Due to the high speed internet connections, video chatting and video conferences are a common way to communicate with friends and colleagues all over the world. If you own a smartphone with unlimited data plan or a Wi-Fi connection, you can easily start video chats, but if you are short on data, or you may prefer video chatting on bigger screens (Especially for formal meetings with colleagues at different branches of the office), you can use your PC for video chats. But what about the webcam for your PC? Well, there are many Android apps which let you use the camera of your device as a webcam. What you need is an application installed on your Android device, software installed on your PC, and a USB cable, a Wi-Fi connection or a Bluetooth connection.
In the following we review 5 best Android apps to use Android as webcam on PC:
1. DroidCamX Wireless Webcam Pro
This application is one of the most complete Android webcam apps with so many features. The main advantage of DroidCamX is that it gives you the option to connect your phone to PC over Wi-Fi, with USB cable or via a Bluetooth connection. After installing the software on your PC and identifying your device as a webcam, you can change the Audio and Video settings, change the video quality based on your connection speed, use the Flash LED as a light source, and use your device as a surveillance camera via an internet browser.
The free trial of the application is very helpful to make your mind about DroidCamX.
2. SmartCam webcam
Like DroidCamX, this webcam application supports both Windows and Linux operating systems and supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections (What about USB???). After installing the related software, you can easily start video chats using Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, Skype and etc. There are no noticeable lags or delay when using low quality videos and we had some difficulties connecting the phone via Bluetooth.
3. IP Webcam
IP Webcam, other than its feature to use the phone as a webcam on Skype, provides some more features like: Set a password for increasing the security, Use the camera as an IP webcam, stream video in a network without the need to use internet, Use VLC Player or a Web browser to view the camera, change the quality and resolution of the video, and more…
As its name suggests, USB Webcam needs a USB connection to use your device’s camera as a webcam. We had some freezing issues when working with the application and most of all; it hasn’t been updated for a while. If you get this app working, it is very lightweight and useful for low quality streams.
5. EpocCam - Wireless HD webcam
We recommend this app for those who use different services and are looking for an app which supports more services than others. EpocCam supports Skype, Windows Live Messenger, Facebook Video Calling, Chatroulette, Google+ Hangouts (You cannot find many apps which support Hangouts), and more which is quite impressive. After installing the software and drivers (if needed) and finishing the automatic setup process, you have these options and features: Supports both Windows & Mac, use your phone as a wireless microphone, compatible with so many services, and High quality videos.
As a conclusion, we should say if DroidCamX supports the video chatiing services you use more often, then it is a better choice with so many available customizations. Otherwise EpocCam is almost compatible with every famous video chat services and it provides high quality videos with different options and a simple setup process.
