Over the weekend, I wrote about a feature I was really excited about: Native USB webcam support in Android 14.
After using it, though, I noticed the video quality is way worse than when using third-party webcam apps. My $1,000 Pixel 8 Pro has a much better camera than this.
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For comparison, here's a still image of me using the Camo app by Reincubate to turn my Pixel 8 Pro into a webcam:
And another still image from me using scrcpy's new camera mirroring feature to turn my Pixel 8 Pro into a webcam:
Android 14's USB webcam feature is very convenient, but it sadly doesn't seem to take full advantage of the amazing camera on your smartphone.
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You can read more about my experience using Android 14's webcam feature in my latest article for Android Central: https://androidcentral.com/apps-software/android-14-qpr-beta-webcam-feature-video-quality
The article links to a YouTube playlist I made that shows how dramatic the difference in quality really is.
And yes, I did test across multiple devices and PCs, with different USB cables, and on different video conferencing platforms/apps.
Yes, I did also stress test it to see if thermals would be a concern. All the details are in the article 😄
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Mishaal Rahman