How to use phone as a webcam

With many people working from home for the first time, video conferencing is a new part of the daily routine. However, built-in laptop webcams are notoriously bad, and standalone webcams can be expensive and difficult to find with everyone now needing one. Luckily, there’s an easy solution: using your phone as your computer’s webcam.

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Smartphones these days come with incredibly good cameras, but most people don’t know how to incorporate them as webcams for their computers. Why not get some extra functionality out of something you already own and improve your video quality while you’re at it? Read on to see how a free app can turn your phone’s camera into your computer’s webcam!

What is Kinoni?

Kinoni’s pitch is simple: turn your phone into a webcam for your computer for free in less than 3 minutes. It’s a simple app designed to turn your phone into a camera that you can use in other apps like Skype, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom on your computer.

While, of course, you can use the meeting software of your choice on your phone or your computer, if your computer isn’t equipped with a good camera and you don’t want to do all your meetings on your phone, Kinoni offers It’s an easy way for you to comfortably make high-quality video calls.

Plus, with Kinoni, if you find yourself jumping between conferencing apps on your phone or tablet, you can make the whole process more efficient by calling on your computer.

Setup is easy as long as your phone and computer are connected to the same network. Simply install the Kinoni drivers, which are available for Windows and macOS, and then install the Apokay app on your Android or iOS device. (Psst! We’ll show you how later in this post.)

Now when you go to start a meeting on your computer with the service of your choice, you can pick up a newly added camera courtesy of Kinoni and use your phone as a webcam. If you have a good condition to have your device and a reasonably modern phone, this is an easy way to enjoy high quality video without spending a dime on an upgrade.

How to use Kinoni

Before you begin, you’ll need to have your computer, phone or tablet and both connected to the same Internet network.

Thankfully, these requirements are quite generous. That means if you have an old phone or tablet collecting dust, you can reuse them to use as a dedicated webcam.

Depending on whether you plan to use an iOS or Android device as your webcam, you’ll need to download the app from the App Store or Google Play store.

The last step is to install the Kinoni drivers on your computer. Which drivers you’ll need depends on whether you’re running Windows or macOS. Download links for any driver can be found on Kinoni’s home page here.

Now all you have to do is open the app on your phone and start the meeting software on your PC. Make sure to select the Epochcam as the video source, and once everything is set up, make sure your phone’s camera is properly facing you.

How Kinoni App works

Kinoni creates a virtual camera that you can select into the meeting app of your choice that then connects to your phone, connects to your shared Internet network, and uses your camera as a webcam. Because of the way Kinoni works, your conferencing software of choice will work completely differently with Kinoni. Every video conferencing app allows users to choose their own input, and just selecting Apocm as your input is all you need to do.

If you’re still looking for a high-fidelity camera experience, why not take advantage of it? Tap or click here for tips on how to score great on camera.