How to Use Your iPhone as a Webcam for Your Computer

These days, teleconferencing apps like Zoom are more popular than ever – and with good reason. With the COVID-19 pandemic, people are using these types of tools to stay in touch with friends and loved ones, to collaborate with team members at work, and more.

But if you don’t have a desktop or laptop computer with a built-in webcam, don’t worry… you can use your trusty iPhone.

Now, just because your iPhone has cameras built-in doesn’t mean you’ll just be able to set it next to your computer and you’re ready to go. Using your iPhone as a webcam isn’t necessarily difficult, but it will require you to download and install a very specific app.

EpocCam

EpocCam is an app designed to work for both PC and Mac computers, and it has three distinct iPhone versions available in the iTunes App Store. There is a free version, but it’s not without its limitations – including a cap on the resolution. It also includes a watermark over the camera image while you’re using it.

The high definition version, which lets you use the full quality of your iPhone’s camera, is $7.99 to purchase. There is also a $19.99 version that lets you use multiple iPhones as cameras at the same time.

iVCam

iVCam is a very similar application, but it can only be used with computers running the Windows operating system. The good news is that the free version supports high definition resolutions without the need to buy anything. However, it also includes a watermark over the video and you’ll need to update to the $9.99 version if you want to remove it.

If that doesn’t bother you, however, and you’re running a computer with an updated version of Windows, there’s nothing stopping you from using this solution whenever you want.

Once you have one of the two aforementioned apps installed, all you have to do is connect your iPhone to your computer using the included USB cable. This is the same process you would go through if you were going to use your computer to charge your phone.

At that point, all you have to do is load up the app in question and follow the directions on the screen. In just a few seconds, your computer will recognize your iPhone as an external webcam and you’ll be ready to go.

Just be sure to enable camera access in whatever teleconferencing app you’re using, like Zoom or Skype.

Likewise, for the best results, you may want to invest in a tripod to help keep your iPhone steady all throughout your call.