Nest hello echos visitors ringing the doorbell

[AlexM007]

Device: Nest hello doorbell wired for power, wireless into home network.

Problem: After a visitor rings the bell, the chime sounds double to them, and everything they say echos back to them with about one second delay.

Tested by answering with: Nest hub 2nd gen, Nest audio (chalk), Nest Mini, Older Home (the tower model), Samsung S20 Ultra, Samsung S9 and a Lenovo Clock 2. The echo is not heard on the device that you answer with, only the person who is at the doorbell hears this echo.

How to duplicate: Ring the doorbell and have someone answer it. Speak. Hear the echo.

Attempted fix: Reset the doorbell to factory defaults a few times, issue persists.

Solution: Please have an engineer look at the audio stack, it seems to feed back recorded audio into the speaker of the nest doorbell itself for some reason.

[Brad]

Hi there, 

I apologize for my late response and thank you for all of your patience while waiting for a reply. I definitely understand how frustrating your situation must be, and I wanted to make sure that your concern was acknowledged. Do you still need help with this issue? I know that there's been a delay in response since you posted.

Best Regards, 

Brad.

[Gogna4]

yes how to fix I just installed it yesterday. Why it is delaying even  email or iPhone 12 and hub notification is way off more then a minute 

[SteveT1]

Hi folks,

Just wanted to jump in to see if you have other questions and concerns. Feel free to let me know.

Thanks,
Steve

[AlexM007]

The issue still remains and I need help.

I'm a software tester and would participate in any functional or technical test.

Regards,

Alex

[SteveT1]

Hi Alex,

Thanks for the reply. Let's check into this further.

A few questions — when did this start? Are there any changes made on the network? Is this also happening on live feed and recordings?

Regards,

Steve

[AlexM007]

Unable to tell when this started, i might have done it since installation, visitors only recently told me they could hear "the annoying echo". Some of them were thinking it was normal. When answering the notification on the phone or hub i do not hear it. 

There have been no changes in network/setup for the last 2 years or so. Doorbell was installed about 10 months ago.

Live feed: The person ringing the bell hears the ring, and themselves, they don't see the live feeds.

I can partly hear the echo if they talk a lot and pause in between. Recordings do not have this. It's the doorbell side that plays back what they say to the person ringing the bell. 

However, i would suggest you do a quick google search, which turns up a ton of people with the exact same issue, in this forum, all of which were never resolved. 

I want to avoid the whole discussion of resetting the device: Already tried it, or using different phones/hubs/speakers etc: Already tried it. 

I need the issue resolved, or a ticket raised, issue escalated, user story started, or some superior acting on this issue, as i am not the only one, and Google is failing to help people and getting this issue resolved.

Kindly let me know what you need to advance this matter up the chain.

Preferably other than 'lock the thread' as was done here:

https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Cameras-and-Doorbells/Google-nest-doorbell-battery-Talk-amp-L...

[SteveT1]

Hi Alex,

Thanks for the patience. Our team is looking into this. Is your Google Home app updated? What is your current Google Home app version?

Regards,

Steve

[cookieslow]

I am also experiencing this issue. I have a Samsung S20 Ultra and, coincidentally, I am also a software tester just like the other person who posted here. The person at the front door finds it hard to communicate using the Nest wired doorbell due to an echo of their own voice.

[Buschman]

I have the exact same issue. 

[Brad]

Hey there,

Thank you for bringing up the concern you're experiencing, I would love to look into this further for you. The first troubleshooting step that I'd recommend would be to restart your device. This process should keep all your settings, and reconnect it to the same Wi-Fi network. This is helpful if it ever freezes, has connection problems, or isn't working normally.

Best regards,
Brad

[Buschman]

None of that works. Google knows that these devices aren't compatible with Samsung phones, yet they continue to do nothing about it other than tell you to restart your device. Yes, I've restarted my device 20 times. Ive reset the doorbell. I've updated all the apps. I'm running the latest version of Android. I've tried using the home and the nest apps. Nothing works! 

