How to use your Android phone as a webcam for your PC or laptop

With the global pandemic forcing many of us to work and study from home, video conferencing apps have become the need of the hour. If you have ever tried attending a meeting from your laptop, you probably would have realized what a joke the in-built webcam on your laptop is. In most cases, buying a dedicated webcam will significantly boost your video quality. But the good news is you don’t need to shell out money on a webcam; you already have a good one in the form of your Android smartphone.

Our phones are already packed with some impressive camera hardware, and it makes sense to repurpose them for video calls on computers too. Unless you are a streamer or someone who has to attend multiple video conferences every day, investing in a dedicated high-quality webcam does not make a lot of sense for infrequent meetings. Our smartphones can make a pretty decent wireless webcam that’s guaranteed to be miles better than the VGA laptop webcam.

Using DroidCam to repurpose an Android phone as a webcam for your PC

You could use your existing phone or repurpose an old one that’s collecting dust in your drawer. Both works. When it comes to turning your phone into a full-fledged webcam, there are several tools out there that claim to do a better job than their competitors. If you have time and patience, by all means, check them out and settle for the one that works best for you. But to save you time and effort, I have tried out several options briefly and found that DroidCam was the best among all the options. It has a very straightforward onboarding experience and offers all the essentials in its free version. In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through how you can use DroidCam to create your own portable webcam that you can use for your next video meeting.

• Download the DroidCam on your Android phone from the below link:

DroidCam - Webcam for PC (Free, Google Play) →

• Next, you’ll need to download the desktop client of DroidCam on your laptop/desktop.
• Open DroidCam on your phone and grant video and audio permissions. Make sure your phone and PC are connected to the same WiFi network.

• Install the DroidCam app on your PC. Agree to the license agreement, choose the installation location, and click install.
• Now run the PC client. You’ll see a small pop-up box with three options to connect your Android phone. The Wi-Fi connection is selected by default, and that’s what we’re proceeding with here.

• You’ll need to enter the IP address and port in the fields below. Go back to the mobile app and look for the WiFI IP and port values. Enter these values in the Device IP and DroidCam Port fields, respectively, in the PC client.

• Make sure both video and audio boxes are checked, and then hit the start button. If everything was set up correctly, you will see a preview of the video feed in the DroidCam desktop client.
• By default, the app will use your rear camera, but you can also use the front camera if you want. You can change the camera by clicking on the camera icon located beside the three-dot menu in the mobile app.
• The next step is to configure your video conferencing app to use the DroidCam feed. Launch the video conferencing app of your choice and start a meeting. By default, the app will be using the in-built webcam. To change that, open the settings and change the video to “DroidCam source 2” or “DroidCam source 3” (if Source 2 does not give you output).

• For audio, you can either use your phone’s microphone or rely on your computer’s microphone. To change the microphone input to your smartphone, go to audio settings in your conferencing app, and under the microphone option, choose “DroidCam Virtual Audio”.
• The only thing now left is to figure out the place for your smartphone. You can use a simple phone cradle or those fancy ones that let you adjust angle and height to your liking. For me, my aluminum phone holder did the job. You can also mount your phone onto a mini tripod if you have one.

Nulaxy A4 Phone Stand

A basic phone holder

This basic stand is adjustable and fully collapsible and can hold your phone, tablet, iPad Mini and Kindle.

Buy at Amazon

LISEN stand

Angle and height adjustable

This phone stand has an anti-slip base and aluminum alloy rod. It's highly flexible and lets you adjust the angle and height to your liking.

Buy at Amazon

Amazon Basics 50 mini tripod

Perfect for mounting your phone

The Amazon Basics phone tripod is super easy to deploy and helps make hands-free video calls.

Buy at Amazon

The free version of DroidCam only allows SD quality video streams. The higher video quality (1080p) and extra features such as Smooth FPS, video mirroring, the ability to adjust, autofocus, brightness and contrast, and more can be unlocked by purchasing DroidCam X, the paid version of the app. Depending on your needs, it may very well turn out to be worth the investment.

DroidCam - Webcam for PC (Free, Google Play) →

And this is how you can use your Android phone as a webcam for your PC and laptop. We hope you get better results with an Android phone than what your laptop camera can provide!

