Guide: Best MacBook Air MagSafe Continuity Camera Attachment

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I have been looking forward to macOS 13.0 or macOS Ventura, as it’s also known, mainly to test the continuity camera feature. I own a MacBook Air M2, and the 1080p camera is a step up from the older M1 720p camera, but the thought of being able to use my iPhone camera on my MacBook for proper high-quality videos was something I couldn’t wait to use.

The best MacBook Air MagSafe Continuity Camera Attachment I have found is this one on Amazon. It’s under US$25 and available now. The Belkin continuity camera isn’t yet available, and I didn’t want to wait (and my bet is the Belkin one will cost a lot more!). So this is also the best Belkin continuity camera alternative.

What made me pick this one is that it has a notch. I’m not sure if I needed the notch – but I didn’t want to be covering anything in the notch area of my M2 MacBook. My main theory was that even though I will remove the continuity camera attachment when not in use if I am doing something on my phone (like a voice call), my MacBook Air “standard” camera is still usable.

So does it work? Yes. This is well made, the magnets are strong, and it was easy enough to slide onto my MacBook Air, even with a thin shell case. Are there cheaper alternatives, probably – but this is the best continuity camera I found on Amazon.

How to use macOS Continuity Camera with your iPhone

If you want to know how to use continuity camera with your iPhone, sharing how to below.

Your iPhone needs to be close to your Mac (no, you don’t have it in the MagSafe attachment, but it helps!)
On your Mac, open Facetime (or any video calling app, e.g., Zoom, Teams, etc.)
You should get a prompt on your iPhone that says
“Connected to [Your Name]’s MacBook Air. You can disconnect to remove this iPhone from the Mac Camera list” and there will be “Pause” and “Disconnect” buttons. You don’t need to do anything on your iPhone and if it’s in the continuity mount, you won’t even know there is this message.
The first time you use continuity, your Mac should default to your iPhone camera and your Mac will show the following message below. You can select any of the options (Remind Later, Try It Now, Continue).
Your iPhone camera should now work as the default camera, but if it doesn’t – you can manually select it as the camera in your video-calling app. In Facetime, this is done from the Video menu, other apps will vary.

You’re done!

General Tips:

If you need to use your iPhone mid-call, etc. I recommend selecting “Pause” rather than “Disconnect” on your iPhone. In my experience, Disconnect caused made reconnecting more complicated than it should be and I had to restart my Mac to get everything working again. ugh!
If you want to access continuity camera special effects (Center Stage, Studio Light, Portrait Mode, Desk View, etc.), this can be done via macOS Control Center.

Troubleshooting Continuity Camera

Your iPhone must have Continuity Camera turned on in Settings > General > AirPlay & Handoff. It’s turned on by default.
Your iPhone and Mac must be near each other and have Bluetooth and Wi-Fi turned on.
To use Continuity Camera wirelessly, your Mac must not be using AirPlay or Sidecar.
Both devices must be signed in with the same Apple ID using two-factor authentication.
Your iPhone must not be sharing its cellular connection, and your Mac must not be sharing its internet connection.

Hope this helps someone else!

If you’re after more posts I have written about the Mac and macOS, you can check out this link. I document various macOS bug fixes, hacks and. tweaks to make macOS better. I also list my favorite free macOS apps.