You can now use your phone as a Switch 2 webcam

The Swap 2’s lack of a built-in digital camera means you want an exterior one for GameChat video calls. However now, in case your cellphone is a Google Pixel, you do not even want a kind of. Android Authority reported on Friday that the 2 now work properly collectively (while not having third-party apps), and our exams affirm that.

Google has technically supported the usage of Android units as exterior webcams for 2 years: The corporate added it in a quarterly replace for Android 14. (Particularly, it added the power for units to make use of USB Video Class mode, or UVC.) However that performance did not work with the Swap 2 earlier than the November Pixel Drop.

How do we all know it was that model? Effectively, earlier than our Editor-in-Chief, Aaron Souppouris, put in November’s replace on a Pixel, the Swap 2 webcam function did not work. After updating to that one right now (however earlier than putting in the December replace), it labored.

If that wasn’t sufficient, the November firmware’s launch notes listed a “repair for a difficulty the place webcam mode doesn’t work correctly with linked units underneath sure circumstances.” That just about cinches it. Regardless, we reached out to Google for official affirmation, and we’ll replace this story if we hear again.