Android 14
One UI 6 may allow you to use Galaxy device as a webcam (Android 14)
People keep a lot of expectations from Android 14; with this update, there are a lot of features already revealed in the developing cycle, including Android development previews and beta updates. Now with new information, the upcoming Android OS seems to promise a welcome change for users who use their smartphones as a webcam.
After the revolution of smartphone cameras, people are using them in several things apart from photography, such as video calling, doing AR-related work, etc. Now with the new improvements of Android 14 and One UI 6, you will get the next-level experience of a webcam.
Turn your Galaxy smartphone into a webcam
In Android 14, one notable feature is the ability to convert your phone into a USB webcam for your PC. While Google hasn’t discussed this feature yet, I remain hopeful that they have intentions to include it in the release. Moreover, we anticipate that this functionality will be introduced in the upcoming Samsung One UI 6.0 update, benefiting Galaxy users with an enhanced video communication experience.
Although there are still no official statements from Google, some traces found by Mishaal Rahman within the code of the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) suggest the presence of a new service called “DeviceAsWebcam”. As the name suggests, this service, presumably a separate system application, is supposed to turn an Android device into a webcam.
Requirements for using Galaxy devices as webcam
To use an Android device as a webcam, it must support the UVC (USB Video Class) standard. This means that the device kernel must be compiled with a specific configuration (CONFIG_USB_CONFIGFS_F_UVC=y), which allows you to send camera frames to a /dev/video* node on which a UVC-compatible webcam host device can operate.