Two free apps · one USB cable
For calls, recordings and streams on your Mac. Connect your iPhone over USB, then choose TetherCam in Zoom, Teams or Meet. No Wi-Fi, cloud or account.
Download for Mac .dmg · macOS 14+ Get the iPhone app App Store · iOS 17+
Recording in OBS? The OBS plugin replaces the Mac app and brings the phone’s microphone along.
Your iPhone becomes the camera TetherCam
App 2 of 2 · the Mac app
The Mac app receives the camera picture and makes it available to your apps. It lives in the menu bar, with no OBS running.
TetherCam-mac.dmg v0.4.0, signed and notarized Checksum TetherCam-mac.dmg.sha256
Free and open source (MIT), macOS 14 or newer, Apple silicon and Intel. Not on the Mac App Store. Prefer a cask? brew tap kanevry/tethercam then brew install --cask tethercam.
Enable the camera once, then choose TetherCam in your call app. Keep the iPhone connected with its app open.
Two ways to receive it
Same phone, same cable, same iPhone app. What differs is what receives the picture on the Mac: the Mac app for every app on the machine, the plugin for OBS Studio. Pick one at a time, the phone serves a single receiver and the second one gets BUSY.
| Mac app | OBS plugin | |
|---|---|---|
| Works in | Mac apps with a system-camera picker, including Zoom, Teams, Meet and FaceTime | OBS Studio, as its own source on the canvas |
| Audio from the phone | No. A macOS camera extension carries video only | Yes, since 0.2.0, straight into the audio mixer |
| Needs | macOS 14 or newer, and one approval of the camera extension in System Settings (administrator password once) | macOS 12 or newer and OBS Studio 30 or newer. Installs into your home folder, no administrator rights |
| Best for | Calls, meetings, recordings in any app. The default path | Streaming and recording in OBS, where the phone’s microphone should come along. The pro path |
Measured, not promised
Demo
One take, no cuts: the iPhone goes on the cable, the app says Streaming 1080p30, and the picture lands on the OBS canvas.
Gallery
The App Store frames, built from real app elements: the status capsule, the camera names, the source entry in OBS and the diagnostics values are the ones in the shipping build. The camera picture is a generated studio scene. Any “1 ms” label in these earlier frames refers to USB ping, not camera latency.
Quick start
Download both apps, plug the cable in, done: TetherCam for iPhone captures, TetherCam for Mac publishes the picture as the system camera “TetherCam”. Streaming in OBS Studio instead? There the plugin takes the Mac app’s place. Run one receiver at a time.
TetherCam-mac.dmg and drag TetherCam into Applications with Finder, then open it. It lives in the menu bar and has no window. Homebrew instead: brew tap kanevry/tethercam, then brew install --cask tethercam.Open the .pkg from the download section or run the one-line installer, then restart OBS. Nothing is installed system-wide and no administrator rights are needed. See the Install guide if anything goes sideways.
~/Library/Application Support/
obs-studio/plugins/Free on the App Store since 2026-09-09, for iPhones with iOS 17 or later. The TestFlight beta carries the next builds before they reach the store. You can also build the app from source with a free Apple ID.
Download on the App Store TestFlight beta (early builds)
Choose Tools, then TetherCam: Add iPhone camera to current scene. That creates the source and fits it to your canvas. Plug the phone in, unlock it, open TetherCam and leave it in the foreground.
The first row of the source properties is a status line that names the missing piece: no phone attached, app not in the foreground, or the live format once frames arrive. The app has a matching diagnostics sheet for the phone side.
The data path
The iPhone captures with AVCaptureSession and encodes HEVC in hardware, then serves the stream on a local TCP port, 7878. The Mac reaches that port through usbmuxd, the same system service that carries Xcode traffic over the cable. The OBS plugin decodes with VideoToolbox and hands the frames to the canvas.
Download · the pro path
For streaming and recording: the plugin adds its own TetherCam source to OBS Studio, with the phone’s microphone on the same cable and no virtual-camera detour. It installs into your own home folder, so it needs no administrator rights. Restart OBS once after installing. Only calling? The Mac app is the shorter way.
TetherCam-obs-plugin.pkg v0.4.0, signed and notarized TetherCam-obs-plugin.zip v0.4.0, Developer ID signed bundle
The .pkg is the signed and notarized installer. The .zip is the plugin bundle for manual installation. Full install guide and troubleshooting.
The one-line installer fetches the same release:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Kanevry/tethercam/main/scripts/install.sh | bashVideo calls and alternatives
Continuity Camera also supports USB. TetherCam uses its own transport, with no shared Apple Account or cloud service.
Tested with an iPhone 15 Pro Max: QuickTime Player, Photo Booth, FaceTime, Google Meet in Chrome, Safari and ffmpeg (September 9, 2026); Zoom 7.1.5 and Microsoft Teams (September 10, 2026). Other apps that list system cameras have not been individually tested here.
