Now you can use your cellphone as a Change 2 webcam

The Change 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 type of. Android Authority reported on Friday that the 2 now work properly collectively (with no need third-party apps), and our exams affirm that.

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

How do we all know it was that model? Nicely, earlier than our Editor-in-Chief, Aaron Souppouris, put in November’s replace on a Pixel, the Change 2 webcam function did not work. After updating to that one at the moment (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 problem the place webcam mode doesn’t work correctly with related gadgets below sure situations.” That just about cinches it. Regardless, we reached out to Google for official affirmation, and we’ll replace this story if we hear again.