OK, so hear me out. Wouldn’t it’s fairly cool in case you may use your iPhone as a webcam on your Apple TV 4K and big-screen TV? Of course it could. So why cannot we do it?
Normally I’d say that it is as a result of Apple would not wish to cope with cables and interfaces and usually making individuals leap by way of hoops simply to observe grandparents discuss to infants on one thing larger than an iPad. But Apple already did the laborious work.
Apple already constructed Continuity Camera.
Continuity Camera, however blown up
For these unfamiliar, Continuity Camera was a function added to the Mac with macOS Ventura and the iPhone with iOS 16. And of all of the adjustments that the previous specifically led to, this may be probably the greatest.
In truth, scratch that. It’s arguably the finest. Certainly higher than that System Settings app that we’re now caught with.
Continuity Camera is deceptively easy to make use of. All you want is an iPhone that is suitable with IOS 16 and a Mac with macOS Ventura put in. Assuming you’ve got received each of these issues squared away, you are greater than midway there.
With each gadgets on the identical community simply opening a video-calling app is sufficient to have the iPhone robotically chosen because the default digicam. That’s it, you are finished. As somebody well-known as soon as mentioned, “it just works.”
There are even equipment constructed particularly for placing your iPhone on high of your monitor utilizing the ability of MagSafe. It actually is magical, with no cables mandatory.
Why cannot that work with an Apple TV?
Big-screen chat
Apple has already constructed a lot of the Continuity magic into the Apple TV and tvOS 16, too. You can use your iPhone to enter textual content in your Apple TV. And you should use your iPhone to authorize funds when shopping for films and whatnot as effectively. It’s all finished since you’re signed into the identical iCloud account and also you’re on the identical community, simply the identical method that Continuity Camera works on a Mac.
Bringing Continuity Camera to the massive display screen is such a no brainer, it is superb that it hasn’t occurred earlier than. But do not take my phrase for it. A Reddit (opens in new tab) submit from every week in the past prompt a lot the identical factor — “Apple should bring iPhone as a webcam to Apple TV.” And Redditor u/Familiar_Election is correct. Apple ought to try this.
Imagine, if you’ll, a FaceTime app for the Apple TV. You open the app and your iPhone — or iPad, we’re inclusive right here — instantly connects wirelessly and begins to supply its digicam up. You select which digicam you wish to use, and also you’re off to the races. Use an iPhone with an ultrawide digicam and you will get all of the household in, irrespective of how gargantuan your couch may be.
An untapped market
People actually need to have the ability to discuss to their family and friends irrespective of the place they’re. We knew that even earlier than COVID-19 hit in 2020 and it is a level that continues to be pushed dwelling three years later. But who desires to huddle round a small iPhone or, as large as they’ll get, an iPad?
Companies like Meta and Google make gadgets designed to do one thing higher. They have shows which might be like an iPad that sit on stands on counter tops. But they’re nowhere close to adequate and, frankly, who desires a kind of listening in all day day by day?
None of these options actually clear up the issue. We want a giant display screen. A TV display screen, so we are able to see individuals correctly. Hear them correctly, too. They deserve it. We deserve it.
And above all, Apple already has all the pieces it must make it occur. And with WWDC 2023 simply across the nook, possibly it’s going to sooner slightly than later.
