I recently had the chance to try out the Google Clips camera. To be honest, I hadn’t heard anything about it. However, I am not all that techie and don’t stay up on all of the latest gadgets. I quickly jumped online to do some research and read some reviews to see what it was all about. It turned out to be a little camera that is supposed to take pictures of people it recognizes. Which sounds super, super creepy now that I am saying it out loud…in my head. :)

It works by linking to your Google photos and a technology called “machine learning” to learn the faces of your friends and people you have taken pictures of so it can recognize those people when the camera sees them. Which still sounds creepy, but go with me for a minute.

The details

There is not an actual internet connection in the camera itself but will connect to the phone you have it synced to. All you have to do is download the Google Clips app and from there, it takes you through the setup, which took me roughly five minutes to set up. The camera itself doesn’t really record a video with audio — it is basically shooting 15 frames per second in photos and then it will stitch those together to create a 7-second video clip, similar to the burst mode on your phone. Then, you can scroll through and pick the ones you like and save them as a GIF, MP4 video or a live photo, which is pretty cool since I had never made a live photo before.

The total battery life is about three hours and then you must recharge. So if you want a full day, you will have to keep charging it here and there.

Not very clippy

I do feel like it is a little expensive for what you get out of it, costing about $249. Granted, it’s not a normal camera and there is a lot of tech built into it, which is way over my head, but maybe that’s why it’s so expensive. It is very cute, and I love the teal color. It does come with a protective squish clip case, hence the name, so you can clip it onto things. However, I did feel like I was quite limited with the actual device. The clip its self isn’t that big, so I only had a handful of places I could actually clip it to. I also felt frustrated that I couldn’t get the device to stand up on its own without leaning it against something.

After doing more research about the device I discovered there are accessories you can purchase to help with that, but they aren’t included. One of those things is a case that allows you to mount it to your tripod which would have been massively helpful. It wasn’t until I watched another tutorial that I noticed you could flip the clip upside down and lean it on the actual clip to balance it, which helped with some of my frustrations.

Final thoughts

After using it around the house with my kids and at our families 4th of July get together, it’s kind of a neat little device. Yes, granted, at the start I said it was creepy (and it still kind of is) because it just does its own thing. It really does have a mind of its own — and a developing mind! It’s constantly learning and I love that this device allows you to get a perspective that you might not otherwise be able to get. It allows you to actually be in the photo, which, as a mom, there isn’t anything better!

Google Clips retails for $249.