Narrative shuts down its lifelogging camera business

Remember the Narrative Clip, that wearable camera that let you document your day with a steady stream of photos or video? It was a novel idea, but it doesn't look like many people embraced the concept. Narrative is telling customers that it's filing for "voluntary dissolution" following financial trouble that came to a head this summer, when it restructured in a bid to stay afloat. That will put an end to Clip sales and support (a Facebook group will offer help), but the company is promising a solution that prevents your lifelogging camera from becoming a paperweight.

The company says it's releasing a tool that will both let you download shots from Narrative's servers and, more importantly, grab new content from your Clip. It's not clear how this will work or when this will be available (we've reached out to Narrative for details), but that should make the device useful after Narrative calls it quits. You'll just have to manage and upload images yourself.

It's a quiet, sad end to one of crowdfunding's more successful darlings (it got off the ground back in 2012), but not entirely unexpected. The notion of snapping a photo every 30 seconds with a collar-mounted camera is only going to appeal to so many people. Chances are that you'll be happy with capturing the occasional interesting moment on your phone, especially in an era when you can livestream your adventures. And while the price did come down over time, $199 for the Clip 2 meant that you had to think carefully about your purchase. Narrative had an interesting product -- it just wasn't going to be a runaway hit.