Guide
How to select SwapCam as your camera
4 min read · Updated
Two steps, not one
SwapCam makes a transformed camera feed available. The application you are using still has to be told to use it. Turning on the transformation without changing the application’s camera setting leaves you broadcasting your ordinary webcam, with a perfectly good transformed feed sitting unused next to it.
This is also why your operating system’s camera settings are not involved. The transformed source exists inside Chrome, so the selection has to happen inside the page.
Where the setting usually lives
Camera pickers move around between applications, but they are almost always in one of a few places:
- A settings or gear icon on the pre-join screen, before you enter the call.
- A device or audio-and-video section inside the application's main settings.
- A small arrow or menu attached to the camera button in the call toolbar.
- A device chooser that appears the first time the site asks for camera access.
Set it before joining where you can
The order that works
- Open SwapCam and enable the transformation first.
- Confirm the SwapCam preview shows the transformed face.
- Open or reload the video application’s tab.
- Open its camera settings and choose SwapCam from the list.
- Check the application’s own preview before joining.
The reload in step three matters more than it looks. A page enumerates the cameras available to it when it loads — one that loaded before SwapCam was running has an out-of-date list and will not show it.
When SwapCam is not in the list
The page loaded before SwapCam was running
Reload the tab. This is the single most common cause, and a reload resolves it outright.
The site does not have camera permission yet
Browsers hide camera details from pages that have not been granted access, so the list can appear empty or generic. Grant camera permission for the site, then reload and check again.
The transformation is not enabled
Open SwapCam and confirm the transformation is actually on and the preview is running. A source that is not active will not be offered to the page.
Another application is holding the camera
Cameras can usually only be held by one application at a time. Close any other video call, recording tool or browser tab that may have claimed it, then reload.
The application is not running in the browser
A video application running as a separate desktop program does not see camera sources that exist inside Chrome. In that case the browser version of the same service, if there is one, is the thing to try.
If none of those resolves it, the troubleshooting guide goes further, including black previews and extensions that fail to load at all.
A note on compatibility
Applications differ in how they enumerate and accept camera sources, and some restrict which ones they will use. We do not publish a list of supported services, because naming one we have not tested against would be a guess presented as a fact. Compatibility may vary depending on the browser and application — the reliable approach is a quick private test before anything important depends on it.