Doorbell (battery operated) is Useless since cannot change alert tone

[sja]

The battery operated google nest doorbell is completely useless and a waste of money since their software gives you no way to change the alert tone on your phone.  I have an iphone but I found out that someone with an Android phone has the same problem.  All you get is the default alert tone.  Unlike ALL other apps on my phone, there is no option in the settings section of my phone for changing the alert tone to anything other than the default.  The default tone is a very quiet (with the phone volume turned all the way up) very short ding dong sound.  I cannot hear this sound at all if there is any ambient noise. Also I cannot hear the sound if my phone is in my pocket.  I have all of the other alerts for other apps on my phone changed to different sounds that are longer and louder.  Since the battery doorbell does not come with or connect normal doorbell chimes, the only way to hear it is through my phone.  So the entire product is useless!

[MplsCustomer]

@sja 

The Google Nest Doorbell (Battery) can be wired to your existing doorbell wiring to ring your internal chime if you have one. If you have a Nest Hub or Nest Mini, the doorbell can also be configured to ring those by enabling "Visitor announcements".

[sja]

I do not have existing doorbell wiring.

If I get a Nest Hub or a Nest Mini will the sound it makes when someone rings the doorbell be any louder than the sound it makes on the phone?  Is it possible to get it to make a verbal announcement?  Is it possible to change the alert tone that the doorbell makes on the phone to a different alert tone on the Nest Hub or the Nest Mini?  Thank you for your help.

[sja]

I do not have existing doorbell wiring.

If I get a Nest Hub or a Nest Mini will the sound it makes when someone rings the doorbell be any louder than the sound it makes on the phone?  Is it possible to get it to make a verbal announcement?  Is it possible to change the alert tone that the doorbell makes on the phone to a different alert tone on the Nest Hub or the Nest Mini?  Thank you for your help.

[MplsCustomer]

@sja 

We have the older Nest Hello doorbells and not the new battery doorbell, but I'm pretty sure there's a "Visitor annnouncements" in the Settings for the battery doorbell that you can turn on.  The announcement on the Nest Hubs and Minis is a pre-canned announcement: "Someone's at the Side Door" with the name depending on the name you've given your doorbell.  On the Nest Hub, it also displays the doorbell's camera. We don't have any control over the alert tone itself.  The volume depends on the volume you've set on the Nest Hub or Mini.

[sja]

Just to clarify, I have the new nest battery doorbell NOT the nest hello doorbell.

So just to make sure I understand correctly, if I buy a Nest Mini or a Nest Hub, when someone rings the doorbell (on my new nest doorbell NOT Hello doorbell) a voice will announce "Someone's at the side door" or "Someone's at the front door" and the volume of the announcement will be high if I have the volume of the Nest Mini or Nest Hub turned up high.  Is this correct?

Also, given that the sole purpose I would have for buying the Nest Mini or the Nest Hub would be to hear when someone rings the doorbell which would be better to get?  It looks as if their costs are not that much different.  What I would want is whichever device is capable of the highest decibel volume.  I want the announcement to be as loud as is conceivably possible.  Or is there a different google device that could produce an even higher decibel volume than either one of these two that would work with my newly purchased nest doorbells.  I would appreciate your advice on this.  Thank you.

[MplsCustomer]

@sja 

I'm just another customer, and I do reallize you have the new battery doorbell. I just mentioned ours were Nest Hellos because I don't know where in the Google Home app you'll find the equivalent "Visitor announcements" setting to enable this.

Yes, the volume will be high if you set the volume high on the Nest Mini or Nest Hub. Your question about the decibel level is kind of a subjective question; we have a Hub or Mini on each floor and are able to hear it well without the volume set at mid-range, and it's certainly more noticeable than our old mechanical chime on the basement stairs.

The Minis seem to be selling for $49 and the Nest Hubs for $64. The first generation ones that we have also work fine and are cheaper but no one seems to be carrying them anymore. The "Visitor announcements" are also supposed to work on Google Nest Speakers ($99), but we don't have one and I'm not familiar with their volume.

[sja]

I looked on my phone and I do have a visitor announcements option to turn on and off.  One last question: I noticed that Amazon (that allows free returns) doesn't carry any of these products.  Do you know if there is somewhere that I can buy one of these devices that will allow me to return it and get my money back if it doesn't work for my purposes?  Thank you so much for taking so much time to help me.  I didn't realize that you don't work for the company and you've certainly gone above and beyond in being helpful to me.

[aatienza]

Hey folks,

Thanks for visiting the Community. 

Since this thread hasn't had activity in a while, we're going to close it to keep content fresh. Feel free to submit another post, and provide as many details as possible so that others can lend a hand.

Thanks,

Archie

[sja]

Two more questions:

1. It looks as if the Nest Audio might produce a louder announcement than the Nest Mini, assuming that I have each turned up to the maximum volume.  Would it do so?  I could not find any place telling the maximum decibels for the volume for either device.  Do you know this or where I can find it?  Also, most importantly, if the Nest Audio would produce a louder announcement, would that also work with the Nest Battery Doorbell?

2.  I very, very much do NOT want a speaker that hears what I say in my home.  Is there a way to turn off the microphone for all of these devices and if I do so will it NOT hear what I am saying in my home?

Thank you so much for your continued help.

[MplsCustomer · Accepted solution]

@sja 

I don't know anything about the Nest Audio. In the US, you can get all of these devices at places like Home Depot, Best Buy, and Target.  I don't have any way of evaluating their respective volumes.

With the Nest Hub, you cannot talk from the Hub to the doorbell UNLESS you press the microphone icon to activate the microphone to do so. You can also, I think, press options for pre-canned responses, or talk to the Hub to send a pre-canned response, but we've never used this.

With the Nest Mini, you can ONLY use pre-canned responses, and cannot talk to doorbell through the Mini. Here's a video I found on using the Nest Mini with the battery doorbell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoGK1VYOg2U

If you're concerned about these devices hearing what you say in your home, all of them, including the Nest Audio, are activated by voice commands, so the devices are doing some level of listening so they can respond.  If you (or your TV or a YouTube video) say "Hey Google" or "OK Google", the device wakes up and tries to respond to whatever you say next.

You can prevent this by turning off the microphone on the device, but then the device will just be a speaker and cannot respond to any "Hey Google" command you give it.

Hope this helps.  Keep in mind I'm not an expert, just another customer.

[sja]

We can talk to the person at the door through our phones, so it the nest speaker does not need to have the microphone on.  (I specifically DON'T want it to respond to hey google commands, so turning off the mike is good.) I just need the speaker so that I can hear the alert that the person is there, since the alert on my phone is just a tone that is too soft for me to hear.

No more questions. Thank you so much for all of your help!