Android-Cam-Bridge

Project Overview

Android Cam Bridge (ACB) is a camera bridge built around an Android capture client and a Windows receiver. The Android side captures with CameraX and streams H.264/AAC, while the Windows side receives over an HTTP control plane plus a WebSocket media plane. It can expose the phone as a camera source in OBS and ships a WinUI console for session management and statistics, making it useful for streaming, recording and local debugging.

Turn an Android phone into an always-available camera for your PC.

Key Features

• Two-part architecture: the Android side handles CameraX capture and H.264/AAC encoding, while the Windows side handles session control, frame receiving and decode statistics
• OBS integration: provides an android_cam_source source plugin so the phone feed can be used directly in OBS
• GUI console: a WinUI app to configure the receiver address, manage sessions, view statistics and logs, and run ADB setup
• Session management: HTTP APIs start and stop sessions, media frames travel over the WebSocket main link, with a compatible path retained
• One-command packaging: built-in build, packaging and installer scripts for easy deployment

Target Audience

• Users who want to use an Android phone as a PC camera
• Streamers and recorders who need the phone feed in OBS
• Developers debugging cross-device video input

Quick Start

1. Build the Windows target: run pwsh ./scripts/build.ps1 -Config Release
2. Start the receiver: run acb-receiver.exe
3. Optionally run the GUI console: pwsh ./scripts/run-gui.ps1
4. Build the Android side: enter android and run gradle :app:assembleDebug
5. Add an android_cam_source source in OBS to use the phone feed

Core Advantages

• Clear separation: control and media planes are split, and the WebSocket main link lowers transport latency
• No drivers needed: the phone acts as a video input source without special hardware
• Deployable: installer scripts make it easy to roll out to multiple machines
• Extensible: complete protocol documentation supports further development

System Requirements

Item	Requirement
Receiver OS	Windows 10/11
Build environment	Visual Studio 2022, CMake 3.22+, PowerShell 7+
Android side	Java 17, Gradle, Android Platform Tools (ADB)
Optional	OBS Studio (plugin testing), .NET 10 SDK (GUI)

Notes

• Keep the OBS plugin on the same libobs minor version as your local OBS to avoid ABI mismatch load failures
• The virtual camera bridge is still experimental, so use it cautiously in production
• The receiver listens on http://127.0.0.1:39393 by default; be careful about network exposure if you open it up