Two pieces, both free

Download OpenWebcam.

Put the app on the phone you want to use as a camera, and the small client on your PC. They find each other over USB or Wi-Fi. No account, no card, nothing to unlock.

For your phone

Android app

The camera end. Captures video and streams it to your PC, with live manual controls and an optional PIN.

  • Android 8.0 (Oreo) or newer
  • Rear or front camera
  • ~6 MB · no ads, no tracking

In closed testing now. Want in early? Email to join the beta.

For your PC

Windows desktop client

The receiving end. Shows a live preview, creates the OpenWebcam virtual camera for your apps, and re-serves an MJPEG stream on localhost for OpenCV.

  • Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit)
  • ~25 MB installer
  • USB (lowest latency) or Wi-Fi
Download for Windows

Released on GitHub Releases. macOS and Linux are planned.

Once both are installed

About a minute from download to a working camera.

  1. Step 01

    Open both

    Launch OpenWebcam on your phone and the desktop client on your PC.

  2. Step 02

    Connect

    Plug in over USB, or pick Wi-Fi and enter the address your phone shows.

  3. Step 03

    Select OpenWebcam

    In your call or capture app, choose OpenWebcam from the camera list.

Reading frames in code?

The desktop client re-serves the stream as MJPEG on localhost, so any OpenCV or computer-vision pipeline can read it with one line, no SDK required.

read.py 
import cv2
cap = cv2.VideoCapture("http://127.0.0.1:8090/video")
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