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GoogleNestTeam
Community Manager (Admin)
Community Manager (Admin)

Nest Community Members, 

Since launch, many of our long-time Nest customers have provided valuable feedback on our new Nest Cam (battery) and Nest Doorbell (battery) devices -- particularly on the transition to the Google Home app experience. We hear you, and we’re taking your feedback to heart. In this post, I want to share more about our commitments to you going forward. 

 

The transition to the Google Home app

Our new cameras, including the upcoming Nest Cam (indoor, wired) and Nest Cam with floodlight, were made specifically for the Google Home app. Unlike the Nest app, the Google Home app was built to accommodate both battery and wired products, event-based and 24/7 continuous video history, while giving you a whole home view and history of your camera and doorbell feeds across all Nest cameras. You can check out the recent Nest Community blog if you want to read more on Nest cameras and the Home app. 

We chose to transition to the Home app because this app is designed for the future of the smart home — a single place to set up, manage, automate, and control your home. Today, most home devices are controlled across multiple apps, but we’re working on making the Google Home app the central controller across all your home devices, including Google devices and devices from 1,000s of other brands. We continue to make major improvements to the Home app to support this future. 

That being said, this means that existing Nest households with cameras and doorbells prior to Nest Cam (battery) and Nest Doorbell (battery) may have a two app experience. We know this can be frustrating, and we are committed to bringing the experiences and Nest devices you have come to love in the Nest app into the Home app. This will take time to get right, and we will continue to share more details as we have updates.

We are listening to your feedback and will continue to make improvements to advance the camera experience in the Home app. For example, we’ll soon introduce the ability to flip between events quickly and easily, which is helpful for events that are far apart, or if you only want a glimpse of the events versus playing them back fully. And we’ve also been working on rolling out a desktop experience for the Google Home app, so the new Nest cameras and doorbell feeds can be viewed and controlled from there. This will launch in 2022. 

 

Other updates

We also heard feedback from many on the multi-pack cameras only offering a single charging cable. We recognize that this doesn't work for all users, so we are offering a free additional cable(s) to customers who purchased the two-pack or three-pack. Just contact our support team.

Finally, we commit to being more transparent with you on where we are taking the camera portfolio. We know that those with wired doorbell connections prefer to have a doorbell that can also support 24/7 continuous video history (via the Nest Aware subscription). We are excited to share that we will be launching a 2nd generation of Nest Doorbell (wired) in 2022. 

 

Hopefully this post gives you more context on where we’re heading together, and we’ll share our upcoming plans here on the Nest Community. I encourage you to share your feedback with us as we continually improve our products and experiences.

-rishi

 

Rishi Chandra

GM/VP of Google Nest

411 Comments
RobWriter
Community Member

Two App "experience" is Google Newspeak. Who in the hell wants to manage their cams and alarms across two apps by the same company? Google is arrogant that they can simply ignore customers when they easily have the funds to fix this colossally bad decision.

I urge all of you to post your issues and reviews on Amazon or wherever you bought your products. Until it affects their sales, they won't do sh$t.

TheWee
Community Member

@MplsCustomer 

At a minimum, for devices they support in their own family, i.e. Nest cameras, you should have the ability to create a routine to turn off and on at a specific time, especially I all for the battery ones. No one Wants to leave them running 24/7. Simply turn them on when you leave home or turn your security on     or Schedule between a reasonable time at night till early morning. At least you can schedule arming your security System but alas you can’t schedule it to turn off automatically. So disappointing. Basic functionality.

 

DavidFox
Community Member

DISASTER OF AN APP LAUNCH

 

You should be removed by shareholders. 

Why would you spend even a minute of development time working on a desktop app when your native app is missing critical features? When your home hub product is unusably unreliable?

 

Immediately:

- Add a scrollable vertical timeline with events of the type that we filter. (like the nest app)

- Add a smoothly scrollable vertical 24/7 timeline from iOS, iPadOS, nest home hub

 - Add ability to save clips on iOS, iPadOS, Nest Home Hub

- Remove this stupid “turn off camera” button blocking the view of the camera from the iOS and iPadOS app. Why would this be a button you’d think people would need over the ability to easily view history/save videos?! 

- Allow keeping the camera views up 24/7 instead of timing out and returning to the Google Home main screen!

-Allow the event history view to remember what filters were previously chosen like the old nest app!