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Google’s Nearby Share will soon support group transfers: Here’s a first look

Last month, we reported that Google is preparing to upgrade Nearby Share, Android’s alternative to Apple’s AirDrop file transferring service, with the ability to share files to multiple people at once. We also reported that Google is changing the feature’s device visibility policy to allow you to share files with anyone nearby rather than only with nearby contacts. With Google Play Services version 21.15.12, we’ve managed to get the group transfer feature working, and we’ve also spotted a few changes to the device visibility policy settings.

An APK teardown can often predict features that may arrive in a future update of an application, but it is possible that any of the features we mention here may not make it in a future release. This is because these features are currently unimplemented in the live build and may be pulled at any time by the developers in a future build.

Group transfers in Nearby Share

As we previously reported, Nearby Share will support connecting to a maximum of four other devices but can only transfer files one device at a time. When we first saw hints of group transfer support coming to Nearby Share, we couldn’t get the feature working. After upgrading to version 21.15.12 of Google Play Services, it seems the feature now finally works. Here’s a video of me transferring some files from a Google Pixel 4 to an ASUS ROG Phone 5, OnePlus 9 Pro, and LG Velvet.

As you can see, I’m able to select multiple devices to share the files to. However, I had to manually approve the file transfer in the order in which I selected devices. That could change when the feature is released since I only enabled group transfers on the Pixel 4 and not the other devices. The other phones did have Google Play Services 21.15.12 installed, but I’m not sure if that’s necessary.

Share with “everyone” nearby

Another feature we’re anticipating is a change to device visibility. Instead of limiting you to sharing with “all contacts” nearby, Nearby Share will soon let you share files with “everyone” nearby. In order to prevent abuse, there’s a toggle to “use everyone mode temporarily” which automatically switches the device visibility back to “all contacts” after a few minutes (currently set to 5 minutes). In Google Play Services 21.15.12, there’s also another toggle called “keep everyone mode on all the time” which does exactly what it says.

Functionally, nothing here has changed from what we saw in the previous release, but splitting the “everyone mode” visibility setting into two, clear preferences will ensure that people have the right visibility setting enabled.

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That’s all we’ve found so far in the latest version of Google Play Services. These upgrades to Nearby Share haven’t started rolling out yet, but seeing as they’re nearly fully functional, we can’t imagine it’ll take too much longer for them to make a public appearance.

Thanks to PNF Software for providing us a license to use JEB Decompiler, a professional-grade reverse engineering tool for Android applications.

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Forums are now open for Xperia 1 III, Xperia 5 III, Axon 30 Ultra, TCL 20 Pro, TCL 20L and more

Last week, we opened up forums for 11 Android smartphones, including the Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2, Nokia X series, Nokia G series, and more. Today, we are welcoming newly launched phones from Sony, TCL, and ZTE to the XDA Forums.

XDA Forums are now open for the Sony Xperia 1 III, Xperia 5 III, Xperia 10 III, TCL 20 Pro, TCL 20L, TCL 20L+, and ZTE Axon 30 Ultra.

Xperia 1 and Xperia 5 III

Sony’s latest flagship lineup has a lot going for them. The Xperia 1 III is the most premium of the duo, featuring a 4K OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, Snapdragon 888 chipset, triple 12MP shooters with ZEISS optics, a 4,500mAh battery, true front-firing speakers, and a 3.5mm audio jack. The Xperia 5 III, on the other hand, is a compact flagship and offers many of the premium features of Xperia 1 III but in a smaller package.

Sony Xperia 1 III XDA Forums

Sony Xperia 5 III XDA Forums

Xperia 10 III

Alongside the flagships, Sony also took the wraps off its latest mid-range smartphone called Xperia 10 III. A direct successor to last year’s Xperia 10 II, the new Xperia 10 III brings several much-needed upgrades, including a bigger battery, a more powerful chipset, 5G support, and faster charging. You get a 6.0-inch OLED display at FHD+ resolution, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 690 chipset, triple rear cameras headed by a 12MP primary shooter, IP68 water and dust protection rating, and a 4,500mAh battery.

