By Cassidy Ward│ SlashGear│2 min

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In the ongoing age of Zoom, a good webcam is more important than ever. Depending on the sort of desktop or laptop you’re using, you may not have a webcam at all. Even if you do, it might be low quality, sending grainy images of you over the internet to friends and colleagues.

Your old phone likely has a better camera than you could cheaply buy, so you might as well put it to work to solve a common problem. As explained by PC Gamer, an Android phone can easily be used as a webcam and will outperform most off-the-shelf webcams in terms of picture quality.

To make it work, you’re going to need a couple of things. The first and most important is a webcam app that will let your phone communicate with your computer. There are several free and paid applications that will do the job, (via Android Authority) although some of the free ones come with a watermark, so keep that in mind. You can choose whether to connect your phone to the computer over Wi-Fi or using a cable.

Once the technology side is handled, you’ll need a way to keep your phone where it belongs. A piece of duct tape might do the job but isn’t very aesthetically pleasing. A tripod, magnetic mount, metal arm, or 3D printed solution should keep your phone steady, no matter your desk situation, (via Reincubate).