If OBS is already running: start its virtual camera and choose “OBS Virtual Camera” in your call. The phone audio reaches the OBS mixer for recordings and streams. The virtual camera carries video only, so the call still needs a separately selected microphone.
| TetherCam | Continuity Camera | Camo | EpocCam | Iriun | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Connection | USB cable only, through usbmuxd | Wireless by default, cable also possible | USB or Wi-Fi | USB or Wi-Fi | USB or Wi-Fi |
| On the Mac | OBS plugin in your home folder; or a menu bar app with its own camera extension | Built into macOS, nothing to install | Vendor app plus virtual camera | Vendor app plus virtual camera | Vendor app plus virtual camera |
| Shows up as a system camera in Zoom, Meet, FaceTime | Yes, with the TetherCam Mac app; or through OBS → Start Virtual Camera | Yes, directly | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Price | Free, no paid tier, no account | Included with macOS | Free tier plus a paid version | Free tier plus a paid version | Free tier plus a paid version |
| Source code | Open: GPL-2.0-or-later for the OBS plugin, MIT for the rest | Closed, part of Apple’s systems | Closed | Closed | Closed |
| Pairing and accounts | None. The two devices need no shared Apple Account | Same Apple Account with two-factor on both devices | Vendor account for the paid version | Vendor account for the paid version | No account for the free version |
| Audio from the phone | Yes into OBS since 0.2.0. Not on the camera-extension path, which carries video only | Yes, the iPhone microphone can be picked separately | Supported | Supported | Supported |
| Phones and desktops | iPhone with iOS 17+ and a Mac with macOS 14+ for the Mac app, or macOS 12+ for the OBS plugin. No Android, no Windows, no Linux | iPhone with iOS 16+ and a Mac with macOS 13+ | iOS and Android, macOS and Windows | iOS and Android, macOS and Windows | iOS and Android, macOS, Windows and Linux |
FAQ
Yes. Install TetherCam on the iPhone and Mac, connect them with a USB data cable, enable the camera extension once, then choose TetherCam in your call app. This needs macOS 14+ and iOS 17+. Keep the phone app open. Your call uses a separately selected microphone. Start here.
Yes. The Mac app publishes your iPhone as a system camera at 1080p30. OBS is only needed if you choose the separate OBS plugin. Use one receiver at a time; a second receiver reports BUSY.
Yes. I built TetherCam after Continuity Camera connected but left the picture black on my setup. TetherCam takes a separate USB path and does not use the Continuity handshake, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. The devices do not need a shared Apple Account.
The video goes directly from the iPhone to your Mac through the cable. There is no wireless network to configure, and the phone charges while it streams. Continuity Camera also supports USB; TetherCam uses its own connection instead of Continuity.
On one setup, an iPhone 15 Pro Max with an M4 Pro Mac and OBS 32.2.2, USB ping round trip was about 1 ms, and the first frame arrived about 90 ms after connection. These are transport and startup measurements, not end-to-end camera latency. End-to-end latency has not been measured here.
Not for the OBS plugin: it installs into your own home folder, with no daemon and nothing system-wide. The TetherCam Mac app is different, because a macOS camera extension has to be approved: you enter your administrator password once, in System Settings, when you enable it.
Both paths need an iPhone with iOS 17+ and a USB data cable. The Mac app needs macOS 14+. The OBS plugin needs macOS 12+ and OBS Studio 30+. Keep the iPhone unlocked with TetherCam in the foreground.
The OBS plugin receives the iPhone microphone in the OBS mixer for recordings and streams, with iPhone app 0.2.0 or later. The Mac app and OBS Virtual Camera carry video only. Choose a separate microphone in Zoom, Teams or your other call app.
Install the TetherCam plugin for OBS on the Mac, install the TetherCam app on the iPhone, then connect the two with a data cable. In OBS choose Tools, then “TetherCam: Add iPhone camera to current scene”. Unlock the phone and leave the app in the foreground; it shows “Streaming 1080p30” and the picture appears on the canvas. No Wi-Fi, no pairing code, no account and no cloud service are involved, because the HEVC stream travels only through the USB cable.
TetherCam is a free, open-source USB option for iPhone and Mac, with no account or paid tier. Other tools offer different platform support and wireless options. The dated comparison table summarizes those differences; check the vendor before choosing.
Nothing. The iPhone app is free on the App Store, the plugin and the Mac app are free downloads, there is no paid tier, no subscription, no in-app purchase and no account.
Yes. The OBS plugin is GPL-2.0-or-later. The iPhone app, Mac app, shared code, tools and protocol are MIT. There is no account, paid tier or tracking. From version 0.4.0 the Mac app asks GitHub once a day whether a newer version exists; you can turn that off in the menu under “Check for updates automatically”. See the privacy policy.
No, macOS only for now. The shared C core already builds on Linux, so a receiver for other systems is possible, but none ships today.
The install guide covers both paths, camera-extension approval and troubleshooting, including a missing camera or a black picture.
Yes. This homepage is also available in German. The detailed install guide is in English.
Source and license
Read the wire protocol, build both sides yourself, or write your own receiver.