Sony Xperia 10 III XDA Forums

ZTE Axon 30 Ultra

This week, ZTE also came up with a brand new flagship in the form of the Axon 30 Ultra. The new smartphone signals a big shift in ZTE’s recent strategy as the company aims to go head to head against top players in the premium flagship space. The ZTE Axon 30 Pro is fitted with all the bells and whistles you would expect from a top-tier flagship, including a 6.67-inch curved AMOLED display with a 144Hz refresh rate, Snapdragon 888 chipset, up to 12GB RAM, triple 64MP cameras, a 4,600mAh battery with 66W fast charging support, and more.

ZTE Axon 30 Ultra XDA Forums

TCL 20 Pro 5G

The newly released TCL 20 Pro is targeted towards the mid-range segment, and although it might lack features like a high refresh rate display and super-fast charging speeds, you do get a beautiful 6.67-inch curved AMOLED display, Snapdragon 750G, and a capable quad-camera array.

TCL 20 Pro 5G XDA Forums

TCL 20L and TCL 20L+

Besides the TCL 20 Pro, the Chinese electronics maker also launched two new budget-friendly options in the form of the TCL 20L and TCL 20L+. Both phones come with a 6.67-inch FHD+ display, Snapdragon 662 SoC, up to 6GB RAM, a quad-camera setup, and a large 5,000mAh battery.

TCL 20L/20L+ XDA Forums

 

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Spicetify lets you customize your Spotify desktop app – Here’s how to use it

If you love listening to music all the time, you probably use music streaming applications like Spotify. While I’ve never had many complaints about Spotify, the most recent update to the desktop and web clients which saw a complete overhaul of its UI has annoyed a lot of people. What if you could customize the UI to your liking instead? What if you could pick and choose what features you want to add? Enter Spicetify, a command-line interface application that lets you customize your Spotify desktop client.

This application is not affiliated with Spotify. Spicetify has been around for a number of years now, and while I haven’t seen anyone get banned for using this application, use it at your own risk.

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How to install and use Spicetify

First and foremost, this tutorial is for Windows users, and you’ll need to be using the official Spotify desktop client downloaded from Spotify — not from the Windows Store. If you have Spotify installed from the Windows store, you’ll need to uninstall it and re-install it from the official website. If you use Linux or macOS, you can take a look at the official GitHub page for more information on how to install it on your machine. If you’re using Windows, then read on!

Step 1: Installing with PowerShell

By far the easiest way of installing Spicetify is by using Windows PowerShell. Simply run the following command.

Invoke-WebRequest -UseBasicParsing "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/khanhas/spicetify-cli/master/install.ps1" | Invoke-Expression

If you see an output that looks anything like the above, you’re good to move onto the next step!

Step 2: Setting up Spicetify

Once Spicetify is installed, you still need to configure it to point to your current Spotify install. Generate the default config file with the following command. This will find your current Spotify installation.

spicetify

Now run the following command, which will apply the default Spicetify theme and patches to your Spotify client.

spicetify backup apply enable-devtool

If you see an output similar to the above, then that means you’re good to go. If you launch Spotify, you should see Spicetify’s default light theme applied.

Step 3: Installing a custom theme

Now that you have Spicetify all set up, it’s time to install a custom theme! Here is a fantastic GitHub repository filled with custom themes that you can install. On Windows, you can navigate to C:/Users/<your username>/.spicetify to find where you need to save your themes and extensions for Spicetify. If you want to install a custom theme, navigate to the themes folder, create a new folder named after the theme you want to install, and save the color.ini and user.css files in this folder.

Next, navigate back to the .spicetify folder and open the config.ini file. Change current_theme from SpicetifyDefault to the name of the theme folder that you created. For me, I changed its value to “Elementary”. When you’re ready, run the following command.

spicetify apply

Spotify should now re-launch, and if it worked, you’ll see your new theme applied!

Step 4: Installing extensions and apps

Spicetify isn’t just about themes — you can install extensions, too! You install these in C:/Users/<your username>/.spicetify/extensions, and you can view a full list of the officially supported extensions here. There’s a Reddit app too, which can fetch the top 100 Spotify posts in any given subreddit. It can even fetch YouTube posts and play them on Spotify. While I had some trouble getting this working (as the Spotify-made GLUE CSS didn’t load), it’s worth giving a shot to see if it works for you!

