Wristcam Lets You Make Video Calls From Your Apple Watch

Speaker 1: FaceTime video is still not a thing on the apple watch, but the wrist cam is the next best thing. And now lets you make video calls from your apple watch. Here's how Speaker 1: This is the wrist cam. It's a camera equipped wristband for the apple watch. And at 2 99, the wrist cam may actually cost more than your apple watch, but it adds the ability to take photos, record videos and do video chats [00:00:30] all from your wrist. It's actually been around for a while. First announced at the end of 2020 back then the wrist cam functioned mainly as a low resolution wearable camera kind of like what you would find on Snapchat spectacles. Let me be clear that this is pricey, but it's for someone who is really specifically interested in taking video calls, photos and videos from your wrist, like a fun fictional spy character. It's a pretty cool proof of concept. There are two cameras, a two megapixel selfie camera on the front [00:01:00] and an eight megapixel outward facing camera. The cameras can also record seven 20 P or 10 P video with audio at 30 frames per second. Speaker 1: The risk cam is very much its own device. It is eight gigs of storage and it can sync photos and videos over wifi and Bluetooth to your apple watch and iPhone. But that's as connected as it gets. The risk cam has its own separate charger, but within the package is a power adapter that supports two S B a cables at once. So you can hook up [00:01:30] an apple watch charger and the risk cam charger through the same power adapter. Although in my case, I use a USBC apple watch charger for my series se so I just charged them separately. I also wanted took a minute to praise the risk camps, packaging. The packages is enclosed in a gorgeous, bright blue tin box. One that I would probably load up with delicious cookies. If I didn't need it for storage, it's a nice touch considering this is very much a luxury item and not that I'm complaining, but there are an awful lot of $1,000 plus phones lately [00:02:00] that only come in carbo boxes. Speaker 1: The next closest thing in the phone world could be the tower esque packaging of the Motorola razor back to the risk cam. The risk cam attaches like any other apple watch wristband data wise. The risk cam can connect over wifi, both using a home network as well as directly to the phone. I was able to get the risk cam to work a little bit over cellular from the apple watch when I left my phone alone, but the data sync was considerably slower. I've been playing with the photography and video recording on [00:02:30] it for about a week and took a few video calls from it. During my testing photos have roughly the same image quality as pictures taken from older phones from the early to mid 2000 tens, they actually look pretty good considering this is a wristband camera, especially photos from the eight mega pixel camera I took while outside in bright sunlight video quality also worked pretty well. Speaker 1: Although the microphone audio had a hard time with ambient noise like wind while I was shooting in Washington square park in lower light situations like [00:03:00] indoors, the photos did appear a bit more grainy and washed out again, not unlike other lower resolution cameras. Risk cam also supports a video messenger feature where you can record and immediately send a video to a friend from the risk cam. They can reply from their phone or from a risk cam if they have one, my friend and I quite enjoyed that feature, although we can do much the same thing with other social network apps live video calling is risk Cam's newest feature and it currently is rolling out over the next few months. [00:03:30] It does require having a friend download the risk cam app on their iPhone, making an account, and then they will pop up as a callable option on both the watch app and within an iPhone app, be aware that this doesn't work for FaceTime calls only via risk cams app. Speaker 1: And the app is currently only available on iOS and not on Android. And it's clear it's in its early stages. Sometimes when I made a call, I saw my friend quickly on the screen and we're talking other times it lagged. And while I saw and [00:04:00] heard my friend, he wasn't able to see me. There were several updates to video calling during my testing that improve performance. So it will likely get better with time right now, the time of recording this video, the feature isn't quite ready to go toe to toe with other video chat apps, but it's still cool that it's able to work from the apple watch. The biggest problem I had with the wrist cam is from the design and how I frame my shots holding my arm up. It's kind of awkward. The wrist cam is also thick, which is fine during [00:04:30] a walk or a hike, but inconvenient at other times, like when I'm typing and unless you have an apple watch within always on display, I need to continually tap the screen to keep viewing when I'm recording or while lining up a photo with the outward facing camera risk cam says that the camera is still recording. Speaker 1: Even if the apple watch is screen goes black, but it's still annoying. Like the early versions of Snapchat spectacles, getting your photos and videos outta the risk cam for use in other apps relies heavily on risk cam software. But the company [00:05:00] announced that they are opening up development to third parties. And with that, the risk cam might eventually support other video chat services and platforms theoretically with a cellular connected apple watch. Plus the risk cam accessory. You could mimic most functions of a phone through the watch and going phone free to some extent could be really exciting, but for now the risk cam is very much a luxury device with a more niche appeal for someone who would really like to attach a camera onto the apple watch and perhaps [00:05:30] create a Dick Tracy or James Bond moment with the video calling feature. If you wanna learn more about the risk cam, check out our coverage on CNET, along with the links in the description of this video. And let me know if you would want the risk cam or video calling from your apple, watch in the comments for more guides like these, be sure to like and subscribe to CNET on YouTube.