- Add ability to access history easily from main camera view (Really?!? Hide history 2 layers deep in the UI?)

we are committed to bringing the experiences and Nest devices you have come to love in the Nest app into the Home app. This will take time to get right, and we will continue to share more details as we have updates.

We are listening to your feedback and will continue to make improvements to advance the camera experience in the Home app. For example, we’ll soon introduce the ability to flip between events quickly and easily, which is helpful for events that are far apart, or if you only want a glimpse of the events versus playing them back fully. And we’ve also been working on rolling out a desktop experience for the Google Home app, so the new Nest cameras and doorbell feeds can be viewed and controlled from there. This will launch in 2022. ”

 

ITS BEEN A YEAR. WHERE IS THIS FUNCTIONALITY?!?

There was a beautifully designed nest app for cameras and you didn’t even consider what was good about it and keep what was good? 

The new app is terrible because it’s missing essential functionality! This is beyond frustrating. Beyond the frustration of a 2 app experience. Your delivery of apps to meet your new hardware launch doesn’t meet the mark and your lack of an IQ camera replacement is beyond terrible!  Provide us a 5mp camera with excellent motion night-vision at a competitive price!

FIX THE NEST APP SO WE CAN USE IT IN THE MEAN TIME. 

If you aren’t going to roll out these new features in a timely manner, Fix the old Nest app so our accounts aren’t logged out every 2-4 hours On iPad, forcing us to have to re-login or use the new home app. This renders it worthless!!

Our company is recommending everyone go with Reolink. Recommending to avoid Google products altogether until this is fixed!

BLNT
Community Member

Let's not all be in such a rush - these things take time, especially if your goal is to SCREW IT UP MORE !

😉

 

Gari
Community Member

Any news about the browser camera feed for home app?

TheWee
Community Member

Here are some things that I have figured out about the Nest Cam Outdoor/Indoor Battery -- It seems to turn off automatically when I turn off my Nest Guard Security. I have no idea as to what controls this (I found no setting that controls in in either the Google Home app nor the Nest app). The cameras do not turn on automatically when turning on Nest Guard or setting your away status in either app.

The cameras themselves go into idle mode pretty quick when nothing is happening. To help reserve battery power, I utilized the activity zone feature for each of them and set which events specifically to look for in those areas and ignore other areas.

I have created a routine in Google App to automatically set my Nest Guard every night to Home and Guarding. I do have to turn on the battery cameras though. I'm trying to create a routine to do it but having difficulties. This is where the Nest App shines as it allows for schedules for your cameras. No can do with these as you cannot configure them in Nest App. Hence using two apps...

Here's something I will try, since setting your home/away status turns off the cameras, maybe create a routine for the morning to set my status as home (even though it already is). Maybe it will trick it, Who knows with the way Google programmed the app.

If anyone has any other ideas, fell free to chime in.

 

 

TheWee
Community Member

I figured out that I have my cameras (battery) turn off automatically based on Home routine in Google App. As for nest guard turning them off, I have no idea how that is working.

Johnsy
Community Member

@Gari  lol ,dont hold your breath... ive been waiting 18months for P.C access....

Les_Viscous
Community Member

Google has  just acquired the cheeseburger. And while it will now be referred to as the "Google Cheeseburger" it won't actually contain any cheese, and the "burger" portion will actually not be "burger"  it will be a turd. Of course, it could be called the "Turdburger" that would not sell nearly as well as the known popular product they are replacing. When the sucker.. er, customer finally realizes they are eating a turd, Google will already have their money. 

While there is no truth to that satirical statement, there may be some truth to the earlier (year ago lol) comment about people with several live cameras chewing up bandwidth on computers, which is much less likely on a phone. The process so convoluted and functionality so castrated it must be intentional. It is  astonishing that I cannot view the cameras on a computer, and the doorbell and camera on a different app. Horrible execution, extremely disappointed. The sales pitch and product description should include the INEPT realities of the system, and not the smooth, glossy, user friendliness we all expected. 

I saved every scrap of packaging just in case.. I really wanted this to work!

 

 

Punkmfker
Community Member

Any update on this? If the older Nest cameras could be managed in the Home app in the same way, this wouldn't be that big of a deal. Having to configure the cameras with 2 different apps isn't acceptable for 2 months, let alone over 12 months.

boatdude
Community Member

Oh golly, now they just released a new wired "Nest" doorbell camera that says in the small print "Not compatible with Nest App."  Plain shameful that they call it a Nest product when it is clearly just more junk without any decent app support.  I am SO done with any Alphabet hardware.  Ever!