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You’re done!

If you followed all of the steps above, you should have Spicetify completely configured and ready to go. It’s a bit of a convoluted process, but once you get it working, it’s a great way to customize your Spotify desktop client to your own liking. If you find any great themes, apps, or extensions, let us know in the comments below!

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Hands-on with the Huawei FreeBuds 4i

Following the success of its premium FreeBuds Pro true wireless earbuds, Huawei is following up with a more affordable version named the FreeBuds 4i that still offers most of what makes the FreeBuds Pro so great.

Huawei FreeBuds 4i design

The Huawei FreeBuds 4i features a lighter, sleeker oval-shaped design compared to predecessors — for both the charging case and the earbuds. The carrying case measures just 48mm x 61.8mm x 27mm and weighs just 36.5g, making it small and light enough to fit into even the tiny key pocket of men’s jeans or women’s clutch wallets.

This ergonomically designed buds provide stable and comfortable fits, and because each bud barely register on the scales at just 5.5g, won’t weigh your ears down. The Galaxy Buds Pro and Jabra Elite 65T, by comparison, weigh 6.3g and 6.5g per bud respectively. On the outside of each bud are touch sensitive panels that allow the user to control their music (and more) via taps.

The removable silicon ear tips provide a nice seal around my ears, and the package includes three sizes of tips to ensure the right fit. I like that the narrow stems do not fan out away from my face like some other earbuds, making for a more discrete look when worn.

The FreeBuds 4i come in three different colors, with a bold red version and sleek black version in addition to the clean white version I have.

 

There are only so many ways to design wireless earbuds, and I think for the most part, the Huawei FreeBuds 4i nails all the fundamentals — it’s lightweight, comfortable, and looks stylish.

Huawei FreeBuds 4i performance and features

With 10mm dynamic driver units in each bud, the FreeBuds 4i pump out full and lively audio. The clear mids and highs means pop music sound airy and clean as most tracks are intended, while there’s enough bass kick to add that extra “oomph” to hip hop beats.

But that’s not all — Huawei has also managed to put ANC (active noise cancellation) into these buds, and they work very well. In fact, it may be the best ANC for earbuds under the $100 range I’ve ever tested (the FreeBuds 4i’s retail price differs depending on region, but they’re generally between $80-$90). The combination of the microphones located on the outside of each earbud stem, along with the seal around the ear canal provided by the silicon tips, plus Huawei’s intelligent AI software algorithms really do a good job of cancelling outside sound.

You can have conversations while wearing the Huawei FreeBuds 4i thanks to the very effective transparency mode.

There’s also a transparency mode, which lets sound through on purpose so you can listen to music or podcasts while jogging/cycling and still hear your surroundings. This, too works very well. I can easily leave the earbuds in my year, with music playing, and still hold a conversation with another person.

ANC and transparency mode are usually reserved for earbuds priced north of $150 — Apple’s AirPods Pro or Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Pro cost $249 and $199 respectively. That the FreeBuds 4i offers it at this range is great news for consumers.

Controlling audio directly from the FreeBuds 4i is easy: a simple double tap on either bud will play/pause music, and a long press (touch and hold) will cycle through ANC modes.

Huawei FreeBuds 4i software and battery life

The FreeBuds 4i will work straight away with any smartphone, computer, or electronic devices provided they support Bluetooth pairing. Simply connect once and the FreeBuds 4i will remember the pairing and automatically connect the next time you take the buds out.

Installing the Huawei AI Life app, however, will bring additional features such as customizing the aforementioned touch controls. For example, by default a long press of the earbud cycles through ANC modes, but you can change it to adjusting volume instead, or maybe wake up voice assistant. You can also turn “wear detection” on or off. With it on, the earbuds will automatically pause music as soon as you pull them out of your ear.

Battery life, as is the case with most Huawei products, is excellent: you get 10 hours of continuous playback on a single charge, and topping up the FreeBuds 4i via USB-C takes just 30 minutes to go from empty battery to full charge.

