Google may soon let users use Android phone as USB webcam

Esper's Mishaal Rahman posted on the decentralised social media platform Mastodon, "using an Android phone as a webcam became really popular during the pandemic, but you've typically had to install a third-party app to do so."

San Francisco: Tech giant Google is reportedly working on a new feature that will allow users to use their Android phone as a USB webcam.

Esper’s Mishaal Rahman posted on the decentralised social media platform Mastodon, “using an Android phone as a webcam became really popular during the pandemic, but you’ve typically had to install a third-party app to do so.”

“You may not have to do this in the future, though, as Google is adding support for turning Android devices into USB webcams!”

He further mentioned that “Android is adding a new ‘DeviceAsWebcam’ service” that will turn an android device into a webcam.

“Specifically, this refers to Android devices with kernel support for the standard UVC (USB video class) gadget mode,” he added.

According to Rahman, the Android device’s kernel might need to be compiled with ‘CONFIG_USB_CONFIGFS_F_UVCy’ for the new functionality to work.

Meanwhile, last month, it was reported that the tech giant was working on a new ‘Bluetooth Distance Measurement’ application programming interface (API), which will help users to measure the distance between their smartphone and connected devices.