When the Reliance JioFiber broadband service was launched in India a couple of years back, it assured to bring some interesting features to the table. However, these features took time to come to reality and one such feature is the ability to make video calls from smart TVs without a webcam or external camera.
Dubbed 'Camera on Mobile', this feature is available via the JioJoin app that was named JioCall earlier. This app is available on both Android and iOS devices. It lets users to make their smartphone camera act as an input device to make video calls from the smart TV. It lets video calling via the JioFiberVoice, which comes bundled with JioFiber, thereby offering calling support to the users of the broadband service.
Notably, the 'Camera on Mobile' feature was under testing for the past few months and it has been rolled out to Android and iOS users now. As per Jio, the JioFiber users are recommended to switch to the 5GHz Wi-Fi band on their modems in order to make video calls with better clarity. It is possible to experience this feature with the 2.4GHz band as well though there could be some lag.
To make video calls using your smartphone camera on your smart TV with the JioFiber service, you need to first configure your 10-digit JioFiber number on the JioJoin app. Notably, this app can be downloaded via Apple App Store and Google Play Store and it is compatible on Android 6.0 or iOS 10.0 or above devices.
After configuring your JioFiber number, you need to allow the app to virtually make your phone as a companion device for the JioFiber connection. Now, you can enable the 'Camera on Mobile' feature from the settings of the JioJoin app. That's it! You can use your smartphone as a webcam to make video calls through the smart TV.
Of late, several companies started launching their smart TV offerings. These include brands such as Xiaomi and OnePlus that came up with smart TVs that feature webcams. These TVs make it possible to carry out video calls on the big screens as people stay at home due to the pandemic crisis. However, the idea of using phones as webcams to make video calls on the big screen adds convenience to the users of the JioFiber service as they need not purchase another upgraded smart TV with a webcam for this purpose.
However, it is likely to be seen if there will be any quality comprises due to the process of using smartphones as webcams for the TVs. The major challenge will be the quality of video calls as the affordable smartphones out there miss out on high-quality selfie cameras, thereby leaving us skeptical about the video calling experience.
We will check out JioFiber's 'Camera on Mobile' feature to make video calls using various smartphones across price points and give you feedback on the same. Until then, we cannot rule out the convenience factor of this feature.