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Use your phone as the camera

Plugin Player can use your phone as its live camera. Scan a QR code, press one button, and every scene that uses a picture runs on your phone's live view. Nothing to install on the phone or the computer.

Nothing here is required: the demo clip and any webcam keep working without it.

Scan with your phone (beta)

⧉ INPUT → USE YOUR PHONE AS THE CAMERA · SCAN A QR CODE. It is the big row near the top of the box, with the phone icon. No camera plugged in? The camera list offers the same thing: NO WEBCAM? USE YOUR PHONE · SCAN A QR CODE.

1. Put the phone on the same Wi-Fi as the computer.
2. Click USE YOUR PHONE AS THE CAMERA · SCAN A QR CODE. A big QR code opens: Scan with your phone's camera, then press ALLOW here.
3. The first time on a computer, the firewall may ask. On Windows, tick Private and Public, then press Allow. On a Mac, press Allow if it asks to accept incoming network connections, and again if it asks to find devices on your local network. Plugin Player only opens this door while you use it, and only your phone with this code gets through.
4. Point the phone's camera at the code and open the link (Chrome on Android).
5. The phone says the connection isn't private. That is expected here: the page comes straight from your own computer, which has no public certificate. Tap Advanced, then the Proceed or Continue link (it names the computer's address).
6. Tap START CAMERA, then Allow on the camera question.
7. On the computer, press ALLOW. Only press it if it is your phone. The picture goes on the scene by itself.

It is new, so tell us how it goes. Android phones are tested; iPhone is not tested yet.

Turn the phone sideways for the full picture. Upright works too: the whole picture stays, with soft sides. FLIP swaps the front and back cameras, LIGHT is the torch, STOP ends it. DISCONNECT on the computer ends it too.

Your picture goes straight from the phone to the computer over your Wi-Fi. It does not go through the internet, and no account is needed. A new code is made each time.

If the phone drops, the last picture holds for 3 seconds, then the chip reads NO PICTURE and the demo clip plays. It comes back by itself, with no second ALLOW, when the phone is back on the Wi-Fi with its page open.

Nothing happens after you scan? The computer and phone are on different networks, or the firewall said no. Check the Wi-Fi name on both. If you missed the firewall question on Windows, open Windows Security › Firewall & network protection › Allow an app through firewall and turn on Plugin Player for Private and Public. On a Mac: System Settings › Network › Firewall › Options, and Privacy & Security › Local Network. On a guest Wi-Fi the router may stop devices seeing each other: use the phone's hotspot instead, and join it from the computer. A computer on more than one network gets TRY THE NEXT ADDRESS.

Scenes use up to 720p from the phone.

With a cable, nothing to install

• Android 14 or newer: plug the phone in with a data cable, tap the USB notification on the phone, and pick Webcam. It shows up in ⧉ INPUT as Android Webcam. Pixel phones have it; Samsung and Motorola are reported to leave it off.
• iPhone on a Mac: Continuity Camera is built into macOS 13 and newer. See CAMERA.md.
• Windows 11 + Android: Use as connected camera (Windows Settings › Bluetooth & devices › Mobile devices). See CAMERA.md.

Then, every time

1. Pick the phone in ⧉ INPUT if it is not on the scene already. A cable phone shows PHONE CAMERA FOUND · USE IT? when it appears: press USE IT.
2. Press MEASURE DELAY, with the phone pointed at the screen. This flashes the screen 8 times: skip it if flashing light affects you or anyone who can see the screen.
3. Under 200 ms feels live. 200–350 ms trails a little on fast moves. Over 350 ms, the effects trail behind dancers: use a cable, or get closer to the Wi-Fi.

At a show

• Use a cable if you can. It charges the phone, and a crowd full of phones can't jam it.
• No cable? Use the filming phone's own hotspot, on 5 GHz if it offers it.
• Turn auto-lock off and plug in a charger or power bank.
• Airplane mode with Wi-Fi back on stops a call from taking the camera.
• Measure the delay again at the venue. It changes with the light and the Wi-Fi.
• Test what happens if the phone drops before the show. A short hiccup just holds the last picture. After 3 seconds with nothing new, the chip reads NO PICTURE and the demo clip plays; it comes back by itself when the phone does. A pulled USB webcam-mode cable reads LOST and also comes back by itself.

If it does not show up

More: CAMERA.md · blocked cameras: SECURITY_PROMPTS.md