cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Replies are disabled for this topic. Start a new one or visit our Help Center.

Save custom clip from Floodlight Cam

csadams
Community Member

How can I save a custom clip from a Floodlight Cam?   

The clips that it pre-selects for me are nearly always useless... they most often capture the tail end of an activity, and skip the important and useful parts.  Where is the ability to select a custom time-period to save and download a clip???  I've searched and searched in the app, but can't find it... am I missing something? 

Or alternatively, has anyone figured out how to get the Floodlight Cam to work with the Nest App, where it's simple and easy to save custom clips?  It's ridiculous that we're forced to use the inferior Home app (janky, cluttered, hard to use) for this one type of cam, when ALL my other cams have worked just fine for many years in the simple and easy to use Nest App.  

If it turns out that saving a custom clip is not possible, then I'm going to be VERY angry, since this is the core functionality that I've always loved and expected from my Nest cams, and I invested a LOT of money installing new cams on my properties.  If this functionality is not supported, I consider that false advertising... it should have been prominently highlighted when buying these new cams.  

Thanks for any tips or advice. 

23 REPLIES 23

MplsCustomer
Bronze
Bronze

@csadams 

You are not overlooking anything. Your new Google Nest Floodlight Camera--like the Google Nest Camera (Battery) we bought in September and the other Google Nest cameras and doorbells introduced in the fall of 2021--work ONLY in the Google Home app and NOT in the Google Nest app or on the home.nest.com website. For that reason, they also lack the ability of our older Google Nest cameras and doorbells to create custom clips.

Google Nest's GM/VP Rishi Chandra posted the rationale for this 2-app approach on Sept. 29. There have been many customer reactions, but no response from Google Nest since then:

https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Blog/Message-from-our-GM-Updates-for-our-Nest-customers/ba-p/...

csadams
Community Member

@MplsCustomer , thanks for confirming my fears. 

There was a security incident at my home, and I need to extract the original quality video of it, but apparently that's not possible.  I'm very disappointed in how Google has handled this and let down customers.  I pay big bucks for fancy cameras and for 24/7 recording, but can't access or use my data anymore... lovely.  

csadams
Community Member

Question for the Google/Nest team... is fixing this on the road map, and if so, what is the ETA?  I need to buy & install more cameras, and if this isn't addressed soon, I will be forced to shift to another provider. 

ChicagoAndy
Community Member

The lack of expected functionality with this device is stunning.

csadams
Community Member

Any update from the team on this?  I had another security event at my home last weekend, and once again the automated event detection missed it.  I NEED to save and share a video clip of the event, but have no way to do it despite paying for both the camera and the service.  

Brad
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey folks,

 

Thank you for your feedback on this issue, I fully understand the frustrations of not having your new Nest Cams in the Nest App or available on https://bit.ly/3HtBgJC web app. I can imagine having to use two different apps at the moment is quite daunting, and could lead to frustration. 

 

However, the new Nest cameras and doorbell are exclusive to the Home app because we wanted to create an integrated experience with your speakers and displays. A Nest Aware subscription applies to all of your cameras, speakers, and displays in the same home structure. Thank you for your continued patience, and support. I am more than happy to assist you further with this inquiry if you wish. Please let me know.

 

Best Regards,

Brad.

csadams
Community Member

Hi Brad, thanks for your reply.  Unfortunately your responses are not directly relevant to the issue we're discussing here.  This thread is not about the issue of having to use two apps (that's a significant but separate issue), and it's not about the simple fact that the new cams can only be used in the Home app.  The problem is that the Home app does not allow us to save a video clip from a custom period in time, eliminating the value of the 24/7 recording that I pay for.  And as mentioned before, the automated event detection is useless... it often misses events completely, and when it does detect them, it's usually just the tail end of the activity and not the important & useful part... so saving auto-detected clips is not a reasonable option.  I can understand some of the logic behind why the new cams were moved to the Home App, (while strongly disagreeing with that decision, since the Nest App is a much cleaner and better user experience), but I cannot understand how that change was justified when basic clip-saving functionality was not available in the new app.  This forced app change should never have happened when the new app was not ready to serve user needs and expectations.   

As requested above, is there any update from the product team about when this critical functionality gap will be remedied, either by adding it to the Home App, or if that doesn't happen, when these cams will be allowed to work with the Nest App? 

Brad
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey folks.

 

I see what you're saying, and I apologize I misunderstood your issue. However, I cannot provide an answer to this as I simply do not have the answer. Moderators/Community Specialists are not privy to engineering information, and anything like that. This is not the place to ask this question as this is a Community Forums, not a direct avenue to Google/Nest support. If you are seeking support to specific tech questions, please contact Support here. I apologize that this may not be what you need, but I simply do not have the information as to why these are designed they way they are besides what we have been trained on.

