Google has supported external USB cameras in its Android mobile operating system since Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. That means users have been able to connect a webcam to their phone or tablet for video calls for quite some time. Third-party applications have also allowed users to connect their device to a computer and use it as a webcam. However, Google seems to be taking it a step further by including this feature as a built-in feature of Android.
Mishaal Rahman, a Android expert, recently sighted Code changes submitted to AOSP Gerrit. This is what these modifications indicate Google is working on using the mobile device as a webcam for PC, Mac or Chromebook.
The new DeviceAsWebcam feature would allow the phone or tablet to recognize itself as a USB video device class or UVC, which is the standard used by most USB webcams, making it compatible with most desktops and laptops . That’s similar to what Apple did so with its Continuity Camera, which allows iPhones to serve as webcams for Macs.
“Note that you still need an app/service to send video data from the camera to the /dev/video* node for the host device to read from it,” Rahman Remarks in one of his tweets. This app must be a system app, which means that unless Google creates a generic Android-ready app, manufacturers must provide their own. With the Camo app, users can easily use their iOS or Android device as a webcam on a Windows or Mac computer.
Rahman adds: “The ‘ro.usb.uvc.enabled’ system property is used to toggle UVC gadget functionality on Android devices. It can only be read by system apps, specifically the Settings app and the USB gadget HAL.”
Since this has a similar name to the property used for USB mass storage mode, it’s possible for the system to quickly switch users between PTP and MTP storage modes, USB tethering, MIDI, and finally this new webcam, using the warning that appears -Change configuration when you connect your phone to a computer.
