See yourself before the call. Live preview, real resolution & frame-rate readout, camera switching, mirroring, a snapshot button and an optional short test-clip recording — all in your browser.
🔒 The video streams from your camera straight to your screen. Recording a test clip is optional and stays on your device too — never uploaded.
Click the camera icon in the address bar and choose Allow. Browsers remember a "Block" forever until you change it there.
Only one app can use most webcams at a time. Close Zoom, Teams or OBS, then reload this page.
Check for a physical lens cover, and on Windows: Settings → Privacy → Camera → allow desktop apps and browsers.
Camera access requires an explicit permission grant and a secure context, so the page must be served over HTTPS. If no prompt appears, permission was most likely denied earlier and is now remembered for the site — resetting it in the site settings, reached from the padlock in the address bar, restores the prompt.
Operating system permissions sit above the browser's. macOS, Windows and most Linux desktops each maintain their own camera privacy setting, and if the browser is not permitted there, the page's request fails regardless of what the browser reports. This is the usual explanation when the browser prompt appears, permission is granted, and nothing happens.
Exclusive access is the third common cause. Many systems allow only one application to hold the camera at a time, so a conferencing application running in the background — including one minimised to the system tray — prevents the browser from opening it. Closing other applications that use the camera resolves a large share of failures.
Lighting matters far more than the camera. A webcam's small sensor performs badly in low light, and its automatic gain compensates by amplifying noise, producing the grainy, smeared image familiar from evening video calls. A light source in front of you, at roughly face height, transforms the result more than any hardware upgrade.
Avoid a bright window or lamp behind you. The camera meters for the overall scene, so a bright background causes it to expose for that and leave your face in silhouette. Facing the window is the single easiest improvement available.
Camera position affects how you appear more than resolution does. A laptop camera sits below eye level and looks upward, which is an unflattering angle and gives poor eye contact. Raising the laptop so the camera is at or slightly above eye level, and sitting far enough back that your head and shoulders fill the frame rather than your face alone, is what makes the difference between a poor and a competent picture.
The video from this test is displayed locally in your browser and is not transmitted or recorded anywhere. That is the point of testing here rather than by joining a call: you can check framing, lighting and focus without anyone seeing.
Look at what is in frame before joining anything. Backgrounds routinely disclose more than intended — documents on a desk, a whiteboard, items in the room, other people, and anything identifying a location. A virtual background or blur helps but is not reliable, since it can fail momentarily when you move.
The camera indicator light is a hardware feature on most laptops, wired to the camera's power, and it is a meaningful signal — a light that comes on unexpectedly is worth investigating. Physical covers or a piece of tape remain the only guarantee, and are a reasonable precaution rather than paranoia. Revoke camera permission from sites that do not need it, and check periodically which sites hold it.
Meeting apps mirror your self-view so it feels like a mirror — others see you un-mirrored. Use the Mirror button to toggle between the two.
Most laptop webcams are 720p (1280×720); decent external ones are 1080p. If a 1080p camera reports 640×480, another app or a USB hub may be limiting it.
Yes — it also lets you switch between the front and back cameras on most phones.
Most often an operating system privacy setting blocking the browser, another application holding the camera exclusively, or a previously denied permission remembered for the site. Also check the page is on HTTPS.
Light from in front at face height, not from behind — a window behind you causes the camera to expose for it and leave you in silhouette. Raise the camera to eye level and frame head and shoulders rather than just your face.