Wristcam Band Brings Video Calls To Apple Watch With One Caveat

To cut the story short, Wristcam now offers the ability to make and take video calls on your wrist. Previously, it only functioned as a regular camera, making it easier to take pictures and record videos without having to pull out your phone. Video calls are easily the next step in that direction, but you might want to temper your excitement if you’ve been dying to FaceTime your friends using your Apple Watch.

Wristcam doesn’t work with FaceTime at all, so you still can’t do that. Instead, you’ll have to make sure that whoever you’re calling has the Wristcam accessory for their Apple Watch, as well. Alternatively, the Wristcam iPhone app also lets users do Watch-to-iPhone video calls. It’s not an entirely seamless experience, which requires buying a bulky $299 strap for the otherwise sleek Apple Watch, but it’s better than nothing for those dreaming of such a feature, especially if they already own a Wristcam anyway.

Whether this is an advisable — or even useful — feature will probably depend on who you ask. As with smart glasses, the thought of a camera that’s always exposed and looking at the world can be a bit frightening, especially for the people around you. Of course, Wristcam promises privacy and security and automatically puts the cameras on standby after a period of inactivity, but that still requires you to put a lot of trust in a third party.