camera in different video applications on Windows 11, thus taking advantage of the quality of the sensors and the flexibility of placement of these devices to participate in video conferences and video calls. This new tool should also allow you to take advantage of the different functions of Android devices, such as video effects (filters, blurs) and switching between the front and back sensor.
To take advantage of this new capability of Windows 11, you will have to go to the menu Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Mobile devicesthen click on the button Manage devicesadd your different Android devices and finally activate the option Use as a connected camera on each of them. Only phones and tablets running a version equal to or higher than Android 9.0 will be compatible, i.e. the vast majority of devices in circulation, and it will be necessary to ensure that the application Link with Windows is correctly installed on their computer and that the Cross-Device Experience Host program is up to date.
The feature is currently in testing and is only available to members of the Windows Insiders program, so you probably won’t find it on your own system at the moment. The blog note announcing this new function unfortunately does not specify a window or deadline for its deployment to all users, so you will have to be patient and monitor Microsoft’s next announcements and Windows 11 updates to watch for its arrival. .