Does the Google Clips work as a home security camera?

Holiday shopping is in full swing, meaning lots of price slashes and deals. Some of you are wondering if the Google Clips is worth its recently marked-down $125 price tag. In my own experience, this is the best memento camera you’ll ever get, and it makes a thoughtful gift for people with large families. However, don’t expect to get double-duty out of this little toy. The Google Clips is a candid camera, and that’s it.

I’m wondering if I can use the Google Clips as a non-internet-connected security camera for when I’m not home? I’m looking for a device that will capture still photos of anyone that comes to my house when I’m not there. I know the battery life is only about three hours on the clips, and I can keep it plugged in. Does your experience with the Clips make you think it can be triggered by motion? Or does it only save what AI deems a good photo?

The Google Clips is great for capturing candid images of family. It’s useless for incriminating home intruders.

The Google Clips camera has a built-in AI that’s smart enough to recognize photogenic moments, which is why it won’t work as a security camera. The camera is a clip maker, and it’s programmed to vet and curate each scene before filing it away as a potentially worthy digital memory. And despite the small device’s battery promise of three-hours-on, it’s not streaming the entirety of that time, so you’re bound to miss a moment.

I’ll tell you where a Google Clips could come in handy regarding security: leave it on in a forbidden area during a party to see if the kids sneak in there. It’ll start snapping photos when a person walks into the scene, thus helping provide proof when your teen goes sniffing around the liquor cabinet. It works for pets, too, so you can have valid proof of Rover sneaking in bites of Fluffy’s cat food.

If what you’re looking for is an affordable security camera, might I suggest the Wyze Cam? It’s an actual security camera, and it’s small and cheap enough (only $25 most places) that you can buy a bundle of these and string ’em together for your home security setup. Better yet, the camera supports offline recording via an inserted microSD card so that you can capture footage without internet.

Need tech help? Figuring out what to buy? Contact me.