How do I open the “front camera” on the Android platform?

Question

More generally, if a device has more than one embedded camera, is there a way to initialize one of them in particular?

I didn\'t find it in Android reference documen

Answer 1

To open the back camera:-

val cameraIntent = Intent(MediaStore.ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE)
startActivityForResult(cameraIntent, REQUEST_CODE_CAMERA)

To open the front camera:-

val cameraIntent = Intent(MediaStore.ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE)
when {
     Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.LOLLIPOP_MR1 && Build.VERSION.SDK_INT < Build.VERSION_CODES.O -> {
         cameraIntent.putExtra("android.intent.extras.CAMERA_FACING", CameraCharacteristics.LENS_FACING_FRONT)  // Tested on API 24 Android version 7.0(Samsung S6)
     }
     Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.O -> {
         cameraIntent.putExtra("android.intent.extras.CAMERA_FACING", CameraCharacteristics.LENS_FACING_FRONT) // Tested on API 27 Android version 8.0(Nexus 6P)
         cameraIntent.putExtra("android.intent.extra.USE_FRONT_CAMERA", true)
     }
     else -> cameraIntent.putExtra("android.intent.extras.CAMERA_FACING", 1)  // Tested API 21 Android version 5.0.1(Samsung S4)
}
startActivityForResult(cameraIntent, REQUEST_CODE_CAMERA)

I could not make it work for API 28 and above. Also, opening the front camera directly is not possible in some devices(depends on the manufacturer).