Theashkinsdiet
Community Member

"Hey Google, stop ruining everything".

You seem to have had a meeting sometime around 2015 where you decided your company roadmap was to 'fix' everything that already worked and just ignore everything that didn't. Every update to any of your products seems to remove functionality and replace it with bugs.

And seriously, what is this concerted effort to ruin Nest **bleep**? Like so many others, I've just added a new 'Nest' battery cam to my existing network only to discover that it doesn't work with Nest.... WHY THE FK ARE YOU MARKETING THIS AS A NEST CAMERA? If you're transitioning everyone to the **bleep**ty Google Home app, then market your new cameras as GOOGLE CAMERAS instead.

This is a total con and a farce and the camera is going back with a steaming turd in the box.

Noni77
Community Member

Fine you have a Home App and want to transition but I NEED TO SEE IT ALL CAMERAS ON MY HOME DESKTOP NOT SOME TINY SCREEN ON MY CELL AND NO I DON'T WANT ANOTHER FRICKING TABLET. I am one pissed off person after spending all this time to install the new Google Nest camera with floodlights. Now I have 2 apps to monitor and from what I can see the Google Home app does nothing compared to the Nest app. Get your butt in gear and get the Home App available for my desktop. I may just yank them all down and return these BS cameras!!!!

Irievibesender
Community Member

@Noni77 

In your computer browser go to home.google.com  

They have a  desktop beta website/app

mattfkho
Community Member

@Irievibesender Thanks for sharing the link, it is better than nothing!

Google Home for web
However, it doe snot have a history look-back feature neither for new cameras or old cameras,

MplsCustomer
Bronze
Bronze

@mattfkho 

I'm hoping they add the ability to view history on the new home.google.com website so it is comparable to the old home.nest.com website.

Johnsy
Community Member

@Noni77  Cheers mate, hopefully they ad event downloading options soon.

BLNT
Community Member

Yes, I'm confident we'll see full functionality within the next 12-24 months.

boatdude
Community Member

Well, currently it seems NEST is not accessible. I dearly hope they are not stupid enough to screw up the NEST experience. That would result in a lot of cameras becoming e-waste.

flug
Community Member

@boatdudenever underestimate the stupidity of people that give zero **bleep**s about their customers. If they cared, they would have responded by now.

thehotrod
Community Member

Wow. I was so excited to get my new Floodlight cam and double my nest cams from just a doorbell to TWO cameras. Now I find out I have to teach my wife and family to use this app to see this video and that app to see that video. Ridiculous. I feel like I’ve been ripped off. The Home app is way less intuitive and less helpful compared to the old Nest app. Cmon Google build feature parity for all your cameras in the Home app or give us the ability to use the Nest app.

Les_Viscous
Community Member

My doorbell camera is now on the google home app, so there's that.

crackpotts
Community Member

I'm really confused that your company has decided to make the newer cameras inaccessible by pc. How are we to find anything using the Google Home app when our phones don't good quality while searching quickly?

Recently a crime happened at the house across the street and I tried to find out what happened using our flood light camera, but the detail is terrible from the phone app.

What is your thinking?

Please make the newer cameras available from the Nest app! Thanks!!

paulschreiber
Community Member

@GoogleNestTeam  Any update on this? It's been over a year.

flug
Community Member

@paulschreiber there isn't an update because they Do. Not. Care. It's apparent at this point they have zero Fs to give.

DenverDan
Community Member

What alternative cameras are all you people considering?  

 

My kids recently moved out into their own apartments.  I'm considering getting them all the "Ring Video Doorbell 3".

 

 

pslawing
Community Member

I just installed the Eufy system 

no monthly fees has a storage unit in house for clips 

impressed

PedroLiberal
Community Member

@pslawing bwuahha you should go on YouTube and type “eufy lies” 😄 or “eufy is not local “ or “eufy uploads pictures and video to the cloud without my consent”… what a train wreck..

HTS2008
Community Member

Home.google.com

This is the Beta version of the web browser. You will NOT be able have all of the features yet. They are still working out all of the kinks. They are hoping middle of next year will have all of the bells and whistles. 

flug
Community Member

@HTS2008  so that’ll make it what, two years from launch to something usable on its own?….wow, they’re crushing it! Or they could have just left it all in the Nest app and then not lied about working on it b

BLNT
Community Member

Let us all be patient. We all know that this is a small company with limited resources. Let's give them some time...  😉

 

PhantomEagle
Community Member

Well, 2022 has come and gone... What happened?

