You can use your phone as a Switch 2 webcam

This solution is easy to use but does require three things – A USB-C to HDMI cable, an HDMI Capture card, and a free camera app for your iPhone or Android.

A YouTuber discovered that the Switch 2 supports the USB Video Class (UVC) standard to allow for lots of third-party webcams to work with the console. This piqued his interest because lots of cheap capture cards also use this standard so they appear as a camera in game recording software like OBS.

This means whatever you have your Switch 2 plugged into via this adapter will appear in your camera feed. So if you plug in an iPhone that’s open to a camera app, the Switch 2 will see what your iPhone sees. This also means if you started playing Candy Crush that would appear as your webcam’s video.

For this to work, you need to have the capture card’s USB-C end plugged into your Switch’s USB-C port. Then, run an HDMI from that to your phone or camera of choice.

In the video by Will It Work?, he uses an iPhone, an $18 capture card, and a USB-C to HDMI cable. It’s unclear if a USB-C to HDMI dongle attached to your phone, allowing for a regular HDMI cable, would also work, but it’s likely. He also uses a free camera app called True Visage since all of the camera’s controls fade off the screen, giving you a full-screen viewfinder.

Since most people will likely have to buy either the capture card or the USB-C to HDMI cable, there might be cheaper actual webcam solutions available. A quick browse on Amazon shows a couple for around $30, which would be about the same price as the adapter and the cable, but will likely be more convenient since you won’t need to be without your phone.

It should also be noted that if you have an iPhone 14 or older, you will need an HDMI to Lightning cable instead of an HDMI to USB-C. If you have an Android phone and need a full-screen camera app, the Fullscreen USB StreamCam looks like a good option.

Source: Will It Work