Huawei FreeBuds 4i conclusion

There simply aren’t many earbuds under $100 that offers good audio quality and active ANC that really works. At its $80-$90 price, the FreeBuds 4i are an easy no brainer purchase for anyone looking for really good pair of wireless earbuds that checks almost every box.

Huawei FreeBuds 4i

The Huawei FreeBuds 4i are affordable, sub-$100 wireless earbuds that offer top tier ANC and transparency mode.

View at Huawei

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This post is sponsored and written in part by HUAWEI. Our sponsors help us pay for the many costs associated with running XDA, including server costs, full time developers, news writers, and much more. While you might see sponsored content (which will always be labeled as such) alongside Portal content, the Portal team is in no way responsible for these posts. Sponsored content, advertising and XDA Depot are managed by a separate team entirely. XDA will never compromise its journalistic integrity by accepting money to write favorably about a company, or alter our opinions or views in any way. Our opinion cannot be bought.

 

 

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Exclusive: This is the upcoming Infinix Note 10 Pro

Infinix has been selling phones in parts of Europe and Asia since 2013, and the company has seen growing success in India over the past few years. Now we have exclusive images of the company’s next big release, the Infinix Note 10 Pro.

We’ve obtained two renders of the Infinix Note 10 Pro, as well as a schematic image that shows more of the phone’s proportions and sides. They show a large display with a hole-punch selfie camera, with a small bezel at the bottom. The design is reminiscent of several other budget phones we’ve seen recently, like the Nokia X10/X20 and Moto G 5G (known as the One 5G Ace in the US).

The schematic image shows off a bit more of the phone, including the large camera array (which seems to have five cameras), SIM/SD card slot, various microphones, and volume rocker. The power button is a bit larger than the volume keys, possibly meaning it could also function as a fingerprint sensor. Some other phones from the company, like the Infinix Note 7, also have side fingerprint sensors. There’s a charging port at the bottom (likely USB Type-C) and what looks like a headphone jack.

We don’t have any hardware specifications to share, but other reports claim the phone will have a 6.9-inch 90Hz display, MediaTek Helio G95 chipset, 8GB RAM, and 5,000mAh battery. The main camera is expected to be 64MP, with a 16MP front-facing lens.

It will be interesting to see the final pricing — the Infinix Note 8 was sold for around $200 when it was first released (there was no Note 9). It’s not clear when Infinix will officially reveal the phone, but the company is also gearing up to release another device in India.

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Google Chrome is testing a Memories feature to easily manage your web activity

Google is testing a new feature in Chrome that will allow users to more easily manage their web activity. The new feature is called Memories and is currently available in Chrome Canary.

Techdows reports Memories will display a Chrome user’s web activity in one place; the feature is different from simply looking at your browsing history. The page will include things like bookmarks, tab groups, and Chrome history. A search bar will allow users to easily navigate through their old web activity.

While the Memories feature in Chrome is new, what it actually does might feel familiar. Google provides access to similar information by navigating to your Google Account and clicking on the Web & App Activity option; the Memories setting simply makes managing your information a lot easier, because it’s much easier to find.

Image: Techdows

Chrome’s Memories feature is only available in the Canary channel, and it must be enabled manually. Here’s how you can do that:

1. Open Chrome Canary
2. Type chrome://flags in the URL box
3. You’ll see a search box, where you’ll need to type memories
4. Enable the flag

Google’s Chrome team has introduced several new features to the browser over the last few weeks, recently rolling out version 90. The browser also received a handful of new features aimed at boosting user productivity. One of them will allow Chrome to freeze tab groups that are collapsed (and tabs that are hidden), ensuring the browser consumes fewer resources.

Meanwhile, Chrome is also gaining new PDF reader features, and one that I’m looking forward to, the ability to share specific text on a web page. Chrome’s new “link to highlight” feature will allow users to highlight text and share the web page. Once someone clicks on the link, they’ll see the text you highlighted.

According to Techdows, the description of the Memories feature says it’s available for Mac, Windows, Linux, Chrome OS, and Android. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear to work on Android at the moment.

Google Chrome: Fast & Secure (Free, Google Play) →

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