Windows 11 is getting a new ability with the 24H2 update which means that more than just one app will be able to access the webcam without having to work around this with a fudge.
Yes, if you weren’t aware, it’s currently the case for Windows 11 that the OS (and other Windows versions, for that matter) only allows one app access to the camera at any one time.
As Windows Latest reports, currently the only way around this is that if there’s a second app that needs to use the webcam at the same time as an initial app which has grabbed the hardware, you can use a virtual camera setup to do so.
However, Windows 11 should be able to natively handle multiple apps tapping the webcam simultaneously with a new option in the 24H2 update, as leaker PhantomOfEarth highlighted with a post on X.
Windows 11's Camera settings page will be getting an advanced camera configuration section, with two new options: multi-app camera and a basic mode for debugging. (disabled by default, Dev 26120.1542.) pic.twitter.com/XwIdByB2tGAugust 19, 2024
As you can see, the feature will be in the Camera settings, courtesy of an ‘Advanced camera configuration’ panel that’ll allow the user to enable multi-app camera, which allows multiple apps to simultaneously stream from the camera.
Note that this ability is just in testing right now, and it’s hidden in the latest Windows 11 preview in the Dev channel, in fact. Hopefully, it’ll be live soon enough though, and can be tested and run through its paces before full release.
Analysis: A throwback of a limitation
While multiple apps using the webcam may not be a common scenario for many Windows 11 users, it’s a useful ability that some folks want, and as Microsoft notes in the text for the feature, it’s “designed for the hard-of-hearing community” – so this is yet another useful step forward on the accessibility front, too. (We aren’t sure what scenarios this might be leveraged in, but hopefully when the feature actually goes live in testing, Microsoft will explain in more detail what this does in the usual blog post announcing all the new bits and pieces).
You might be wondering why Windows 11 (or previous versions of the OS) doesn’t support multiple webcams anyway? It doesn’t seem like a massive ask, after all. Well, seemingly this is a throwback to past times when hardware wasn’t as beefy as it is today, and sharing the camera between numerous apps could cause system slowdown for lesser PCs.
As Windows Latest observes, it seems Microsoft implemented a fundamental rule to prevent this – one app at a time working with the webcam – and just hasn’t changed that in ages. There’s no reason for the restriction now, so it’s (finally) being lifted – at least assuming this change progresses through Windows 11’s testing channels and onto release (and we can’t see why it wouldn’t).
There are other slight complications with multiple apps sharing the one webcam, such as image settings like brightness having different parameters demanded by the different apps using the camera. To get around this, Microsoft is having brightness and so forth controlled at a central point in Windows 11’s settings, which overrides any app settings, and that of course fully makes sense.
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