This App Resurrects Clippy on MacOS
Long before we started talking to AI assistants on smart devices , we had Clippy, a hilariously animated Microsoft Office paperclip mascot that definitely wasn’t annoying at all with tips and contextual actions that “helped” users navigate Word, Excel, and the rest of the Office suite.
Clippy (whose full name is actually “Clippit”) was not well liked, which led to his final dismissal from office after only four short years of service. In hindsight, however, the Little Helper was ahead of his time. Of course, most users turned Clippy off immediately, but the concept of having an interactive assistant has been confirmed by the likes of Alexa ,Google Assistant , Siri and Cortana . It’s almost unfair not to support poor old Clippy. In addition to a set of emoticons Microsoft Teams, Microsoft left assistant proto-AI retired, so we are pleased to see that he (unofficially) returns to the Mac and iOS through the application Clippy Developer Devran «Cosmo» Ouen. on Github .
It is very easy to download and install Clippy for Mac:
- Open Clippy on the Mac Github page.
- Scroll down to the First Launch section and click the Download Clippy for MacOS link.
- Run the installer, then follow the instructions on the page to set up the app.
Once installed, you will have a tiny Clippy gift on your Mac desktop. You can move it around your desktop by clicking and dragging, right-clicking and choosing Animate! will cycle through classic Clippy animations. Check out Wenal’s tweet above for a quick demo of the video. The app doesn’t do anything, but it’s neat nostalgia nonetheless.