AVream - Android Phone as Webcam and Microphone for Linux

Personal project — manually tested on Ubuntu 24.04. Other Linux distros may work; bug reports welcome.

AVream turns your Android phone into a Linux virtual camera and microphone for real meetings and recordings.

If you are looking for an Android phone as webcam on Linux, Android as microphone on Linux, or a reliable Linux virtual camera bridge for Zoom, Google Meet, and OBS, AVream is built for exactly that workflow.

Official website: https://kacoze.github.io/avream/

Website and documentation are generated from Markdown files in docs/.

Why Users Pick AVream

• No dedicated app required on the phone.
• Clean phone-first UX: scan phone, connect, start camera.
• USB and Wi-Fi modes with practical reconnect flow.
• Works as standard Linux devices: AVream Camera and AVream Mic.
• Stable Linux-native pipeline (daemon + UI + helper), built for real calls.
• Security model based on polkit helper actions (no random sudo commands in GUI).
• UI available in English, Polski, Español, العربية, 中文 (RTL support for Arabic).

Works With

• Google Meet
• Zoom
• OBS Studio
• Other apps that support Linux V4L2 camera and Pulse/PipeWire microphone devices

Quickstart (One-liner)

Install latest AVream with automatic service setup:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Kacoze/avream/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

Install a specific release:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Kacoze/avream/main/scripts/install.sh | AVREAM_VERSION=<version> bash

Then launch:

avream-ui

Done. In the app:

1. Open Devices, click Scan Phones, connect your phone.
2. Click Connect.
3. Switch to Stream and click Start Camera.

What You Get

• GUI app with tabs for Stream, Devices, Advanced, Diagnostics.
• One-click update check from the version indicator.
• Auto-connect to last used device on startup (when available).
• Optional CLI for automation and debugging.

Install Options

• Recommended: one-liner installer (scripts/install.sh).
• Debian/Ubuntu: APT repository (apt install avream) or .deb.
• Fedora/openSUSE: monolithic RPM (avream-<version>-1.x86_64.rpm).
• Arch Linux: AUR package path (packaging/arch/).
• Nix/NixOS: flake package (flake.nix, .#avream).
• Snap Store: snap package (snap/snapcraft.yaml).
• Flatpak: Flatpak manifest (packaging/flatpak/io.avream.AVream.yml).
• Ubuntu PPA source packaging: Debian source metadata (debian/) + upload workflow (.github/workflows/ppa.yml).
• Manual monolithic package: avream_<version>_amd64.deb.
• Advanced Debian split bundle: avream-deb-split_<version>_amd64.tar.gz (contains avream-daemon, avream-ui, avream-helper, avream-meta).

Full install, upgrade, and uninstall guide: docs/INSTALL.md.

Documentation

• User guide: docs/USER_GUIDE.md
• Installation and upgrade: docs/INSTALL.md
• CLI reference: docs/CLI_README.md
• Troubleshooting: docs/TROUBLESHOOTING.md
• FAQ: docs/FAQ.md
• Supported platforms: docs/SUPPORTED_PLATFORMS.md
• API contract: docs/API_V1.md

Release and security references:

• docs/RELEASE_CHECKLIST.md
• docs/RELEASE_TEMPLATE.md
• docs/RC_DRILL.md
• docs/SECURITY_DECISIONS.md

Known Limits

• PC audio output to phone speaker is not in stable baseline.
• Preview runs as a separate scrcpy window, not embedded in GTK content.

CLI (Optional)

avream status
avream devices
avream start --mode wifi --lens front
avream camera stop

For Developers

Build local Linux packages:

bash scripts/build-deb.sh
bash scripts/build-deb-split.sh
bash scripts/build-rpm.sh

Run local docs site (Markdown source of truth):

pip install mkdocs mkdocs-material
mkdocs serve

Build static docs site:

mkdocs build --strict

Release docs copied to dist/ are generated by:

bash scripts/generate-dist-docs.sh

Installer and diagnostics helpers:

bash scripts/install.sh
bash scripts/doctor.sh
bash scripts/uninstall.sh