Google Nest Cam Audio streaming problem on iPhone Speaker

[RLara]

On the iPhone Google Home app, when launching an outdoor Nest camera the audio first broadcasts at full volume on speaker for 1 second but then mutes. I raise the phone volume but it doesn’t change. I then have to place the phone on my ear directly to hear.  I can trick the camera streaming audio to go back to phone speaker format by going to the camera Settings -> Audio and then back out. After I back out, the audio comes on full iPhone speaker. This happens with the standard outdoor Nest cam and the Nest doorbell cam on the Home app. Is this a problem with my phone, or with the app? 

[EmptyNester]

Hello,  I'm an end user like you.  I just tried this on my iPhone  13 Pro MAX and what you are describing is not happening to me.  I seem to get audio coming out of both the bottom of the phone (speakers) and at the same time at the top of the phone earpiece.    Was this working before and now this has presented as a new problem?

[RLara]

No, not a new issue. This has been going on for a while, I’m just tired of having to deal with it now, so thought I’d reach out for any direction. I asked Bard, but it told me to empty the camera cache which I’m not sure how to do. And it happens with all of my outdoor cameras. 

[EmptyNester · Accepted solution]

One more thing.  It almost sounds like the phone is switching the audio path over to a bluetooth device near by.   If you leave the location and try to access it via the Cell Network does the same audio problem happen?   For example when I'm in car and I play a clip from the camera I hear the audio over the car's speakers.

[RLara]

No bluetooth involved. I turned the  bluetooth off on my iPhone just to test, and it still happens. Thanks for the suggestion though. 

[EmptyNester]

I'm out of ideas.   Since this is a user forum you will not hear back from google here. I'm going to try and escalate this and see if we can get you some help from a Google Tech Person...

When this gets resolved please return here and let us know what the solution was.

[Lance_L]

Hi everyone,

@RLara, thanks for reaching out to the Community and sharing all the steps you’ve tried to fix the issue. I’d be happy to help you with this.

Let’s try troubleshooting the steps below and let me know how it goes.

1. Check for iOS updates and install them if there’s any.
2. Uninstall the Google Home app.
3. Restart the mobile device.
4. Reinstall the Google Home app and sign in.
5. Check if the issue persists. If yes, test on another mobile device, if available.

Keep me posted.

I appreciate the help, EmptyNester.

All the best,

Lance

[RLara]

Thank you for the possible steps to take. Here’s my current status. I accessed my cameras through the home.google.com website and there was not any audio cutout to the earpiece that happens there. So to me, rebooting the cameras is not necessary. Also, audio recordings are captured fine. There’s not a problem with my cameras or the wifi network. So I then removed and reinstalled the Google Home iOS app, and it did not solve the problem. I also disabled Bluetooth access for the app in the iOS settings, and that also did not solve the audio redirect from speaker to phone earpiece. So I’m open to any other suggestions. I may just stop using the app for my cameras since audio is one of the elements I need when I’m checking out what’s going on in my hood. I appreciate any additional steps you think I can take. 

[EmptyNester]

Hi RLara, are you accessing home.google.com on your iPhone from a browser like Safari?     I don't know if that will work. I only ever access the cameras via the GOOGLE HOME app on my iPhone and the audio always works for me.

[RLara]

The home web view on Safari has better results for Nest cam audio then the iOS app for me. Just trying to figure out why and if there’s a setting or config that I can do to correct. Audio keeps  jumping from the speakerphone option to earpiece on the iPhone. I have to fumble with audio settings in the app to temporarily fix. 

[EmptyNester]

I'm at a loss on this one.  Maybe some other people will chime in with some ideas or let us know if it is happening to them.     Have you tried it on another phone just as a trouble shooting step to see if the problem is specific to your phone?

[Jurchfield]

I wanted to chime in here - I’m having the exact same issue with my Google Home app (iPhone 15 pro, full updated) and followed these troubleshooting steps and haven’t found a resolution. This is clearly a bug in the Home app. 

[gregory93]

Exact same issue here with my Google Nest Cam Wired. I have four of them, and live streaming audio is turned on but doesn’t work on 2 of the 4 cameras on the iOS Google Home app. 

When playing back recordings, the audio works fine. But with live streaming, I cannot hear anything. Nothing is connected via Bluetooth, audio levels are turned up, must be a problem with the iOS Google Home app. 

Frustrating to read that people have been having this issue for months without resolution. My Google Home app and iOS are updated to latest versions. 

[EmptyNester]

For everyone experiencing this I'm at a loss on this one.  I have the same setup and my audio is working fine.   I think the best way to proceed is for you to open an official support ticket and speak with a Google Tech person.  Here is the link to get you started.   If you do this I would set aside an hour because they will no doubt want to trouble shoot with you.

https://support.google.com/googlenest/gethelp

In addition be sure to report this bug IN THE APP using the FEEDBACK option which is under the GEAR icon in the upper right corner of the App.