CamPeek – MacOS Hand Mirror Inspired One-click Camera Check for GNOME

Looking for a MacOS Hand Mirror alternative app for Ubuntu? Here’s one for the GNOME desktop.

It’s CamPeek, an extension adds an icon on GNOME top-bar, allowing to one-click to preview your webcam. It’s lightweight and fast! And, it streams your webcam feed directly without recording or saving any data.

image from app’s Github project page

This is ideal for quickly checking your appearance or environment before video calls or meetings, and/or confirming camera functionality instantly without opening heavy applications.

NOTE: CamPeek is a new application that so far lacks new features (e.g., multiple cameras support). You may support by requesting features or reporting issues at this page.

How to Install CamPeek

CamPeek at the moment supports only GNOME 48, meaning that it so far works on Ubuntu 25.04, Fedora 42, Arch, and Manjaro, etc Linux distributions.

For Ubuntu, first search for and install “Extension Manager” from App Center.

Install Extension Manager in Ubuntu Software/App Center

Then, launch the tool and navigate to Browse tab to search & install CamPeek:

For choice, you may go to the extension page in EGO:

CamPeek in EGO

Then, use the ON/OFF toggle to install the extension. You may need to first install browser extension (via the link in that page if it asks) then refresh.

And, Debian / Ubuntu users need to first run command in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) to install the agent package, before being able to install GNOME extensions from web browser.