Bug 482955

Summary: Method to set default camera in settings
Product: [Applications] systemsettings Reporter: David <david.cortes.rivera>
Component: generalAssignee: Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs-null>
Status: RESOLVED INTENTIONAL    
Severity: wishlist CC: nate
Priority: NOR    
Version First Reported In: unspecified   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: Other   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description David 2024-03-09 08:31:52 UTC 
SUMMARY
There used to be a section "multimedia" in the settings, which nowadays is called audio.

In that section, one can configure things like the default audio device and the default microphone, but it doesn't offer me to configure a default camera (video input).

If it lets me choose input devices for audio, would be logical that it should also let me configure input devices for video (webcams).

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Go to system settings.
2. Search for 'camera' or 'video'.

OBSERVED RESULT
Nothing.

EXPECTED RESULT
Should have a section where it lets me configure what's the default camera that apps will use.
Comment 1 Nate Graham 2024-03-11 22:31:36 UTC 
There's no such concept as a default camera that apps could then read to determine what to do, I'm afraid. The old KCM now-reomved showed the futility of trying: almost no apps read the settings there so in practice they were just a whole bunch of broken promises.
Comment 2 David 2024-03-13 19:45:39 UTC 
(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #1)
> There's no such concept as a default camera that apps could then read to
> determine what to do, I'm afraid. The old KCM now-reomved showed the
> futility of trying: almost no apps read the settings there so in practice
> they were just a whole bunch of broken promises.

What about web browsers? They all seem to refer to a "default" camera. I imagine that they must be following some common protocol to determine which one is it, and I also imagine that web browsers would constitute a sizable majority of webcam use-cases.
Comment 3 Nate Graham 2024-03-14 14:25:06 UTC 
It would require some research to find out what they're using for that. These settings could be internal thing to just themselves, which would not be useful for us. The only way we could offer this feature to users without making promises we can't keep is if there's some kind of common cross-desktop standard for setting a default camera and getting the value of the default camera. Without that, it just doesn't make sense.