Nest Doorbell Gen 1

[SterettFog]

We have a Gen 1 wired Nest doorbell. The doorbell portion quit recently. The camera works but freezes when the doorbell is pushed. There is no audible tone. We purchased a replacement through Amazon. It does not specify what generation it is..just shows the Google G on the box and Neat Doorbell. I have not migrated my subscription and account over to Google, having preferred to remain with just Nest. How do I proceed with the replacement doorbell? It does not seem to work with the existing app. Am I forced to cancel my existing subscription and account? Am I now forced to migrate to Google? If that is the case, does an entirely new account need to be set up? Will I get a refund on my original subscription that auto-renewed a short time ago? Thank you.

[MplsCustomer · Accepted solution]

@SterettFog 

First, the 1st gen Google Nest Hello Doorbell is no longer sold, at least in the U.S. So you may have purchased the 2nd gen Google Nest Doorbell (installed only in the Google Home app), shown in this install video: https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/12570869). If that's what you have, then yes you will need to cancel your 1st gen Nest Aware subscription (for which you are supposed to receive a pro-rated refund), migrate your Nest Account to a Google Account (https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/9297676), install your 2nd gen doorbell in the Google Home app, and get a 2nd gen Nest Aware subscription (which are priced better if you have several cameras; see the prices here: https://store.google.com/product/nest_aware?hl=en-US&modal=upgrade-pricing).

Second, what happened to your 1st gen Google Nest Hello Doorbell may be the same thing that's happened to all 3 of our Nest Hellos, and that of many other customers. The Nest Hello has a small internal battery whose purpose is to provide power to the camera during the instant when the doorbell button is pressed. When the battery eventually fails, the doorbell goes offline for a minute whenever the doorbell button is pressed. This very long thread with over 1,000 replies is about this failure: https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Cameras-and-Doorbells/Nest-Hello-Doorbell-cuts-out-when-butto...

There is a workaround. If you turn off the "Indoor chime" option, your doorbell will no longer try to ring your indoor doorbell chime and will not go offline anymore. We've done that with all 3 of our Nest Hellos, and have instead turned on the "Visitor announcements" option (https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/7672451) to get announcements on our Nest Hubs and Nest Mini instead.

[SterettFog]

Thank you so much for this information! I do not have a Google Assistant-enabled speaker, but we are considering just installing an old-style doorbell button alongside our Gen 1 Nest Doorbell. The camera still works. Do you see any issue with this interfering with the Nest camera operating normally? We like the ring of a doorbell so our dog barks and allows us to know someone has arrived, even if we are not near our phones.

Thank you!

[MplsCustomer]

@SterettFog 

You would have to figure out how to wire the conventional doorbell along with your gen 1 Nest Hello Doorbell, since both would need be powered via your doorbell transformer. I don't know how they would need to be wired; maybe that might involve running a second set of doorbell wires to your transformer.

The "Visitor announcements" option, when enabled, triggers a "Ding-dong" sound along with an oral "Someone's at the front door" announcement on any Nest speakers that are NOT set to "Do Not Disturb". The volume depends on whatever you set the speaker to. You could get a Nest Mini, which retails for $49 when not on sale. The announcement is quite noticeable, but our dog has never barked at doorbells.

To use a Nest Mini, you would have to migrate your Nest Account to a Google Account (https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/9297676), then install the Nest Mini in your Google Nest "home/structure" in the Google Home app.  I believe you'd be able to keep your 1st gen Nest Aware subscription; you just can't purchase new 1st gen subscriptions.

Or you could get the 2nd gen doorbell, but you'd also have to migrate your Nest Account to a Google Account.  Note also that the image on the 2nd gen doorbell is taller and narrower than on the 1st gen Nest Hello.