How to Use IP Webcam on Discord

The short answer

Discord cannot open an IP Webcam stream directly. IP Webcam is an Android app that sends your phone camera over your local Wi-Fi network as a network video feed. Discord's camera menu only lists devices your computer treats as webcams. To use your phone as a camera, you need a bridge program that receives the network feed and presents it to the computer as a virtual camera. A virtual camera is a software device that other apps can select like a physical webcam. OBS Studio is a free and widely used option for this. It can show the feed and then share it through its built-in virtual camera, which you then select in Discord.

This guide covers the Android app called IP Webcam and the Discord desktop app on Windows or macOS. iPhone apps with similar names are made by other developers and work differently, so their steps may not match these.

What you need before you start

• An Android phone with IP Webcam installed and camera permission granted to the app.
• A computer with the Discord desktop app and OBS Studio installed.
• The phone and the computer connected to the same local network. Cellular data on the phone will not work for this.
• A way to keep the phone powered and steady, because streaming video drains the battery and a moving phone gives a shaky picture.

Step 1: Start the stream on your phone

• 1. Open IP Webcam and scroll to the bottom of its settings screen.
• 2. Tap the option to start the server.
• 3. The phone switches to a camera preview and shows a local network address on screen. Write down the full address, including the number after the colon.
• 4. Success check: on your computer, type that address into a web browser. The IP Webcam control page should load, and you should see a live image from the phone.

If the page does not load, confirm both devices are on the same network. Check that you typed the address exactly as the phone shows it. Make sure the IP Webcam server is still running. Some phones stop background apps to save power, so keep the app in the foreground while you set things up.

Step 2: Bring the feed into OBS Studio

• 1. In the IP Webcam page in your browser, find the option that opens the video stream on its own, without the control panel around it. Copy that page's address from the browser bar. Option names vary between app versions.
• 2. Open OBS Studio. In the Sources panel, click the plus button and choose Media Source.
• 3. In the properties window, turn off the Local File option and paste the copied address into the input field.
• 4. Click OK.
• 5. Success check: the phone's live picture appears in the OBS preview. Wave a hand in front of the phone and confirm the preview moves in near real time.
• 6. If the image does not fill the frame, right-click the source and use the Transform options to fit it to the screen.

If Media Source shows nothing, try adding a Browser Source with the same video-only address instead. Whichever source type you use, the OBS preview is exactly what Discord will receive. Fix framing and orientation here, not in Discord.

Step 3: Turn on the OBS virtual camera

• 1. In the OBS Controls panel, click Start Virtual Camera.
• 2. Leave OBS open. Closing it, or stopping the virtual camera, cuts the feed to Discord.
• 3. Success check: the button changes to Stop Virtual Camera, which means the virtual device is active.

Step 4: Select the camera in Discord

• 1. If Discord was already open before you started the virtual camera, fully quit and reopen it so it detects the new device.
• 2. Open User Settings and go to Voice & Video.
• 3. In the Camera dropdown, choose OBS Virtual Camera.
• 4. Click Test Video.
• 5. Success check: your phone's picture appears in the Discord preview.

If Discord asks for camera permission, or the preview stays blank, check your operating system's privacy settings.
On Windows, open the Camera privacy settings and allow desktop apps to access the camera.
On macOS, open Privacy & Security, select Camera, and make sure Discord is switched on. You may need to restart Discord after changing this.

What the Discord test proves, and what it doesn't

A working Test Video preview confirms three things. Discord has camera access. It can find the virtual camera. It is receiving live frames from the phone through OBS. It does not confirm how the video will look to other people in a call. That depends on your upload connection, the other person's connection, and Discord's own compression. The test also says nothing about your microphone.

To check how others see you, join a call with a friend or a second account and ask them to describe the picture. If they report lag or blur that you don't see locally, the bottleneck is probably the call connection rather than the phone feed. The material for this guide did not include recommended resolutions, frame rates or bandwidth thresholds, so none are given here. Start with the app's default settings and lower the video resolution or quality in IP Webcam if the OBS preview stutters.

A note on audio

IP Webcam can also stream the phone's microphone, but the OBS virtual camera carries video only. The simplest approach is to keep using your computer's microphone in Discord.
To check the microphone separately, open Voice & Video, pick your input device, and use Discord's mic test.
A moving input meter only shows that Discord detects sound. Whether your voice is clear is a separate question, so confirm it with a test call.
Routing the phone's audio into Discord requires extra virtual audio software, which is beyond the scope of this guide.

Common problems and fixes

• OBS Virtual Camera is missing from Discord's list: start the virtual camera in OBS first, then fully restart Discord.
• Discord shows a black or frozen image: check that the OBS preview is live. If OBS is also frozen, the phone stream has stopped. Wake the phone and confirm the IP Webcam server is still running.
• The stream worked yesterday but not today: the phone's local address can change when it reconnects to Wi-Fi. Compare the address on the phone with the one in your OBS source and update it if needed.
• The picture is sideways or mirrored: adjust orientation in IP Webcam's video settings, or rotate and flip the source in OBS using Transform.
• Noticeable delay: lower the stream resolution or quality in IP Webcam, move closer to the router, or close other bandwidth-heavy apps on your network.