Trappe Digital LLC may earn commission from product clicks and purchases. Rest assured, opinions are mine or of the article’s author.
If you use Apple devices you can use your iPhone as webcam on Mac. For example, I use a MacBook Pro, Yeti microphone and now my iPhone 14 as webcam to livestream my podcast episodes and to hop on meetings.
Here’s how that looks. The iPhone is in front of me on its own tripod. You can also connect it to a tripod mount that hooks up to the desk, but I didn’t stick with that setup because the camera was moving around too much as I was taking notes on the desk.
The biggest downside has been figuring the perfect setup. For example, my camera is mounted in the vertical view, but the horizontal setup makes more sense at first glance. The problem with that is that the horizontal setup of the camera creates a super wide view. That might work for some setups, but I use a physical backdrop and the backdrop is just not big enough for that kind of wide view. But pointing the iPhone in the vertical view still creates a great image and frame.
Read next: Camera on: What are AI camera benefits?
How good is an iPhone as webcam?
The quality is great and way better than my previous webcam. Here’s an example from a livestream when I used the iPhone as webcam.
Setting up your iPhone as webcam on Mac
The setup is quite easy. In a nutshell, it just ended up working for me basically automagically by:
- using the same Apple ID on both devices
- having Bluetooth turned on
- connecting both devices to the same WiFi network
Once I turned the iPhone camera connection off when I didn’t need or want it and to reconnect, all I had to do was connect the iPhone to the MacBook Pro with a cord and the connection was rebuild. Super easy.
Read next: Cameras that help you make better eye contact on livestreams
Is this setup worth it?
The biggest advantage using your iPhone as your webcam could be that you can’t use your iPhone for anything else at the same time. But maybe that’s a minimal problem anyway. After all, you won’t be making phone calls while live on air or even on a meeting. I’m not sure what happens when a phone call rings in while the iPhone is being used as a camera.
Given that I already have an iPhone and the video quality is so good, I’m not sure why I wouldn’t use the iPhone as my camera over a traditional webcam. It just seems to make sense. The quality of the video alone is a differentiator.