Make your webcam work for you

ArcSoft WebCam Companion is a multifunctional program for your webcam. It carries out various functions, some of them practical, such as photo editing, others fun, like funky frames and masques, and others serious, such as its monitoring mode.

The most basic feature of ArcSoft WebCam Companion is its capture mode, a function that allows you to take photo and video images with your webcam and save, email or print them. There is also an editing feature, but although it allows you to directly upload your videos to YouTube, its editing tools are nothing too amazing.

In terms of fun, ArcSoft WebCam Companion lets you morph yourself with a range of photos and apply fun frames to your image screen, although this feature was not working properly during our test. The masque function, as the morphing is called, is silly but entertaining, and if you get bored of the pre-selected images, you can always make your own template from any .JPEG image.

The monitoring function is one that sets ArcSoft WebCam Companion apart from it competitors. Setting up the feature is easy, and our tests in the Softonic office showed that it works. ArcSoft WebCam Companion keeps an extensive log of all activity detected and can chose notify you by email or FTP if it detects anything to be worried about. A single monitoring session can last for 18 hours, detecting motion, faces or both.

Although you can customize both individual modes and the program as a whole, I came away from ArcSoft WebCam Companion feeling that it didn’t have quite as much flexibility and choice as that offered by its competitors. On the plus side, practical, fun and serious is a combination not offered by many and is something that has to stand in its favor.

ArcSoft WebCam Companion offers a good choice of functions, but still left me feeling flat.