Samsung Galaxy phones can be used as webcams, but there is a catch

At this year’s CES, Samsung confirmed that it would allow its Galaxy phones to be used as webcams on Windows PCs, without revealing how the feature will work. Thankfully, those details are finally coming out that too from the South Korean tech giant. It highlighted the requirements for using Galaxy phones as webcams on Windows PCs.

According to Samsung’s Korean product page, the webcam feature in Samsung Galaxy phones will be available through Phone Link and will work with Galaxy Book devices. That’s not all, but Galaxy phones need to run One UI 6 to be able to allow users to mount their phones on Galaxy Book devices to use as webcams. Another noteworthy piece of information is that those Galaxy Book devices need to run Windows 11 24H1.

However, it’s still not clear when the webcam feature will be available for Galaxy phone users. But since Galaxy Book devices need to run Windows 11 24H1, the feature won’t be available until Microsoft rolls out the update to Windows devices. According to rumors, the Windows 11 24H1 update will arrive in April this year, so Galaxy phones with One UI 6 will have to wait a few more months to use their phones as webcams.

When available, the feature will be Samsung’s answer to Apple’s Continuity Camera capability, which also allows iPhone users to use their iPhones as webcams on their Macs. That said, besides Samsung, we saw evidence last year that Microsoft is working on allowing Android users to use their phones as webcams through the Phone Link app. Maybe the feature will be available with the Windows 11 24H1 update in April. Again, if Microsoft plans to bring the feature to all Android phones, it’d be interesting to see what additional features Samsung will offer with Galaxy Book devices.

via Android Police