[Brad]

Hey folks, 

Our engineering team would like to take a closer look into this for you and others who may be affected by this. You can send them a feedback report that includes system logs by following the steps here. Thanks for helping our investigation! 

Best regards, 

Brad

[cookieslow]

I'm seeing a change in behavior. My Galaxy S20 can now talk to a visitor through the Nest Hello doorbell without the visitor hearing their voice as an echo.  I tested using the Nest app as well as  Google Home.  Both now work as a sort of delayed push-to-talk.  Much more usable than before!  I will keep using it to see if the behavior changes over time (after reboots, reconnects, updates, etc.)  Nest app: No echo, works like PTT.  Home app: Works better as PTT, but also works two-way as well.

[Brad]

Hi there, 

Just checking in to see how the conversation is going, as I know we have had updates to the app. Please let us know if you have any further questions or concerns. We'll leave this thread open for a little longer for follow-up questions and concerns. 

Best regards, 

Brad

[EmersonB]

Hi everyone,

I'm dropping by to ensure that everything is covered here. I hope that the information sheds some light on the issue. If you have other questions and concerns, feel free to let me know.

I appreciate the help, @Brad and @SteveT1.

Regards,
Emerson

[AlexM007]

It looks like the Nest Hello has had a firmware update. 

I noticed on Reddit previous firmware was 4110054, i did not write down the version in my original post.
As of this post it is 4110055, i am not sure if this solves the issue. Also using a S20 (Ultra, EU model, Exynos).
I will do some testing the next days to see if it is also resolved on my end. 
I was unable to find any changelog for firmware versions so i cannot confirm if this update resolves the issue. 
The doorbell updates and reboots itself without any notification and this is done automagically, so no way to tell when this update was released.

[AlexM007]

@cookieslow I am seeing the exact same behaviour as you.

Nest app for me still has a bug with the notification when the bell is rang. If i enter the app by clicking through the notification menu on my phone, i cannot click on the microphone to speak to the person at the door. The button in the app is greyed out. Maybe some permission issue with the microphone..

If you just open the nest app from the icon on the phone, the microphone is available to push, and talk. It's more of a switch, not a push-to-talk. I need to turn off the microphone, otherwise i cannot hear the person at the door talk back.

Basically they fixed the Nest App issue, by muting the person at the door when you push-talk-push-to-hear 😉 .
Still a welcome improvement, but i'd love proper bidirectional support. It's 2022, not 2012. 

Google home app: Not tested yet, curious to see if bidirectional works OK there. Will test later though.
Hope they didn't do the same workaround there, but use some AI to filter out the speech of the person at the door.

Google hub: Not tested yet, hoping bidirectional works. 
Google speaker(s): Not tested yet, i use a phone 99% of the time.

[Buschman]

I am still having this problem. My software version is 4110055. Nothing has helped. Will Google refund customers who are having this problem? I clearly need to get a different product that actually works. 

[EmersonB]

Hello everyone,

@Buschman I'm sorry to hear if you're still getting the same issue. For some mobile models, the speaker and the mic are right next to each other which causes an echo when the customer speaks in hands free mode. To know more about this, I'd like to ask some questions. Is the audio issue persistent or intermittent? If intermittent, how often does it happen? Is your Nest doorbell in a case or housing?

Try testing it with headphones and see if the issue persists.

Keep us posted.

@AlexM007 and @cookieslow we appreciate you sharing here your feedback and experience.

Regards,
Emerson

[janthadeus]

Hey folks,

I just wanted to follow up to see if you still need our help. Please let us know as we would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

I appreciate the help here, Brad and Emerson.

Thanks,

JT

[janthadeus]

Hi there,

Just checking in to make sure that you've seen our responses. Please let me know if you have other questions or concerns as I will be locking this in 24 hours if I won't hear back from you again. Feel free to start a new thread and we'll be happy to help.

Best,

JT

[Buschman]

I have seen the responses. So your position is that the echo is due to the fact that the speaker is next to the microphone on the Samsung phones? I wonder why this echo doesn't happen on other video doorbells. What is the answer here? 

