Android Camera2 front camera

We can get the Characteristics of the cameras in our device

   private void getCameraCharacteristics (){
       try {
       CameraManager manager=(CameraManager)getSystemService(Context.CAMERA_SERVICE);
           for(String id : manager.getCameraIdList()){
               Log.e(TAG, "Camara: Id " + id );
               CameraCharacteristics cameraCharacteristics = manager.getCameraCharacteristics(id);
               List<CameraCharacteristics.Key<?>> listaCaracteristicas = cameraCharacteristics.getKeys();
               for(CameraCharacteristics.Key<?> caracteristica : listaCaracteristicas){
                   Log.i(TAG,  "caracteristic: " + caracteristica.getName()  + " : " + cameraCharacteristics.get(caracteristica));
               }
               Log.i(TAG, listaCaracteristicas.toString());
           }
       } catch (CameraAccessException e) {
           e.printStackTrace();
       }

   }

one of this characteristics is android.lens.facing, so based on this value we can get the Frontal camera:

 if(cameraCharacteristics.get(CameraCharacteristics.LENS_FACING) == CameraCharacteristics.LENS_FACING_FRONT){
              //Frontal camera
  }

This is a method to get this value:

private String getIdFrontalCamera () {
    try {
        CameraManager manager=(CameraManager)getSystemService(Context.CAMERA_SERVICE);
        for(String id : manager.getCameraIdList()){
            CameraCharacteristics cameraCharacteristics = manager.getCameraCharacteristics(id);
            //Seek frontal camera.
            if(cameraCharacteristics.get(CameraCharacteristics.LENS_FACING) == CameraCharacteristics.LENS_FACING_FRONT){
                Log.i(TAG, "Camara frontal id " + id);
                return id;
            }
        }
    } catch (CameraAccessException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
    return "0";
}

most of the times the id of the frontal camera is 1.

0 for Back 1 for Front

For Back Camera, we have to do this inside openCamera method:

cameraId = manager.getCameraIdList()[0];

For Facing Front camera, we have to add this below line inside openCamera method:

cameraId = manager.getCameraIdList()[1];

I have added all the codes and screenshot here

First of all, find out the id of your front camera (if it has one of course)

    CameraManager manager = (CameraManager) activity.getSystemService(Context.CAMERA_SERVICE);
            try {
                return manager.getCameraIdList();
            } catch (CameraAccessException e) {
                return null;
            }

Then find the faceCamera like this:

CameraCharacteristics cameraCharacteristics = manager.getCameraCharacteristics(cameraId);

        if (cameraCharacteristics == null)
            throw new NullPointerException("No camera with id " + cameraId);

        return cameraCharacteristics.get(CameraCharacteristics.LENS_FACING) == CameraCharacteristics.LENS_FACING_FRONT;

Lastly, you have to set the camera with that id:

CameraManager manager = (CameraManager) activity.getSystemService(Context.CAMERA_SERVICE);
   try {
       characteristics = manager.getCameraCharacteristics(mCameraId);
   }  catch (CameraAccessException e) {
       e.printStackTrace();
   } 

Note, these are just tips on how to do what you wanna do. For details on how to start a preview and more, refer to: http://developer.android.com/samples/Camera2Basic/index.html