 

Best regards,

brad. 

aatienza
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey folks,

 

How's it going? Still need our help? Feel free to let us know if you do.


Thanks,

Archie

csadams
Community Member

Hi Archie @aatienza, thanks so much for checking in. 

This issue is not resolved.  The regression in functionality for new cameras has not been addressed.  I'm still paying for 24/7 recording that I can't take advantage of, since I can't save the clips I need from it. 

 

So yes, we still need help. 

 

I know it's not something that you as  a "community specialist" have direct access to, but it sure would be great to get an update from the product team about when this will be fixed.  

 

Thanks! 

aatienza
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey csadams,

 

Understood and sorry to hear that. You might want to check out this link for more information.

 

Thanks,

Archie

csadams
Community Member

Archie, thanks for the link, but unfortunately that is all known information and doesn't resolve the missing functionality.  What that page neglects to mention is that the newer cameras ONLY work with the Home app, and not with the Nest app.  Combine that with the easy to miss footnote on that page about the home app only being able to create clips from "detected events", and you have our problem that the new cameras have no way to save a clip from a user-chosen time, despite paying for 24/7 recording.  

 

Still hoping to hear from the product team when this regression will be fixed.  

Thanks. 

aatienza
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey csadams,

 

We hear you. Our team is working hard to deliver the best experience for our users — we'll take this as feedback. Keep your eye on the Google Nest Community page https://bit.ly/3h9zod5 for any updates.


Thanks,

Archie

aatienza
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey csadams,

 

I haven't heard from you in a while so I'll be locking this thread if there is no update within the day. If you have any new issues, updates or just a discussion topic, feel free to start a new thread in the community.


Thanks,

Archie

csadams
Community Member

Hi Archie, thanks for the heads up.

I would very much prefer to leave this thread open until the issue is actually resolved.  Both, to make sure it gets closed out for the right reason, and so that other users who come asking about the same issue can simply reply to the existing thread instead of having to start yet another thread about this issue.  

Thank you! 

nvrlift
Community Member

I'm in support of leaving this open.  I just came to find this information after installing a Nest Floodlight cam to my existing multi-Nest camera home.  I cannot believe I cannot download a custom clip when I am paying for 24/7 recording - works on the old cams, not the new ones. Never mind the app issue (which is huge - mind blowing to use an inferior app for basic camera viewing).  Where is this on the Google roadmap for resolution?

Brad
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi there,

Just checking in to see if you still need assistance with this issue.  We'll leave this topic open for another 24 hrs in case there are any follow up questions or comments.

Best regards,
Brad

csadams
Community Member

Hi Brad, did you read the conversation from last week, or the post from earlier today?  There are several requests to leave this thread open until the issue is resolved by the product team.  This issue is NOT resolved, and we're waiting to hear back about when it will be fixed.  

Brad
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

@csadams

 

I am afraid that I cannot abide by that request unless there is activity on the thread. If there continues to be discussion, troubleshooting, and chat amongst the community members, then the thread will remain open. If there isn't the thread will be locked. The issue does is not required to be resolved for the thread to be locked.

 

Best regards,

Brad

csadams
Community Member

 

@Brad, Can you please explain why you must close the tread?  Are you somehow incentivized or required to close threads, regardless of the status of the issue?  I understand that resolution of the issue doesn't depend on the thread being open, but why does the thread require being closed?  The message you send by closing unresolved threads is that this issue doesn't matter to Google, and that the concerns of customers can be shut down without resolution.  

Brad
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

@csadams

As Community Specialists, we occasionally do a bit of housekeeping to keep the conversations in our community fresh and relevant. This includes locking threads after a period of inactivity. As to why we do this, I am afraid I will not explain why we manage the community this way.

Best Regards,
Brad

I remain baffled by how Google Nest keeps the status of its plans completely hidden, even from its own staff.

A Sept. 30, 2021 Google Nest blog (https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Blog/Let-s-talk-cameras-Comparing-the-new-Nest-Cam-battery-to...) said:

"We’re working on incorporating many of these favorite features from the Nest app into the Google Home app over the next year."

"Although Nest Cam (battery) is not compatible with home.nest.com, we’ve 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."

Another Sept. 20, 2021 Google Nest blog (https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Blog/Message-from-our-GM-Updates-for-our-Nest-customers/ba-p/...) said:

"...we are committed to bringing the experiences and Nest devices you have come to love in the Nest app into the Home app."

"...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."

In the intervening 9 months there has been no status update at all.  So it's understandable that customers get frustrated.

@Brad 

@csadams   makes an excellent point, one that also applies to our new (Sept. 2021) Google Nest Camera (Battery). Because we cannot manually edit clips on our new Nest camera (due to the fact that the new camera works ONLY in the function-deprived Google Home app), the value of our 24/7 recording with Nest Aware Plus (with the camera plugged in at all times) is largely eliminated. We cannot select and download a time period from our 24/7 history.