How to put a shortcut to your selfie or camcorder on your Android home screen

Do you want to quickly launch your front-facing camera or camcorder? How to create shortcuts to them on the home screen of your Android phone.

The camera icon on your phone launches you directly into your camera app, which is usually set to take pictures with the primary rear lens. But what if you want to quickly take a selfie or record a video instead?

How to put a shortcut to the front camera or camcorder on the home screen of your Android phone.

Create a shortcut to your front camera or camcorder

Adding shortcuts to some of your camera app’s extra features is easy on your home screen. And they can sit next to your default icon, they do not replace it.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Long press (hold down) the camera icon on your home screen.

2. After a very short delay, an additional menu had to be opened. This includes shortcuts to some other features available in your camera app, such as different cameras or shooting modes.

3. Now hold your finger on the shortcut in this menu that indicates the camcorder or selfie camera and drag it to an empty spot on your home screen.

4. This will place a new icon on your home screen. Tap it to test it – it should launch your camera app directly into the camera mode you want.

This method is not limited to front or camcorders. You can often use it for other features that your phone camera offers. These could include a macro or zoom lens or even software settings like portrait mode or night mode.

The settings will vary depending on the manufacturer of your phone and the features of the camera. You can also find them if you use one of the best third-party camera apps or some of the apps to help you take amazing selfies.

To remove the selfie or video shortcut

You can use this new shortcut like any other icon on your home screen, which means you can place it wherever you want and put it in a folder.

Delete it from your home screen in the same way as you would with any other icon – usually by either dragging it up to an “Remove” option at the top of the screen, or by long-pressing it and selecting “Remove” from the menu that opens. You do not delete the camera app by doing this, and you can recreate the icon again when you need it.

Create camera shortcuts on Android

This little-known shortcut is a great way to access the camera features you use the most. It should be available on virtually all modern devices and requires no downloads or use of extra storage space.

But photos and videos are just the beginning of what you can do with an Android camera. You can also use it to help identify just about anything, including food, clothing and plants, or to help compare prices in stores.

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