[Brad]

Hey there,

Sorry to hear you're still experiencing this, as we’re always looking for ways to improve, and appreciate your feedback. You can send it at any time using your devices by saying, "Hey Google, send feedback," or by following the steps found here.

Best regards,
Brad

[Brad]

Hi there,

Just checking in to see how the conversation is going. Please let us know if you have any further questions or concerns. We'll leave this thread open for a little longer for follow-up questions and concerns.

Best regards,

Brad

[Brad]

Hi there,

Just checking in on this thread and the activity on it. We'll leave this topic open for another 24 hours in case there are any follow-up questions or comments.

Best regards,
Brad

[cookieslow]

Adding to my earlier description, my Nest doorbell isn't in a special housing. The current push to talk behavior is not intermittent. When my mic is on using the Nest app on my Samsung Galaxy s20 ultra SM-G988U1 , I cannot hear the visitor.

[Brad]

@cookieslow

Would you mind clarifying the issue you're experiencing? Is this very same concern happening to your devices as well? Thank you for your patience.

Best regards,

Brad

[Brad]

Hi there, 

Just checking in to see how the conversation is going. So sorry for the delay in response. Please let us know if you have any further questions or concerns. We'll leave this thread open for a little longer for follow-up questions and concerns. 

Best regards, 

Brad

[AlexM007]

Right, a workaround isn't a solution as you know.

It took months to implement this on your side, and it seems we've had a price to pay.

Bidirectional audio was removed, any remaining echos are cause by phones????
Did you really think renowed phone producers have a botched hands-free function on flagship phones?

This problem exists in Nest devices since 2015. Don't sweep it under the rug. Put it back on the sprint planners plate and tackle it next sprint. We bought these devices with bidirectional audio, and i really don't care you changed the product information on all the sites referring to it, replacing it with push-to-talk.

I can understand why you would want to lock this thread, and avoid responses to this when you fix is simply "remove function, blame other company". Under EU consumer law, you cannot do this. Bring back proper bidirectional audio that the product came with. 

[dapling]

Totally agree, however I gave upon this issue a few years ago after Google managed to frustrate me to the point I was either binning the doorbell or accepting it's key failing. Bizarrrely, my callers don't get their own voice fed back if I answer the doorbell with an iOS device, suggesting they've not implemented the Samsung audio feedback cancellation software correctly. I've had it with a Samsung Galaxy S8+, S10+ and now S21+. Oh the irony of feedback only occurring when using Android (Google) devices to answer their Nest (Google) doorbells, but not when using Apple devices....

[Jimmw187]

Hi, im still having this issue, is there any way of solving this problem yet?? Thanks Jim

[Jimmw187]

Using Samsung s21 ultra mobile device f9r your info

[Brotski]

I've just installed an old nest doorbell I had been slacking on installing for over a year.  When the person at the door talks they hear themselves talking echoed back at them very loudly and it is pretty much garbage as is.  Is there a way to fix this other than throwing it in the garbage and going back to my prior zmodo doorbell that was cheaper? I'm using a Samsung s22 ultra. 

[Ro9]

I have a Samsung and have the same echo issues from people at my door.

[KevMarks]

Edit: Realized that you can't just have a two-way conversation. Have to push the mic butting to talk, then toggle it off while the other speaks to avoid the echo coming from the doorbell. Don't particularly love that, but I can live with it.

Orig post: Just installed the Nest doorbell battery. Same issue. Echo occurs at the doorbell with the person's voice echoing back to them. Samsung s10e. Also, audio at the doorbell is incredibly low, even with volume in app set to high and speaking loudly right into the phone mic.

[Jimmw187]

Yes I've tried this method also, but then you have the problem that while you have the microphone on at my end you cannot hear what they are saying into the doorbell until you've switch the mic off!haha we just can't win 😞

Still having the same issue with echo, samasung S21.

[Jimmw187]

Let's say for instance I was using Google hangouts video call to chat with a friend, surely it's only the same principle of my phones loud speaker playing out the sound of their voice and that doesn't echo back themselves. Why does this happen with the ring doorbell?? I cannot understand why this problem hasn't been addressed properly in so many years!