macOS · iOS Simulator · AVFoundation
The iOS Simulator has no camera — so every camera app falls over the moment you hit run. SimAV feeds any video, image, webcam, screen or QR code into the front & back cameras. Unmodified apps just work.
Camera live DemoVideo.mp4 The simulator blind spot
Build anything that touches AVCaptureDevice — a scanner, a KYC flow, a
custom camera, AR — and the Simulator hands you nothing. So you tether a real device,
juggle cables, and lose your hot-reload loop. Every. Single. Time.
let device = AVCaptureDevice
.default(.builtInWideAngleCamera,
for: .video, position: .back)
// → nil on Simulator
guard let device else {
fatalError("No camera available")
} // 💥 you, every demolet device = AVCaptureDevice
.default(.builtInWideAngleCamera,
for: .video, position: .back)
// → a live virtual camera ✅
session.addInput(input)
preview.session = session
session.startRunning() // pixels!From zero to live in under a minute
SimAV lives in your menu bar. It spots every booted Simulator and arms it in one click — no Xcode project changes, no rebuild of your app.
simctl · launchdPer camera position, choose a video, image, your Mac webcam, a screen, or a live QR code. Front and back can run completely different feeds.
front ⇄ backLaunch any camera app in the Simulator. Preview, switching, photo capture and movie recording all light up — driven by your chosen source at 30 fps.
30 fps · liveEverything a camera app expects
SimAV swizzles AVFoundation into a virtual graph — so preview layers, data outputs, photo and movie capture all behave exactly like real hardware.
Point any camera position at a source — and switch it live while your app runs.
Two cameras, two separate feeds — switch between them and each keeps its own source.
Snapshots return the live virtual frame; recordings write a real, playable H.264 .mov.
Full AVCaptureMultiCamSession support — run back full-screen and front picture-in-picture at once.
Nothing to import, link or fork. Your app's existing AVFoundation code runs untouched.
Lives quietly in the menu bar, detects booted Simulators and arms them automatically. Quit, and it cleans up after itself.
30 fps shared-memory pump · ad-hoc & notarized buildsReal screens, real apps
Every frame below is Apple's unmodified AVCam sample and a real multi-cam app running on the Simulator — with SimAV doing the seeing.
back 
front 
capture 
multi-cam Verified end-to-end
SimAV runs Apple's unmodified AVCam app on iPhone 17 Pro (iOS 26) — and a real multi-cam app — with the entire capture pipeline behaving like hardware. If your app uses AVFoundation, it's already supported.
AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer distinct feed per position AVCapturePhotoOutput AVCaptureMovieFileOutput AVCaptureVideoDataOutput AVCaptureMultiCamSession One Mac, one price
A single payment. Free updates within the version. No subscription, ever.
Buy SimAV $29Requires macOS · runs alongside Xcode & the iOS Simulator.
No. SimAV works at the AVFoundation layer inside the Simulator, so your app runs completely unmodified — nothing to import, link, fork or configure. If it builds a normal capture session today, it gets a live camera tomorrow.
Any app built on AVFoundation. Live preview, front/back switching, photo capture, movie recording and AVCaptureMultiCamSession are all supported — verified against Apple's own unmodified AVCam sample and a real dual-camera app.
A video file, a still image, your Mac's webcam, a screen, a live-generated QR code, or the bundled demo clip. Front and back positions can each use a different source, and you can switch them live while the app is running.
No — and that's the point. SimAV exists to give the iOS Simulator a camera it never had, so you can build and demo camera features without tethering a device. On real hardware your code already has a real camera.
It's verified on current Xcode with iOS 26 on the iPhone 17 Pro simulator, including multi-cam. Because it hooks AVFoundation rather than a private API surface, it tracks new Simulator runtimes closely.
Watch the demo above to see it working end-to-end. SimAV is a one-time purchase for macOS with a notarized, signed build — full trial and licensing details are finalised at launch. (Pricing on this page is a placeholder.)
Stop tethering devices
one-time · placeholder pricing