topic Re: Adding New Camera to Home App and Keeping Current Cameras/Nest App in Cameras and Doorbells

Adding New Camera to Home App and Keeping Current Cameras/Nest App

Maslance — Sat, 28 Oct 2023 16:02:07 GMT

I have several older Nest Cameras and Nest Hello plus Thermostat and Protect. I bought a new camera knowing that I will have to set it up under the Home App. I am having issues answering some of the questions to make sure i do NOT affect the older devices/Nest App. Tech support is NO help as they keep pushing me to migrate everything to Home App and lose functions on the older cam's. I know you can set them up separately as I see people on here talking about it.

Could somebody possibly help with setting up the new camera in Home App and how to answer the questions so i dont mess up the older devices/Nest app?

Thanks -

Re: Adding New Camera to Home App and Keeping Current Cameras/Nest App

David_K — Sat, 28 Oct 2023 16:17:26 GMT

If you login to the Nest app with a Google account, simply login to the Google Home app with the same Google account and setup the camera. Your home structure from the Nest app should already be there. If you have a 2nd gen Nest Aware subscription, it covers all cameras in the same home structure across both apps.

If you still login to the Nest app with a legacy Nest account (not a Google account), you have 2 choices:

Migrate your Nest account to a Google account and once migrated, login to the Google Home app with that Google account. Your home structure from the Nest app should already be there. This is the best option if you have an existing 2nd gen Nest Aware subscription, or plan on getting one, as the subscription covers all cameras in the same home structure across both apps.
If you don't have a subscription, and don't plan on getting one, you could just login to the Google Home app with a Google account (separate to your Nest account) and setup the camera separately.

Documentation:
Set up and connect Nest camera - Google Nest Help
FAQs about accounts for the Nest app - Google Nest Help
What you get with a Nest Aware subscription - Google Nest Help
1st gen Nest Aware subscriptions ending - Google Nest Help

Re: Adding New Camera to Home App and Keeping Current Cameras/Nest App

MplsCustomer — Sat, 28 Oct 2023 16:25:43 GMT

@Maslance

First, Google Nest does NOT currently have any ability to migrate cameras, doorbells and other Google Nest devices from the Google Nest app to the Google Home app EXCEPT for the in-test ability to try out migrating 1st gen indoor cameras using the "Public Preview" version of the Google Home app (https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Blog/Nest-Cam-Indoor-1st-gen-expanded-support-rolling-out-in-the-Public-Preview/ba-p/451056).

Second, the migration involves migrating a Nest ACCOUNT to a Google ACCOUNT.

Third, you need to do this migration BEFORE installing your 2nd gen camera in the Google Home app, or the migration gets complicated because that will automatically link your Google Home app to a 2nd Nest Account.

Fourth, if you want to see all of your Google Nest devices in the same Google Nest "home/structure" and be covered by the same Nest Aware subscription (https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/9681538), you need to migrate.

Fifth, migrating your Nest Account to a Google Account does NOT move any of your devices from the Google Nest app to the Google Home app. Rather, it makes most devices visible in the Google Home app, but most functionality remains in the Google Nest app. We migrated in 2020 and are still using the Google Nest app for all of our older cameras and doorbells.

Lastly, here's a Help topic on migration:

https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/9297676

If you are already using the Google Home app for any Google Nest devices, you'll want to review the "Error message: Google Account is already linked with another Nest account" subtopic.