GuyF
Community Member

I switch to TP-Link Tapo. 😉

Amaximov1
Community Member

Since returning my wannabe nest cameras well over a year ago, I have purchased 4 previous gen, actual Nest cameras to my arsenal. Some were old stock, others were opened unused from regular people. These would have gladly been new gen cam purchases had they worked like everyone expected them to and not half a** with loss of features. good job google! 

Peterj1967
Community Member

What do you have, one person working on all this? It's now 2023 and barely any progress. I have a total of 16 cameras at 3 locations and I can't upgrade or add anymore and have the same features as either the nest app or the nest site. WHAT A JOKE

flug
Community Member

@Peterj1967 you were so close, the correct answer is actually 0. 

ShawnT
Community Member

Well they just let go 12000 people so now it's -12000 people working on it. 

NManor
Community Member

Google has ruined Nest. If deciding on a smart home I would strongly suggest Amazon. 

flug
Community Member

@NManor don’t do that, didn’t they announce they’re scaling back or discontinuing their Alexa division? I wouldn’t put any faith in them at this point. I am Apple and tp-link for most stuff. 

Chevyz2886
Community Member

i also ordered the nest gen 2 cameras thinking they would hook right up to nest but no.  Had to use google home.  Hated everything about the app.  Also cameras seemed to be worse than the gen ones.  Returned and contacted google to complain about why the new app sucks and why could i just add to nest.  basically told me to bad.  Still have the system having to order some used gen ones to add to my system.  Hate to change to different company but i might just do that.   I can see that they dont care what people have to think about there product.  

taas
Community Member

A 2021 post. 
Not only are Nest cameras still not working in Google Home. And newer cameras not working in Nest app. 

Google Home itself is substandard and stil hasn't got a working web interface. The whole ecosystem is immature without any clear timeline forward. 

 

Seriously. If you need to expand your camera system or need a new one. Consider a complete change of platform or a different platform. 

raleigh
Community Member

You wrote this in 2021. It's 2023. This is nonsense.

I just bought 4 new cameras and will be returning them. How can you call them Nest cameras if they don't work in the Nest app with the other Nest cameras. 

I'm extremely disappointed. 

timthuston
Community Member

2.5 years and you clowns at Google STILL can't produce a decent app/product. 

You are thieves in the worst way. You DONT stand behind your terrible products (battery cam). 

You lied to us early adopter's and you CONTINUE to lie. 

 

Still waiting for my $1700 back you **bleep**ers

Pcantante
Community Member

The Google Home app just sucks. Google clearly has no intentions of supporting the Nest product line. Since January 30 the home app took my Nest cameras off line with no way of bringing them back online. There is literally no information on what’s happening. 
incredibly frustrated with Google and have no intentions of ever buying Google products in the future. 

Irievibesender
Community Member

There is a beta version of home with testers right now that will answer alot of your issues. Not sure why they don't just come out and say even that.

flug
Community Member

@Irievibesender Because they don’t care at all about customers, that is why. Everyone that adopted early on and got blessed with a god awful user experience from the get go and one post that it was coming soon already knew this tho. 

BDG007
Community Member

 

And now we know the answer.  It's a sad day for Nest Cameras and the superior Nest Cameras.

 

Portion of Email received from Google today.

 

'We are proud to have launched Dropcam over 10 years ago, when it was one of the first smart cameras on the market. As we look at what it takes to support your home security needs going forward, it has become increasingly challenging to continue to update these products given the early hardware. So we made the difficult decision to stop support for Dropcam starting April 8, 2024.‌

Until April 8, 2024, all current features will remain available, and you can continue to use your Dropcam as you do now.

Starting April 8, 2024, your Dropcam will no longer work. You won’t be able to use the Nest app to check the status of your Dropcam, view live streams, receive notifications, or change settings.'

ShawnT
Community Member

That's just for the old drop cams tho not the older wired Google cams though right? Don't get me wrong I'm not happy about it but I'll be really pissed off if my older Google cams stop working. 

 

sastring
Community Member

I have a few questions:   “What is a DropCam?”

 

Is my new Nest Battery Camera classified as a “Dropcam”?

 

If not, Are those next?

 

Should I be dropping Google Nest related cameras and Systems due to lack of support in the near future (2024)?

ShawnT
Community Member

@eisenb11

I think they're talking about only these types that specifically say "drop cam" on them. At least I hope so. 

 

dropcam.png